Book excerpt: A collection of sparkling and unpredictable essays ranging across the whole world of gardening, and sometimes slightly beyond, from the acclaimed author of The Transplanted Gardener and The Potting Shed Papers. Tales of great gardeners and heroic plant hunters share space with more personal revelations - exactly why every man needs a tractor, how to deal with woodchucks or a relentless west wind, the challenge of a knotweed infestation. Botanical frauds and heroic plant hunters, splendid gardens past and present, stirring discoveries and hopeless failures - all these and more fall beneath the writer's amused and endlessly curious eye. Funny, informative and dependably entertaining, Elliott once again demonstrates why readers from Bill Bryson to Alan Titchmarsh have so enjoyed and praised his work.