“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