A Gardener at the End of the World

Kelley’s (Foodtopia: Communities in Pursuit of Peace, Love & Homegrown Food) new book chronicles her experiences from March 2020 through December 2020 as she tends to her garden in rural Maine and navigates the COVID pandemic. She explores the idea that the spread of seeds and diseases are intertwined, which creates a different type of pandemic journal. As she records the progression of her garden and the pandemic, she weaves in agricultural, medical, and political history. She expresses her frustration with the politicization of the pandemic, but she spends considerably more time on germ theory than on modern politics. Her writing is detailed, engaging, and well-researched; her examinations of her garden, the pandemic, and historical and scientific connections are broad and deep but always clearly explained with an appropriate amount of background information. Kelley is forgiving of both herself and others, and she does not expect perfection in the garden or in people. She thoughtfully assesses people’s varied reactions to the pandemic in terms of the five stages of grief.