This anthology begins with Homer's account of Alcinous' garden and ends with contrary little Mary Lennox opening an ivy-covered door in the wall in Frances Hodgson Burnett's 'The Secret Garden'. It includes both legendary writers who were enthusiastic gardeners (Francis Bacon, Alexander Pope, John Evelyn, Joseph Addison, Henry Thoreau, George Eliot and Edith Wharton) and great gardeners who were excellent writers (Gervase Markham, Erasmus Darwin, William Lawson, John and Jane Loudon, William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll). There is poetry and pragmatism, fun and fanaticism, but the common link is the unending fascination and deep satisfaction of having a little Eden of one's own.