Mister Owita's guide to gardening : how I learned the unexpected joy of a green thumb and an open heart / by Carol Wall

Prologue -- Garden angel -- Of particular beauty are the azaleas -- A rose between two thorns -- A promising blade of grass -- Anticipated blooms -- Approaching systems -- The canopy of the yukon gold potato -- Every yard must have its flowers -- Shades of white -- The perfect Christmas tree -- Frail magnolia -- Lemon -- A pretty sky -- Potted plants and fresh flowers -- Green plants, only -- Impatiens -- Gardening seminars -- Snow -- Tomato plants -- Seedlings -- The river -- An awkward path -- The lilies of the field -- Rolling waters -- All the things he loved -- Epilogue.

Describes how a period of transition in the journalist author's life marked by her empty nest, a recent illness and her aging parents led her to forge a deep friendship with a gifted Kenyan gardener with whom she transformed her yard and shared long-buried secrets.