One Small Garden brings together stories and anecdotes about gardens, all the while following the life of one garden throughout one year. A family of raccoons makes nightly visits and then mysteriously disappears. Ants are a problem for a tree growing inside the gate of a park. The tree seems to have bigger problems than just the ants and needs special attention. Butch the cat wanders through the neighbourhood, living the life of a stray. An exotic bird escapes an apartment and is rescued. Interspersed throughout the book are remembrances of gardens, facts about plants and animals and observations about seasonal changes. In the end, what seems separate becomes connected.

Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway - the company that built the railroad across Canada - led a busy life and traveled a great deal. When Sir William took a trip overseas in 1909 he sent a series of pictures as letters to his grandson in Montreal. Sir William drew the pictures himself, depicting elephants travelling through Europe. Barbara Nichol has compiled the pictures into a delightful ABC book in which she introduces the reader to many “elephant” characters all travelling in style and each with his/her own unique personality.