Organic Humor Is Not So Rotten

So you don’t think compost is funny? Try the April issue of Organic Gardening.

Drawn by artists at Marvel Comics, the cover of the gardening journal depicts Marvel’s “Fantastic Four” superheroes doing battle with a monster bursting from a newly tilled field. A story on grubs and other underground pests gets a front-page headline: “They Came From Below!”

Mike McGrath, the magazine’s editor, considers weather, bugs and other disappointments as part of the organic gardeners’ lot. “Gardeners better be smiling because nature often tries to prevent it,” he said.

McGrath started the offbeat-cover tradition two years ago with a cover featuring a slug’s-eye view of a gardener armed with beer and salt.