In this provocative book, rooted in the daily dramas of his own garden in Norfolk, Richard Mabey presents a scenario in which nature becomes a partner, a 'gardener' itself. Against a background of disordered seasons, Mabey watches his 'accidental' garden reorganise itself. Ants sow cowslip seeds in the parched grass; moorhens take to nesting in trees; a spectacular self-seeded rose springs up in the gravel. The garden becomes a place of cultural and ecological fusion, and a metaphor for a troubled planet.