A witty, whimsical gardening primer for anyone who wants to tend their patch of earth with a truly green thumb.

A garden can either bring you bliss or drive you insane, but organic landscape gardener Ellen Sandbeck has spent a lifetime discovering creative, effective techniques for growing and tending a garden with ease—while being kind to the earth itself. Eat More Dirt is her delightful compendium of homespun tips and tricks for designing, planting, nurturing, and beautifying your land without the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides.

From peat moss to irksome pests and predators, Sandbeck explores the lively world of compost heaps (which can be used to naturally “vaccinate” your garden against disease), growing good soil, choosing plants well-adapted to your climate, weed warfare, planting protocols, and eco-friendly ways to quench your garden’s thirst. Whether you tend an acre or just a window box, Eat More Dirt is an essential guide to keeping your garden thriving, the natural way.

• Build up topsoil without toxic fertilizers or noisy machinery • Compost, the other black gold

• Eradicate weeds with sunflower seeds • Protect berries from birds with a sugar-water spray

• Gentle pruning techniques • Banish beetles with wheat bran • Drive off furry pests with cayenne pepper

• When life hands you a seep, dig a pond—transforming garden irritants into garden pearls

• Pre- and post-gardening stretches • Dancing with tools • The Zen of puttering •