In 1974, Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd moved from Boston to southern Vermont, where they became the proprietors of a 28-acre patch of wilderness. Today, North Hill's seven carefully cultivated acres—open to visitors during the warmer months—are an internationally renowned garden. With obvious passion and wisdom, they reflect on a life devoted to horticulture, sharing anecdotes about gardening, meditations on various fruits and vegetables, and recipes from restaurateur Beatrice Tosti di Valminuta, with Bobbi Angell's lovely line drawings appearing throughout.

"A pig named Morose, a bull called Hadrian, recipes for carrot cake and oxtail stew, the advantages of cold storage, and the appeal of cippolini onions. Such is the evidence of a life lived well and deliberately…. Eck and Winterrowd will inspire even the most reluctant gardeners to take steps to harvest a more rewarding life."—Booklist