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)
We have about a quarter acre of gardens and grow about 25 different crops plus herbs, some citrus, berries. We are putting in grapes and olives this year and I am thrilled about that. I am going to try fava beans AGAIN. Maybe 3rd time's a charm?
I'm a novice gardener, so a book like that would be a great boon to me. I'm putting on my book list. :)
This spring/summer I'm going to plant an herb garden....I'm excited to spice up our life! Now to decide the location, size and selection:)
I just want to plant (my favorite aspect of gardening, well that and eating and smelling the rewards) veggies in a large raised bed with a few beans climbing a nearby corral fence and annuals for the perennial garden. Potatoes are in a fabric bag, onions, shallots and carrots aren’t ready to harvest for the next crop of tomatoes (yum), sweet pumpkin, melons, zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers which is about all I can fit into single raised bed. New this winter is a little 8x8-foot bed for cut flowers of zinnias, larkspur, statice, and lisianthus, and I haven’t decided what else I can cram into the tiny plot. Veggies or flowers—the planning, the planting, the nurturing, and gathering heightens my days throughout the seasons.
This looks like a beautiful, useful book. Crossing my fingers!
I have fruit, vegetable, and flower seeds quietly growing on the windowsill of my apartment. I am most excited for my poppies, watermelon and tomatoes. This is my first time growing so please wish me luck!
I am so excited about this growing season. Alot planned as usual, hopefully half will transpire. Too bad day dreams don't come with time to actually get them all done. My raised beds are growing winter spinach as I write. Then we will move on to heirloom tomatoes, colored peppers, green and wax beans, garlic, rosemary, parsley, chives, and of course beets, and can't forget my blueberries. Happy Spring!
This book looks so COOL!!! My fiance and I moved into a three-bedroom house two years ago with a huge backyard and a little ready-made garden space. Last year we grew Mr. Stripey tomatoes (that didn't stripe), cucumbers (that never came up), Big Boy tomatoes (beautiful!!!), and summer squash and zucchini which both thrived. We are trying again this summer but could def use some help so EVERYTHING thrives!
We are on a mission to get as many people producing their own food in their yards. We are using square-foot gardening techniques. We have always been a fan of "You Grow Girl" and you have served as inspiration to get our project off and running! We have much to learn and would love to be a recipient of your book!
I have a raised bed backyard garden in South Austin. TOMATOES!!!!!!! All kinds of tomatoes! Last year I discovered the joys of oven-roasted tomatoes. This year I'm going to figure out how to can them if that is possible.
Wow! This book looks fantastic! I certainly am always a sucker for a good deal, and it doesn't get any better than free!
i'm excited to grow the usual varieties of veggies that i use for canning. also, i'm growing calendula this year to dry the petals for use in various salve/lotion recipes. i have a big outdoor garden on our farm.
I've got three 4X4 raised beds on one side of the house where I grow vegetables. Actually, this year will be the first year I'm using three so I should be able to grow more than in previous years. Each bed has a trellis made with netting along the backside so I can grow vining plants vertically. Also, I'm planning on some container gardening this summer on our back patio. I purchased a dwarf Meyer lemon plant that I'll keep in the sunroom during the winter and a strawberry that I plan to keep in a container also. I've never grown fruit before so this is exciting!
Technically, according to HOA, I'm supposed to keep vegetable beds in the back, but our yard is designed oddly and we don't have space in the back. So far, the only feedback I've gotten from the neighborhood suggests everyone's pretty impressed with my operation so I'm not too worried about it. :-)
I am planning a lot of my garden because of recipes I have bookmarked! lol I have a group of friends who are wanting to learn more about canning and I am LOVING learning more about gardening so we have great produce to can! WOO HOO I would totally love this book
I just started Gardening just last year. The children and I had a blast. I can wait for summer to get here :)
This year I am excited to grow New King tomatoes from Victory seeds. I gave these seeds to my MIL in 2006, as they were purported to be from the old Vaughn seed company that was her families business when she was a small child. The business was sold long ago and it was such a treat to find these seeds. I wasn't able to find any for this year, but I found out that she never planted hers so I asked if I could get them started for her. They've all sprouted, speaks very well for the seed quality from Victory, this being 5 years later. As we are relocating in the new future i don't know what my short term gardening plans will be. These sprouts will go to my MIL garden where the best tomatoes always grow. With this many plants I hope to get a good supply of seeds to send back to the seed company so they can stock them again.
I am so excited! Finally have my own first place with actual garden space. Renting a duplex with great garden wrapping around the front and side. Going to try combining my vegetables and flowers. Also going to construct an obelisk from alders and willow for some sweet peas or maybe pole beans!
I am about tomatoes & eggplant. I do square foot gardening and am going to try some container potatoes this year. Can't wait. This weekend starting some seeds. Love that dirt!!
I'm doing my first in-ground garden this year. It's really exciting! It's a plot about 15 ft x 10ft. I've got a whole grocery list of foods I want to grow. Anything from eggplant and corn to garlic and onions.
I am so excited about my gardening this year. I have set out on the goal of not have to buy any vegetables over the next winter, so my garden is quite large. The biggest I have done yet. It is mainly in raised beds, but some in ground as well. I just recently got the lettuce, spinach, radishes, onions, beets, and peas in the ground. I do however desire to grow herbs, in the window boxes on my house. I am very excited to start my gardening adventure!!
10 kinds of heirloom tomatoes! VERY small shady yard.... hubby doesn't know it yet, but am planning for many large pots on our sunny driveway.
I will be using raised beds, as we live in a rental. This year I am expanding out in all directions, growing new foods for fresh eating and for storage. Looking forward to the growing season head!
I'm NEW to gardening this year and plan on trying a small raised bed garden. And I'll need all the help that I can get!! lol...
My father is the gardener, actually. He's spent the last three years getting better at square foot gardening. I would give this book to him. Later in the season it's up to me to put it all by for the colder months. Huzzah!
I just got this book at the library and I never want to give it back!