Grow Great Grub book giveaway
Gayla Trail, author of the most beginner-friendly garden book I own, You Grow Girl, has a new one under her garden belt and I’m so excited to be able to offer up a copy to you.
;)
Grow Great Grub is a friendly, practical primer on container and small-space organic gardening. Gayla takes you through the step-by-step process of growing food that’s good for you and good for the planet without costing you an arm and a leg. I love her creative, improvisational alternatives to going out and buying a bunch of stuff, some of which I’ve employed with success, like her toilet tube seed-starting method and managing to eat from our back-deck, bucket garden last year.
Here are some of the things I particularly love about this book:
- Her focus on windowsill growing, for those of us without even a stoop or balcony to our rental agreement
- She lays out which plastics to avoid when selecting/crafting DIY container garden bins (leaching issues)
- The side-boxes that accompany all the plant varieties and give you specific details on how to grow each plant in a pot successfully
- The whole fruit chapter!
- Her suggestion of the insanely cute idea to freeze edible herb flowers inside ice cubes for a pretty and refreshing lift in your iced tea or water.
- Great suggestions on short and long-term storage of the things you grow (that is, if bounty is a ‘problem’ for you!)
- She has a great community forum for Q & A or specific issues you encounter that are not in the book.
So, let’s get down to business. Clarkson Potter has been so kind as to ship a copy of this book to the winner, but they can only ship to the US and Canada. To enter, post a comment below telling us: What you’re excited to grow this year and what kind of gardening you do (or plan to start doing), i.e. you’ve got actual ground, containers on the roof, windowsills, a guerilla garden, etc.
Comments close on Tuesday, March 8 at midnight CST. I will select a winner via random.org. Please don’t forget to include your email address in the little box that asks for it on the comment form so I can contact you if you win; don’t worry, other readers won’t see it.
Kate
Congratulations to Kelly! Thanks all for entering. Wishing you happy endeavors in the growing season, no matter what your situation may be.
Garden & Outdoors, Gardening, Giveaways
Reader Comments (150)
I've been planting in several raised beds in my back yard
for a couple of years now. I'm no pro, but am proud to say
that my little garden is my therapy :) This year I'm going to
plant Trombocino squash, they look amazing!
I haven't had a garden in over four years, so growing just about anything is crazy exciting to me right now - I'm really looking forward to peas and tomatoes more than anything!
We have a plot at our local organic community garden down at the beach and would LOVE a copy of this to help us through our first spring growing season!
Tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes!!!
I would love this book! We just joined a community garden, and I have a raised bed of 150sq ft. I am trying to grow as much of our food supply as we can; and I need all the help I can get! Thanks for the chance!! Happy gardening!
We'll grow tiny sun gold yellow cherry tomatoes and eat them like candy... by the handful. ANd then when the northeast growing season ends, we'll lug them (we grow them in pots) into our sun room... and hopefully have fresh tomatoes through the new year!
Tomatoes!! Hopefully my boy and I can scrounge up some community garden space, but if not we have some fine fire escape space out our window.
I am most excited about growing spinach and golden beets this year! Some will be inground gardening and some will be in containers.
I'm excited about getting my garden going this year. I have already started some lettuce and kale seeds inside under a light. Looking forward to planting some tomatoes and strawberries soon..
I have a very small plot in the yard, maybe 4 ft by 2 ft, raised bed that my husband built and also do a lot of container gardening. Not much sun in my yard so I put out pots where they can get some sun!
I am excited to just get anything started. I am going to try straw bale gardening this year. I don't know how it will turn out but it will be interesting.
I live in an apartment, so I don't have actual ground to grow in. I do container gardening on my back porch. This year, I'm already growing herbs in old wooden wine crates on my back porch, and I just started my first batch of windowsill lentil sprouts for sandwiches and salads. I'd like to try tomatoes again, even though last year's were no good. And I'm thinking about a dwarf lemon tree in a big pot for the porch, too.
