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Professional-voiced review:
This garden is out of control! Jack and his sister, Maddy, procure seeds from a mysterious vendor at a flea market. Soon, they find themselves battling carnivorous vegetation with their new friend, sword-wielding Lilly. Hatke is known for his blockbuster series, “Zita the Spacegirl,�� and here, he introduces a new family and epic adventure set in the same universe as Zita. There are several crossover characters from the Zita stories, and the ending of this first volume leads the reader to expect more familiar faces or places. The plot also borrows some elements from the classic fairytale “Jack and the Beanstalk.�� Maddy is autistic, introducing a welcome ability-diverse character to Hatke’s universe. Though an astute reader might wish for more visible or cultural diversity, there is potential for improvement in this area in future volumes. This is the first time Hatke has depended upon colorists for an entire published work, but his previous quality level is sustained, and readers will not notice any lack of continuity in his aesthetic. He varies his panel and page layout, ensures the story is well-paced and easy to follow, and keeps his characters distinct. A surefire hit with fans of Hatke’s oeuvre, and heartily recommended for all libraries serving children, teens, or a general audience.

Less-so/Other stuff:
Single-parent families, SCA/reenactment-type groups, J romance, female-identified people teaching male-identified people how to sword fight, superpowered plants with moral nuance, scifi/fantasy questionmark, necessity of lying bc the truth is unbelievable, genrebending, sagas, parent/child conflict, epics, financial woes, giant snails, dragons apparently made of plant matter tho I totally didn't catch that till someone pointed it out.

I follow both Hatke and his wife, Anna, on Instagram, and there's a lot of this book that seems ripped straight from their lives. The house looks kinda like theirs, the characters look like their family, the ancient weapons in modern setting thing is straight from his world. That's another reason the white white whiteness didn't bug me as much as it might in other authors/books - the characters are a straight-up tribute to his wife/the characters of Jack and Lilly are very very much modeled on them. And Maddy is Jack's sister, so there wasn't a lot of room for varying skin tones in those three core characters.
Although.
Maybe....
Hmm....

That might be a thing nuanced/astute/WNDB readers might discuss.

Anyway, this is great. From my perspective.
But feel free to fix my ignorance, if we've got any Ghosts on our hands.