"A common-sense handbook for gardeners" who live in the plant hardiness zones of the Midwest with extreme temperature swings ( HortScience).

Garden columnist Diane Heilenman helps novice and experienced gardeners cope in the difficult and trying climate of the areas she labels Zombie Zones, where wild temperature swings are normal-"specifically, upper Kentucky; all of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; lower Iowa; all of Missouri; and the lower parts of Wisconsin and Michigan" ( Library Journal). She shows how to create gardens appropriate for the region and how to select flowers, plants, trees, and shrubs that will be happy-and in turn make us happy. A gifted thinker who grapples with what it means to garden in our time, Heilenman has produced a book that "will help slacken the stress level that gardening was never meant to bring" ( HortScience).

"[Heilenman] gets to the heart, the soul and the humor shared by all in the gardening world . . . both a practical reference and an inspiration."- The Herald-Times (Bloomington, IN)

"Presents basic gardening techniques and personal plant preferences in a breezy writing style."- Library Journal