For a full examination of how to cut down on your gardening chores, may I suggest my first book, "The Lazy Gardener?" The seed that produced it was a conversation with a friend, during which we discovered that we both loved living with plants, but we wanted to respect them as equals, fully capable of taking care of themselves.

And we found that this simple desire created, no, truly demanded, a different approach to all the work involved in making a garden, one that is both easy, "lazy," and very difficult, because, of all human activities, being patient seems to take most practice and experience.

Here, however, is a short summary of some of the principles of "lazy gardening."