INTERNET MIRACLES—those serendipitous connections forged as if out of nowhere—are especially sweet for me these days, living as I do in a tiny hamlet (and rarely leaving the house at that). Such was the case when a music and book blogger I admire, Largehearted Boy, wrote to me just as I was about to take a wild shot and send him a galley of my book, hoping to make contact. Could it be that David Gutowski was also passionate about gardening, and a reader of A Way to Garden? Was he really asking me to write a post for his site about my new book’s crazy “soundtrack?” Yes, and yes.

You can read my explanation about all the songs quoted in my book on David’s blog, where I also explain about my (more than slight) miscalculation about how much it would cost in rights fees to quote all those lyrics. Oops! And I also talk about the music I write to (hint: in the video above, recorded the year of my birth).

Want some mood music to accompany the piece? Scroll to the bottom left of this page, start my player up, and listen along on a separate browser tab while you read what I told David about each tune. Enjoy.