We want to grow the love of gardening story by story.Visit a gardener, and you'll take away something of value. It might be a different way of seeing things or maybe something to avoid. To write this book, we visited a lot of them. Here are just a few:

Two friends who founded Native Plant Rescue Squad A minister who feed souls and an inner-city community through BattleField Farms A poet whose garden inspires her creativity The ups and downs of raised beds from a father of three Teens who preserve the ways and crops of antebellum gardens at Kingsport's Exchange Place, including an obscure plant that tastes like oysters A scientist who ditched his green lawn for clover and a sea of friendly bees A woodland gardening evangelist who watches each year for a flush of trilliums behind her house-and helps others to do the same

Sharing garden stories is the essence of this book. More than that, we're sharing people stories--the kind we hope can help build community, neighborhood by neighborhood, county by county, and region by region. So whether you're a master gardener or a beginner with no idea where to start, we think you'll be inspired. Welcome to East Tennessee Garden Stories.