Marianne Moore said that the poet's job was to depict imaginary gardens with real toads in them . In truth; gardens are always imaginary because they are always the garden that you are aiming for rather than the garden you have; but the toads are real and immediate.' So says Germaine Greer in this wonderful anthology. A collection of poems culled from all periods; ranging from Roman to Mediaeval poetry; and including the best known paean; Marvell's 'The Garden'; Tennyson's comic 'Amphion'; and Donne's meditations on individual flowers; herbs and trees; this is a book of beautiful texts and intriguing information that can be read along with the seed catalogues in the dead of winter; or in the gaps between tasks on a busy day in spring; or between snoozes in the hammock in the deep midsummer.