The beekeeper's bible Bees, honey, recipes & other home uses

Sarah Hayden Reichard has written a modest and unassuming but powerful book, THE CONSCIENTIOUS GARDENER: Cultivating a Garden Ethic (University of California Press, $27.50), arguing that gardeners should be on the front line when it comes to recognizing the interconnection of mankind and nature. "Practices and products," she writes, have crept into the craft of gardening "that decrease its long-term sustainability." I, for one, will never again resort to pesticides or peat moss after reading her book. Reichard's chapter on soil, "the skin of the earth," is an excellent refresher for any gardener. There are 20,000 identified types of soil in the United States alone. Dirt may even be the new Prozac. Both Reichard and Owens mention that working the soil might alleviate depression: a specific soil bacterium has been found to activate serotonin-releasing neurons. Which would, at the very least, explain why more gardeners don't throw down their shovels and quit.