“This book takes an entirely different approach to gardening – gardening with a sense of humorous delight in success and a chuckle at failure, and an overriding enjoyment of it all. With great wit, Des Kennedy deals with the many problems that come with gardening, providing great advice on how to deal with them.”

“In his new book… [Kennedy] explores the improbably attachment that people develop to digging in the dirt and planting things. …There are plenty of scraps for his humorous compost, as he explores the follies of malignant garden sprayers, bone meal made from mad cows and good fence/ bad fence. Kennedy is a green-thumb rogue. He’s the kind of gardening friend you’d like to take on a visit to the nursery and then, once the plants are safely home, to the neighborhood pub.”

“…in The Passionate Gardener [Kennedy writes] that gardening burst into his like ‘like a howling southeaster’ 35 years ago. Through a collection of satirical and sometimes serious essays, he shares the whirlwind adventure he’s boon on ever since. And while he knows there’s no cure for those afflicted with an insatiable gardening passion, he does offer a few words of hope.”

“The dominant strength of the author’s style is the presence of detail, from the growth habits of plants to the abundance of cockroaches in paradise. It is this detail that will attract and hold most readers, as any hobbyist loves to add to the minutiae of their passion. …The book… is an opportunity to keep in touch with gardening while maintaining a restful distance from the hands-on work.”