If the thought of gardening leaves you cold, take heart. The Gin and Tonic Gardener is designed for those of us who would rather enjoy whatever green space we can carve out for ourselves outside our humble homes than toiling in the dirt and muck to achieve an urban version of Versailles. And rather than hoeing and plowing barren soil to achieve spectacular results, a stiff drink is the perfect tonic to an unruly flower bed. Spirited, funny, and filled to the brim with amusing characters, this book is designed especially for the reluctant gardener who is looking for a way out of the tyranny espoused in gardening magazines, home and garden television shows, and those fussy neighbors who cast disgusted glances at the green spaces outside our homes. A well-known writer and journalist, Janice Wells provided practical hints and tips for the northern gardener whose prime growing season is limited to a few months of summer, and whose time outdoors is precious and fleeting. Using her own garden as a laboratory for the gardening column she writes for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Wells reveals inventive ways to transform a mundane concrete pathway into one that looks like paving stones, how to disguise an ugly fence by encouraging vines to cover it, and how to scour rummage sales for inexpensive and attractive outdoor furniture. She also offers a listing of easy-to-grow plants that have delighted her with many colorful rewards despite her willful neglect, poor growing conditions, and being occasionally doused with the remnants of a strong gin and tonic.

JANICE WELLS wrote weekly columns for the Halifax Chronicle Herald. Her popular columns, The Gin and Tonic Gardener and Definitely Not Martha offer irreverent observations and advice on coping with modern domestic realities. Her most recent book, Frank Moores, is a political biography of the colourful former premier of Newfoundland who played a pivotal role in the scandal involving former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. She is the author of Definitely Not Martha Stewart, which is a compendium of observations and advice from gardening to the domestic and romantic realities of a "re-single" woman in her fifties. She lives in St. Johns, Newfoundland.

Janice Wells' profile page