Jackson and his friend Reuben take a rose cutting from a bush growing at the grave of Rose Cassoway, planning to transplant it in the community garden near their home, but a series of strange incidents convince them that the twig is cursed and must be returned.
Introduces children to organic gardening, explaining its benefits and offering advice on choosing the right types of plants, enriching soil with natural products, preventing pests, building a worm composter, and more.
Holly, discouraged that she does not seem to have inherited the gardening skills of her mother and siblings, comes up with a creative way to make her flowers bloom.
Maya and other students in Ms. Hopkins class study techniques used by Thomas Jefferson as they grow pea plants and compete to see whose will produce a bowl full of peas first. Includes an afterword about Jefferson.
Little Mortimer Mouse, longing to see something green at winter's end, follows the lead of the big people and plants, waters, and weeds his last sunflower seed until, finally, with God's help and a lot of patience, he harvests his crop.