I live in Minnesota, and right now my garden is buried in about 3 feet of snow. I have seeds started in my basement under my grow lights, my bedside table is piled high with seed catalogues and I have visions of the large raised bed full of garlic snoozing under the snow just waiting to put up stalks. I'd love a copy of this book, and I am loving your blog, too!
i have huge garden/ teeny weeny "farm" that i use for us, two farmers markets, and lots of my preserving projects... I am most excited for growing ... hmmm.... chili peppers, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, cherry tomatoes, and a huge spring crop of peas.
We do raised bed gardening in lots of shade. We've experimented with all types of veggies over the last few years and are convinced we are best to grow things that do well with lower light levels...like, peas and beans. But, we are going to try carrots and potatoes again too. And, maybe do some pots of tomatoes. The book looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing!
I'm a container gardener and want to grow more than just herbs this season. I finally learned only to place containers on my north facing porch during the hot Austin summers and have had great success...hoping for summer squash, beans, tomatoes, and spinach this year.
What am I excited to grow? Soooo many things! This year I am determined to grow at least one variety of each type of veggie that I have never grown (or eaten) before! Baker Creek Seed Company has an incredible selection of heirloom seeds. I grow my food the old fashioned way- in the ground. We have converted our small semi-urban lot into a large garden complete with fruit trees and chickens. I also coordinate the "snack garden" at my children's school. Nothing like a bunch of 4 years olds fighting over who gets to pick the broccoli!
I do raised bed and container gardening. I'm excited about growing tomatoes, since last year the squirrels got all of them!
I have an urban garden (Chicago) and I grow in raised beds, Earth boxes, and in and among my perennials. Last year, I had 16 tomato plants, lots of basil and other herbs, beets, little carrots, a couple of eggplants, some squashes. Going to add three more 4x4 raised beds this spring and I can't wait! Would love this book
It is my first time with a back yard this year, and I am hyped about growing just about EVERYTHING! Yes, I probably bit off more than I can chew, considering I'll be 9 months pregnant when stuff starts to grow! :oP
I have a hoop house this year, and lots of tiny greenies are poking up through the ground already. As well as some cabbages and brocolli from last fall . . . I am excited about getting some good heirloom starts this year rather than buying plants from the garden store. I just have to remember to water them . . .
This is my first year in a new house with an actual yard so we are going to do square foot gardening in raised beds using our own compost. We will be putting them on our patio. I am hoping to grow greens (spinach, kale, etc.), beets (and THEIR greens, of course), herbs, peas, and tomatoes. Maybe ambitious for a beginner...
We recently moved to a new home. The yard is full of lucious green grass and one tree. I am looking forward to planting this first full summer in our home a kitchen herb garden and a small patch of heirloom tomatoes. I can hardly wait to go digging in the dirt. It has been a long, harsh winter in the midwest. Sigh...
I am growing kale, kohlrabi, basil, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, Aunt Ruby's green tomatoes, and salad mix in the basement of my home. It is the first time I have had substantial indoor space to start seeds! I have a bunch of flower seeds to start as well with intentions of setting up a booth at the local farmer's market. Can't wait! Thanks for all of your inspiration and advice!
Wow, that would be an amazing book to have. This year I'm most excited about growing beans, it's the first year i'm trying. While I do have a yard, i live in a condo and they haven't approved the garden i want to make (and i don't approve of them coming in and taking whatever they want, whenever they want. So instead i fill up our cement space with a ton of pots. last year it was fun with carrots and barley.
I have been an avid veggie gardener for about 15 years- can't imagine life without a veggie garden! I have 14 4'x8' raised beds- I grow organically and grow mostly heirloom varieties of whatever I can fit! I also grow potatoes in open large bottom tubs- (harvesting is easy!) I will be planting husk tomatoes (ground cherry) this year for the first time. I always grow tomatoes, slicing and paste/salsa, cucumbers, squash, onions, garlic, hot peppers, sweet peppers, asparagus, strawberries, beets, carrots, a variety of herbs, eggplant, lettuce, kale and chard. I use the no-till method of "lasagna" gardening. love it and can't wait for the snow to go so I can get out there and play