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 live in a 4-plex condominium. We plant edibles anywhere we can.
I will definitely grow more sugar snap peas, the kids eat them before I get them inside. I hace cilantro, oregano, mints, and chives outside now. We have blackberries growing up the fence, with a little help. Our flowering trees are; almond, peach, apricot, plum, apple, and lemon.
I'm excited just to have a garden again this year, since last year I was in South Africa for a good portion of the summer. I'll start various tomato seeds in a few weeks and then I have to decide what else I'm going to tackle in my containers-on-the-deck & critter-full back yard garden.
I, too, have You Grow Girl and I really love it. Looking forward to her new one!
This book looks fantastically interesting and I'd love to win a copy!
I have two 4x8 raised beds that I'm getting ready to prep for tomatoes, zucchini, and green beans. I also have a smaller, taller raised bed for lettuce that's right outside my back door. And this year I've invested in the larger version of those plastic greenhouses that I'm getting ready to assemble, so I don't have to buy seedlings at the nursery this year.
I am so happy to have found you this week! What a great blog and what a great book! We have a little plot in the back and so it's mostly square foot gardening with a couple of huge terra cotta planters. Tomatoes, beans, lettuces, carrots, squash, and herbs are all on the docket. :)
I LOVE to GARDEN! But I spend most of the growing season as a wilderness guide, mostly stick to gathering edibles in the woods and growing sprouts (spicy broccoli, tangy lentils, crunchy mung beans, and delicate alfalfa) in socks attached to my backpack or canoe. This book would be awesome to own because I could try my hand at growing in the "off" season, either in my house or outside.
I'm going to be abroad for two months this summer which sadly disturbs the growing season. So I'll have to be extra crafty with the container gardens to see what I can squeeze in growing at the end of the season!
I'm excited to grow organic purple potatoes in our tiny urban backyard this summer - and I love to peruse new books about gardening!
It may seem lame, but I am completely excited about growing cucumbers again this year. We had such success two years ago and I can't wait to see them proliferate again this year. We have a very small backyard behind our townhouse, but my husband I a landscaper and has it planned out perfectly so we can grow several different things. I love it!
I'm very excited about my garden this year. I'm expanding from two raised beds to a whole new garden plot and even more raised beds in the front yard. My goal is to plant enough to enjoy, share, and put by. I grow organically and am looking forward to all the heirloom varieties. I'm also going to focus on adding more flowers and herbs to both increase the visual interest of the garden but to attract beneficials.
I have a tiny piece of actual land. I also grow in pots. My brother usual starts plants and he thinks his big sis rocks so he gives me a lot. This year I'm going to try some rosemary in the house early.
K
We just posted photos of the new raised beds we are putting in this spring. The kids can't wait to grow some melons I can't wait to get some tomatoes in fresh!
I'm always looking for ways to grow more indoors and on the porch - I'll have to check this out!
I currently have a basil plant on my kitchen counter that has been great over these cold winter months. We'll be back to container planting on the deck once the cold is gone and maybe some in the yard too, if the old plants ever get torn out.
I'm a college student moving into an urban apartment. I have some beautiful windowsills, but that's about it. I cannot wait to try growing herbs for tea, and perhaps a few small vegetables. Would LOVE to have this book to guide the way, from someone who knows just what it means to have little space.
I live in the suburbs but have a nice size chunk of land to garden on. I have already planted kale, Swiss chard and lettuce and I'm going to plant turnips this week too. I have a peach, apple and fig tree and want to get more fruit trees. Then I'll plant a whole summer garden...tomatoes, peppers of all kinds, beans, okra, cucumbers and herbs. Oh and I want to try starting a bed of strawberries too!
We just moved to a new apartment with a sunny porch- and lots of pots and planters left from the last tenant. I'm excited to try my hand at container gardening for the first time- planning on tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, scallions, salad greens and herbs.
I live in an apartment building that has a back yard that is hardly ever used, except for when my husband and I barbeque or hang our laundry out (on my jury rigged line), so I am hoping to get permission from our landlord to put in a small garden. Last year I tried small containers with herbs and some peppers, but they got too much sun and I couldn't keep up with the watering and they mostly died out. I want lots of peas and beans and tomatoes this year. And maybe some corn if I can get my little garden!
We live in the country and have a garden about 20 ft. by 50 ft. Last year we had green beans, tomatoes (both cherry and big boy), carrots, onions, peas, bell peppers, cayenne and jalapenos'. Tried to grow corn but the squirrels got to it before we could. I think we got maybe 8 or 10 ears. We are NOT trying corn again this year. Will probably plant most of the same as we did last year. It gives us good exercise as well as good fresh veggies for ourselves and to give away.
We are doing a co-op garden with our neighbors this year, and I'm not sure what we are growing yet. We're lucky enough to be able to garden in our yards. I always have my own herb garden and tomato plants...which my children usually destroy :)
Thanks for the giveaway!
What an awesome book! I hope I win. I'm excited to grow lots of herbs, dark leafy greens, lettuces, spicy peppers, carrots, and pickling cucs this year, among other things. I'm goign to try my hand at the Giant Kassok Kohlrabi this year, yay! I will be growing in two spaces - in some containers in the backyard and some in my friend's vacant lot next to her house.
I've turned my whole backyard into a veggie garden, and I'm excited to try growing kale this year.
Ooh fun! I was just looking over this book online this past weekend. Gorgeous photos. I am currently living in an apartment and have a nice sized patio. I had a garden last year in Chicago. I stared most of it from seed. I had worked on a farm the year before and I was given heirloom tomato seedlings. Great salsa!
I plan on growing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, tons of herbs, zucchini as well as baby carrots and radishes. I love Mexican, Vietnamese and Greek cooking in the sumemr so having these fresh veggies is great.
I do square foot and lasagna gardening in raised cedar beds. This year we want to try potatoes again in grow bags and a heritage type of corn. Can't wait for the snow to melt here in the North East so we can get started!!!!
This will be my third year as an urban gardener and my new additions are hops (my husband and I homebrew), peach trees, asparagus, poblanos, tomatillos, several different heirloom tomatoes and honey bees!! I'm working to add chickens to the mix, but that may have to wait for 2012!
Thanks for the offer, your blog is lovely!
Cheers!
I don't yet grow anything but I really want to learn how!!