In addition to the proliferation of school garden literature over the past decade, Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education brings a new theoretical framework to food garden discourses. Unlike other books, Learning Gardens takes up a critical, ecological and pedagogical lens to explain learning that occurs through gardening and growing food. Throughout the book, living soil is situated as a metaphor and central theme that drives and enables curriculum to advance children's understanding of broader ecological and social systems. Through discourses of human/more than human, sustainability, and ecology/culture the book uses new metaphoric language to disrupt traditional approaches to teaching and learning, which are replaced with whole-system methods.

The book is divided into three sections that examine the significance of gardens as learning sites, the pedagogical implications of learning gardens, and the practical application of garden-based frameworks via specific case studies that portray the perspectives of teachers, principals and the broader community.

Part I: Learning Gardens, Living Soil, and Sustainability Education provides a rigorous literature review on sustainability education and its varying definitions, the history and current trends of school gardens, and the role of curriculum for learning gardens. Mechanistic and dominant approaches underpinning current educational systems (for example, competitive, decontextualised and individualistic) are troubled and emphasised as incongruent with ‘living systems and sustainability’. In asking: where is the learning in learning gardens, the authors examine the design and implementation of curricula and pedagogy that successfully integrates school gardens into the broader curriculum. The integrated approaches offered within the book provide educators with explicit examples of how a range of cross-curricula subject areas can be woven into garden-based learning.

In Part II, Learning Gardens Principles Linking Pedagogy and Pedology emphasises seven principles that link pedagogy with the study of soil (pedology), which include: cultivating a sense of place, fostering curiosity and wonder, discovering rhythm and scale, valuing biocultural diversity, embracing practical experience, nurturing interconnectedness, and awakening the senses. The detailed pedagogical and theoretical contributions of the seven principles provide the reader with a deepened understanding of how the concepts can be embedded within sustainability curriculum. These principles are the catalyst for rethinking the role of gardens and gardening in the broader school curriculum.

The final section, Practice Comes Alive from the Ground Up, provides firsthand accounts from practitioners and principals who are implementing living gardens and garden pedagogies that are framed by interdisciplinary, ecological and conceptual frameworks. Their stories of bringing children closer to understanding the living systems that sustain people and places are inspiring, and speak to the ways local communities and schools are working together to advance sustainability. The emphasis here is on collaborative and collective approaches that provide longevity to programs, and which significantly contribute to supporting the sustenance of educators.

Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education is a thoroughly researched book. The academic and practical emphasis of this book makes it a valuable text for the increasing numbers of educators (in schools, universities and communities) who are interested in using learning gardens as a pathway for the development and implementation of sustainability. In short, the book successfully theorises living gardens as rich and authentic portals for teaching and learning sustainability.