A Gardener at the End of the World: How to Grow Hope in a World on Fire - A Year of Seeds, Pandemics, and the Quiet Power of Growing Something True

by Margot Anne Kelley

A gardener’s pandemic journal that combines memoir with an exploration of the natural world both inside and outside the garden.

In March 2020, Margot Anne Kelley was watching seeds germinate in her greenhouse. At high risk from illness, the planning, planting, and tending to seedlings took on extra significance. She set out to make her pandemic garden thrive but also to better understand the very nature of seeds and viruses.

As seeds became seedlings, became plants, became food, Kelley looks back over the last few millennia as successions of pandemics altered human beings and global culture. Seeds and viruses serve as springboards for wide-ranging reflections, such as their shared need for someone to transport them, the centrality of movement to being alive, and the domestication of plants as an act of becoming co-dependent.

Pandemic viruses only occurred through humankind’s settling down, taking up agriculture, and giving up a nomadic life. And yet it’s the garden that now provides a refuge and a source of life, inspiration, and hope. A Gardener at the End of the World explores questions of what we can preserve—of history, genetic biodiversity, culture, language—and what we cannot. It is for any reader curious about the overlap of nature, science, and history.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Nature, Memoir

240 pages, Hardcover

Published April 2, 2024

Reviews

[ken Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cried quite a few times

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the framework in which Kelley weaves tidbits of history and botany into her own narrative - I learned a lot while being still grounded by life unfolding around her. My one qualm was that it felt very preachy at times, which sometimes put me off even when I agreed with what she was saying.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned about gardening in a crunched amount of time from this journal type book about the pandemic.

She’s gardening with purpose and she’s driven to yield the most information in each paragraph.

I learned so many helpful tips and even learned a lot about historical fruit and vegetables and how they came to be discovered. As well as how plagues affected the citizens of the past.

This is a very well written book that is for a beginner to an advanced gardener.

[Nick Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has the best of what a great memoir should: insightful, personal writing that helps us understand both the writer's perspective and the outside world in which they live and work. It wasn't particularly comfortable to relive those early days of the pandemic, but the author sets that uncertainty against thousands of years of history and humans' deep engagement with seeds and soil. Beautifully written and deeply researched, A Gardener at the End of the World puts what seemed catastrophic into context, delivering hope and beauty in the face of tragedy.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Gardener at the End of the World beautifully weaves together the terror and isolation of the early days of the pandemic with the flashes of joy and insight gained by stepping out of our regular routines. Isolated at home, with too much time on her hands, Kelley found solace in her garden, occupation in close observation, and companions in her seedlings. The book is also a trove of fascinating information about earlier plagues, seed saving, characteristics of plants, and how humans have through history conducted themselves in the face of challenges. Although a uniquely personal account, readers will find echoes of their own experiences, and hope for the future. A lovely book.

[Kyle Buntin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Gardener at the End of the World is a quietly beautiful, deeply hopeful book that finds meaning in the simple act of growing things during an uncertain time. Margot Anne Kelley weaves gardening, science, history, and personal reflection into a thoughtful meditation on survival, connection, and care showing how seeds and humans alike depend on movement, community, and patience. It’s both grounding and inspiring, reminding us that even in a world on fire, tending something living can be an act of resilience and love. A perfect read for anyone who believes small, mindful acts can still change how we live.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m impressed by the ties made between the history of agriculture and disease to modern events. Maybe it’s because I’m a nerd, but I wish there was more detail about the historical aspects in the book.

My favorite line was “The ubiquitous virus is giving many people their first imitations of existential terror, something Black Americans know far too well. Around the world, people are absorbing the stark fact that a chance encounter or a momentary lapse in vigilance could cost them their lives” (pg 72). Never thought of that connection before and it was very eye-opening.

[Annalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very interesting and kind of bittersweet to review 2020 in this way. Reading the book took me back to the year and naive I was about the world and how we would face this crisis. But the chronicle of the author’s garden grounds you and reminds you that everything in life ebbs and flows, and you usually can’t predict what will come.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent memoir/garden history framed around 2020 and the long shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. I felt that it meandered a bit toward the end and started stronger than it finished, but still a good read for gardeners and those interested in obscure bits of ancient and very recent history.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!
It is a beautifully written, filled with insight, wonder and history.With Kelley by my side, I found myself reading more and more slowly, never wanting it to end.

[Jason Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely description of the author’s pandemic experience and how the garden brought calm and predictably to her life. Weaved in a lot of research and history.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part garden logbook, part COVID diary, part treatise on the origin of strains (both vegetal and viral). At the beginning, this memoir was sometimes too scattered or sudden in its topic changes, but over the course of the book, ideas were revisited and built onto in a natural and compelling way.