Gardening literature is unusual. It, in the words of literature professor M.E. Bradford, mixes “practical agricultural advice and moral reflection.”In western culture, it goes back over 2,500 years, at least to Hesiod’s The Works and Days in the 8th century BCE. Later Greeks followed suit, as did the Romans (Cato the Elder’s De Agri Cultura, Virgil’s Georgics). Agricultural literature was firmly ensconced in the classical world.It’s no surprise that America followed suit. The early Americans loved ancient Rome, including its agrarian literature: “Roman poets, such as Horace and Virgil, praised an agrarian lifestyle, and their work struck a chord with the self-sufficient, hardy farmers of early America.” Paul MeanyColonial Americans wrote about gardening and agriculture in general. Thomas Jefferson, for instance (not surprising, given his agri-politics) and Washington in a few of his letters.