Paradise Lot by Eric Toensmeier is the story of growing an extraordinary amount of food on a tenth of an acre in urban Massachusetts — and the book I recommend most to women who look at their Nevada County backyard and wonder what's actually possible there.

It was sunrise when I discovered the gap in the fence and the soft brown eyes of a deer on the wrong side of it. What followed was a lesson every Nevada County gardener eventually learns — that keeping a garden going has less to do with perfect conditions and more to do with showing up anyway.

Getting things in the ground is the exciting part. Keeping them alive through a Sierra Foothills summer is where most gardens quietly succeed or fail. Here's what to do now — and the one watering mistake that looks responsible but isn't.