STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF GARDENING: Poisonous Plants, Giant Vegetables, Gardening Feuds, Strange Fertilizers, Royal Gardens, Plant ... the Backyard (SparkTrail Strange But True)
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STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF GARDENINGGardening looks peaceful.A few flowers. A neat lawn. Some vegetables. Maybe a gnome minding his own business.But the history of gardening is absolutely packed with obsession, rivalry, bizarre experiments, poisonous plants, giant vegetables, outrageous fortunes, strange superstitions, plant hunters, royal egos, and people who were willing to go to extraordinary lengths over dirt, seeds, and shrubs.STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF GARDENING digs into the funny, surprising, and occasionally ridiculous story of how humans turned growing plants into food, medicine, science, fashion, competition, status, and sometimes complete madness.Discover how ancient civilizations built elaborate gardens before anyone had a garden hose, why Roman houses put gardens right in the middle, how medieval monks grew medicine beside dinner, and how kings used hedges and fountains to prove they were richer than everyone else.Follow daring plant hunters across the world, meet Victorians who became obsessed with orchids, and find out how the Wardian case helped move living plants across oceans. Explore tulip mania, poisonous gardens, bizarre fertilizers, early pest control, topiary, lawns, lawnmowers, garden gnomes, and the surprisingly serious business of arguing with your neighbors over hedges.Then things get even stranger.Meet the people growing pumpkins so enormous they need machinery to move them. Visit competitive flower shows where perfectly polite gardeners quietly wage war over petals. Discover Victory gardens, British allotments, impossible city gardens, heirloom seeds, strange fruits and vegetables, record-breaking crops, and even NASA’s attempts to grow plants in space.You’ll also uncover:The strange histories hiding behind everyday garden plantsGardening superstitions that refused to disappearOdd tools gardeners really usedRecord-breaking vegetables and flowersThe rise of seed catalogs and mail-order gardening dreamsThe surprisingly complicated history of lawnsThe dangerous side of beautiful plantsAnd plenty of gardening ideas that seemed perfectly reasonable at the timeFunny, informative, and packed with strange historical stories, STRANGE BUT TRUE: THE WEIRD HISTORY OF GARDENING is not a gardening manual.It is the story of the people who kept digging holes, planting things, arguing about the results, and trying again.Perfect for gardeners, history lovers, trivia fans, gift buyers, and anyone who has ever planted one innocent tomato plant and somehow ended up reorganizing the entire backyard. Read more
