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 am absolutely determined to grow some of my own veggies in my own little bucket garden this year. I've never managed it yet, but I'm so hoping! This book would be amazing - I've had a lot of trouble finding much good info about edible container gardens. Thanks for the giveaway!
My only gardening experience was 1 year with my dad. He has since passed away and I want to give my kids the best possible, healthy food while educating them about how to grow them in a small space. We will be "square foot" gardening in our backyard up against our home.
I am super excited to grow potatoes this year. We typically grow in a small portion of our front yard, but this year I am going to try to grow in a barrell. Potatoes take up a lot of space, and this method should save on space. I am totally new to gardening, so this book would be great!
I.love.this.book!!! It is my favorite go to book.
Just moved a few years ago from a farm to an urban lot and very slowly building gardens permaculture style. This year I'm getting my front yard planted and getting seeds started in my new hoop house. I am most excited about getting my medicinal herbs growing again! I plan to do more container gardening this year cause I think its cool to have my plants all around me rather than out in the yard.
My hubby and I just bought our first house. We are also adopting three children so we are going to be on a tight budget for a while until we get things down to a routine. I really want to start a garden in pots on our patio (I'm told this is a great way to avoid weeds...) so we can all eat more veggies and fruits. It looks like this book would be a big help for someone like me. Thanks for the contest!
I have a ground garden for most of the planting, but plan some containers for the carrots and potatoes. We have clay soil and I don't relish the idea of prying veggies from the clay. I am very excited about the tomatoes I am planting. Purple Cherokees, Orange Banana, Brandywine, Bonny's Best, and Rei-something (German grape tomatoes). My 6 year old niece eats tomatoes like candy (Seriously, we had to lock the fridge when she was a toddler so that we would have tomatoes sans tiny bite marks when we needed them.) and was estatic to learn that tomatoes came in different colors, especially her favorite pink and purple. We started the seed Thursday night and she is checking daily to see if her tomatoes are ready.
I've only been able to grow some tulips this year because I am moving in a month, but this I plan on setting up containers inside with herbs once I get situated in my new place (across the country!). I am honestly going to try whatever I can get my hands on: peppers, raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, maybe even some squash.
i recently moved to a mobile home park....because of yard limitations and children and domestic animals roving all over my yard, i am unable to plant a garden...i have a large deck and plan on having a "pot" garden....pots of tomatoes, peppers, onions, green beans.... and i am going to attempt a few pots of corn...my deck has a covered area and an uncovered area so i am optimistic that this will work....
I'm so excited about gardening this year, that I'm rushing spring to arrive. I just KNEW we weren't going to have another frost - then it snowed! LOL! We have a 6x6 fenced in, square-foot garden. I'm planing on growing a lot on the deck because of the deer in the area.
I'm starting as much as possible from seed, both flowers and veggies. I love to can, so we're doing lots of green beans and tomatoes. My absolute favorites, though, are my zinnias.
I am excited for growing season! moving my gardening location and interested in composting!! Going to try cabbage this year for making saurkraut!! I grow veggies and flowers!
We are going to be doing container gardening. I want to be able to take my garden with me if we move (which we hope to do). This book sounds awesome!!!
Cherry tomatoes, some Danvers half long carrots, a few beans--plus the usual selection of seed flowers as well as gladiola in honor of my grandmother. I will attempt a crop of lettuce, though I'm not too sure how successful that will be in a container garden! I tried climbing spinach last year both for harvesting and porch coverage, and it grew beautifully.
I am a new gardener! Just started my seeds indoors for swiss chard, cauliflower, lettuce, and brussel sprouts. I will be using square foot gardening outside, but plan to have some containers and herbs inside.
It's my second season farming with an organic vegetable farm, and the veggies are already happening in the greenhouse there. I also just moved though, and I can't wait to get my potted herbs going at my new little place!
I am a windowsill gardener currently growing houseplants that can tolerate low light (i.e. growing by a northern window). I would like to grow edibles (herbs, lettuces) and wondering which can thrive in low light, potted conditions.
Oh man!! To have You Grow Girl's new book! What would it mean to me? Well, we are about to start our own "balcony" garden with tomatoes and beans and lettuces. I am in the middle of writing two garden books for young readers (7-9 years old). One book is about the community garden at the dairy farm where my most known character, Betsy the Cow, lives. The second book is about the vegetable revolution-- where the vegetables begin to fight back against genetic modification.
The more material I have to read and soak up and learn... The better my own writing.
We are also the only parents at my step-son's (he's in 2nd grade) school who started the classroom garden from seed. It is now the biggest and most beautiful one there!:)
I'm totally excited about growing Blackberries this year so I can make some jam. Yum.
this book looks fantastic. I would love to win it - my daughter and I (she's 13) are starting on a new gardening project in a few weeks!!!
Taking the big step this year: raising bees on my Brooklyn rooftop. Building planting beds to get my blue- and raspberries out of pots, adding cukes (which the bees will pollinate), etc. Making the most out of my tiny urban yard.
Taking the big step this year: raising bees on my Brooklyn rooftop. Building planting beds to get my blue- and raspberries out of pots, adding cukes (which the bees will pollinate), etc. Making the most out of my tiny urban yard.
I have raised beds as well as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries directly in the ground. I am really looking forward to harvesting rhubarb and asparagus this year. Looking forward to planting cukes, tomatoes, peas, spinach, eggplant, hot peppers, and on and on. Gardening is such a joy! I've been making jams, pickles, and salsas for years. Now with a pressure canner I can expand our preservation system!
I finally have a balcony, so I'll be growing a lot of greens, onions, broccoli, radishes and herbs in pots. Still trying to get my hands on a community garden plot so that I can branch out a little bit! I'm so excited - I haven't had a garden since I moved out of my parents' house when I was 19.
I have some of my planting details on my blog, but I mostly grow veggies in containers. I have a bit of ground, but it's too shady to make anything prosper. Last year I built my own Earth Boxes to grow tomatoes, peppers & eggplant, which I will also do this year. I've also got seedlings in my windowsill started for cukes, broccoli, & various herbs. Beets, peas and radish are living outside already. :)
I live in Phoenix, and have had some success growing tomatoes and bell peppers (and a lot of hot peppers). I will be moving to Portland, and since I cannot take my garden with me, I will be starting over, likely with container planting first and then maybe (fingers crossed) I will find a place where I can do some outdoor gardening. I hope to grow herbs, all sorts of veggies (though I will need to find out what will grow best in the NW), and some root plants, and eventually a couple of fruit trees. It will be a whole new adventure and way of growing food, and I am sure I can use all the help I can get.
My next adventure after I move is to learn to sew and knit, so I can reuse/recycle the clothes I already have, and make a few things of my own. I inherited Nana's sewing machine, and plan to put it to good use.