Tasha Tudor's Garden

The noted children's-book author and illustrator Tasha Tudor, ``half naturalist, half gardener,'' lives with her dogs, Nubian goats and countless trees, plants and flowers on a 250-acre hilltop farm in Vermont. Here Martin (The Essence of Paradise) and Brown (The Private World of Tasha Tudor) politely dog her trail during the growing months to learn the hows and whys of her gardening prowess. A few knacks and secrets: one of Tudor's particularly prized theme gardens on the property is ``hemmed in by a ring of tall lilacs, which artfully disguise an electric fence to keep the deer at bay.'' Another: ``The primroses sink their toes only into well-composted goat manure mixed with leaf mold.'' Perhaps the ultimate: Tudor's ``manure tea,'' an invention consisting of cow flops and water steeped all summer in a caldron for use as fertilizer. Tea or no, the book's roundly picturesque and dappled with full-color photos of Herself minding the peonies and strolling barefoot (by preference) past the daffodils. The text by Martin is friendly and informative. A list of Tudor's favorite nurseries is included. (Oct.)