My Vegetable Love CL

Home gardeners, cooks and nature lovers will savor this delightful account of the 1995 growing season in Iowa. Klaus, director of the nonfiction writing program at the University of Iowa, kept a daily record, March through November, of his large vegetable garden. Spring in Iowa City was unusually cold and wet; Klaus depended heavily on row covers to protect his young plants. Summer brought heat, drought and ""critters""--squirrels, woodchucks, opossums and deer. Then, a bountiful harvest that extends to Thanksgiving. The book goes beyond tending a garden; Klaus interweaves personal details and concerns of his daily life: he writes about neighbors, his wife's probable recurring cancer, the last weeks leading to the death of his 20-year-old cat, generational conflicts in his department at the university and the meals he concocts from his vegetable bounty. Delectable. (Oct.)