Six Square Metres

Life lessons from the ground up.

Sometimes you reap what you sow. Sometimes you reap what other people sowed. Sometimes you haven't got a clue what you are sowing, and sometimes you just get lucky, or unlucky. All these things are true of life, as of gardening.

In this thoughtful and beautifully observed book, journalist and gardening enthusiast Margaret Simons takes readers on a journey through the seasons, through her life, and through the tiny patch of inner-urban earth that is home to her garden.

Over the course of a year, within the garden and without, there are births to celebrate and deaths to mourn; there are periods of great happiness and light, and times of quiet reflection. There is, in other words, all the chaos, joy, sorrow, and splendor of being alive.

Margaret Simons collects a flavourful harvest of food for thought and, even better, for supper.
- Priscilla Montgomery Jensen, The Wall Street Journal

In Six Square Metres Margaret Simons, queen of the tiny vegetable garden, heartened me with her radiant pragmatism.
- Helen Garner, The Saturday Age

In the tradition of Germaine Greer, Vita Sackville-West, and Katharine S. White, Simons proves herself a modern doyenne of wry garden writing.
- Publishers Weekly