Plant Intelligence for Backyard Gardeners

You water the tomatoes, tie up the beans and pull the mint back for the tenth time this summer, and you have a quiet feeling that more is going on in that bed than you can see. You are right.

Each short chapter of this audiobook opens in an ordinary backyard and follows one familiar plant doing something remarkable. You hear how a tomato releases a chemical warning when caterpillars bite so its neighbours toughen up, how a sunflower tracks the sun across the sky, how a bean tendril feels its way toward a pole and how a pea seedling learns where its food lies. The narration then explains, in plain warm language, how plants sense light, touch, chemicals and time without a brain, and every chapter ends with a clear line on what the science shows and what is still argued over.

By the last chapter, your windowsill herbs and the weeds in the pavement crack look like the busy living things they are. Press play, then go outside and check on the beans.