Kincaid's first garden in Vermont was a square plot in the middle of her front lawn. There, she planted only seeds of flowers she liked best. Here, she gathers together all that she loves about gardening & plants, & examines it in the same spirit: generously, passionately, & with sharp, idiosyncratic discrimination. The sources of her inspiration -- seed cat., the gardener Gertrude Jekyll, gardens like Monet's at Giverny -- are subjected to her scrutiny. Also examines the idea of the garden on Antigua, where she grew up & where one of her favorite school subjects was botany. Considers the English idea of the garden in colonized countries. "An intimate, playful, & penetrating book on gardens, the plants that fill them, & the gardeners who tend them." Illus.