GIVEAWAY: “Don’t Throw It, Grow It!” Book
We're giving away one brand new copy of this wonderful resource for enthused Freedom Gardeners!
This book certainly reminds us of long forgotten ways that were daily practices from the rapidly fading past. We can, however, remember a few frugal souls who actually practiced this way and we now have a towering pecan tree and fruitful peach tree in the neighborhood as a testimony!
It's a great way to save money and is a fascinating read for all gardeners.
Magic and wonder hide in unexpected places — a leftover piece of ginger, a wrinkled potato left too long in its bag, a humdrum kitchen spice rack. In Don't Throw It, Grow It! Deborah Peterson reveals the hidden possibilities in everyday foods.
Peterson, former president of the American Pit Gardening Society, shows how common kitchen staples — pits, nuts, beans, seeds, and tubers — can be coaxed into lush, vibrant houseplants that are as attractive as they are fascinating. With Peterson's help, a sweet potato turns into a blooming vine; chickpeas transform into cheery hanging baskets; the humble beet becomes a dramatic centerpiece; and gingerroot grows into a 3-foot, bamboo-like stalk. In some cases the transformation can happen overnight!
Don't Throw It, Grow It! offers growing instructions for over 50 plants in four broad categories — kitchen vegetables; fruits and nuts; herbs and spices; and more exotic plants from ethnic markets. The book is enhanced with beautiful illustrations, and its at-a-glance format makes it a quick and easy reference. Best of all, every featured plant can be grown in a kitchen, making this handy guide a must-have for avid gardeners and apartment-dwellers alike. Don't Throw It, Grow It! will appeal both to committed recyclers and to anyone who wants to find magic in the mundane — from parents and teachers looking to instill a sense of wonder in children, to the houseplant enthusiast seeking to create a one-of-a-kind Eden right in her kitchen.
HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY
Comment in the form below to enter -- if you have tried to start anything interesting from seed or tuber, tell us about it! If you repost this giveaway via twitter or facebook or write about it on your blog - or anywhere online - you may add an additional comment(or comments) for each time you shared the link (just make sure to share the url address in the comments' box).
This giveaway will end on 01/01/2012 at 12 PM PST. Open to all persons in the United States of America, even contributing authors of this blog.
IMPORTANT: Sometimes entries will accidentally go to the Spam folder. However, I do go through the spam and all relevant entries will be approved so your entries will be counted!
Winners will be chosen by random.org and will be e-mailed. The winner has 48 hrs. to respond to e-mail or another winner will be chosen. Winners will be announced via a blog post.
DON'T WANT TO WAIT AND WIN?
Support our work and use this amazon affiliate link to purchase -- thanks!
I've grown pomegranates from fruit that I purchased from the grocery store...they actually grew!
When you say they grew did they produce? I am getting ready to plant a few to see what happens. I am in Va and think I could get them growing and producing. Any help and info is great, thanks.
I have tried this once or twice but not always successfully. I'd love to see what it says about apples since they don't grow true to type. But I understand even bad apple trees can be good for hard cider.
I discovered dozens of sprouting avocado seeds when I was turning the compost the other day, so I picked a few of them out and planted them. We'll see what happens!
I started dinosaur kale from seed two years ago and didn't compost it after the first year and low and behold it's remained productive for year-round going on two years! I didn't know kale could be a perennial. Perks of living in SCAL I guess.
I have done this on occasion - you see an onion doing it's best to re-grow, or a potato, or piece of ginger, and you give them a shot in the garden. But I've always kind of wondered about the ins and outs of it - like what really works and how to do it, especially with pits from stone fruit. So I'd love to read this book and learn more!
When I cut a green onion I take the root end (with a little white attached) and go plant it back in my garden. I get another onion out of it most of the time. Bless that little onion's heart!
I used to grow sweet potatoes into plants for the house years ago.
I am doing Kumquats today and a pomagrante. I have kept my petunias going hanging then in a basket in the bedrom by the pic window. My biggest surprise was growing garlic last year. I read that if you do it by just putting cloves in the ground they don't get very big. That has to be a lie cause most of mine were just as nice as the store bought of the same variety and tasted much better. Being from Ohio I love Va for I can with prep work like tenting my brocoli can produce year round. I keep trying to expand from the regular everyday thing to more exotic because they are the ones I love but have to pay to much for. the avacodo thing I think is cool and I want to try and possibly grow minni pineapple or just a pineapple in a pot cause they look cool. Any one know how to do that? Happy growing.
@lori-i live in western pennsylvania and my kale produces for 2 years as well. it does fine all snowy winter. i go out in mid january and pick fresh kale!
I've been trying for a couple of years to grow luffas. Every year I get a little closer to success - 2012 will be it!
my favorite thing I have grown from seed was Dakota Black Popcorn. It was my fist time growing popcorn and it tastes delicous
I have grown the potatoe vine a lot of times and carrot tops. These are great projects to get your children or grand children interested in growing things. This last summer I tried growing some vegetables in flower pots and potatoes in a trash can. I had lots of big red tomatoes; green, red and yellow bell peppers and jalopeno peppers in my pots and a whole lot of nice golden potatoes from my metal trash can. In 2012 I am going to buy a couple dwarf fruit trees of different types of fruit and then try to grow more from the seeds it produces. Also, fruit bushed and nut trees.
I am constantly saving seeds. I was given a delicious organic cream and green oblong squash that I loved the flavor of. Unfortunately, I didn't dry the seeds long enough and they molded in the bag. I threw it out. Now I wish I had put them in the compost. I might be eating some right now.
I have grown a few things from seeds but the most successful wasn't from seeds. I had some potatoes that had grown eyes so I cut them in pieces. I planted my purchased potatoes and my "accidental" potatoes in my garden and they both grew great!
I grew some meyer lemon seedlings from grocery store meyer lemons. They did pretty well, but eventually I gave up on them because the won't necessarily come true to type (they could have been cross pollinated).
I have grown papayas from seed from a store-bought fruit. They grew gigantic! I had potted them in large plastic totes with holes drilled in the bottom, because North Florida is not frost-free. I brought them into our enclosed screen porch for the winter and then planted them out in the garden the following spring. We harvested tons of papayas from the plants before the frost finally got them.
Last summer I started to throw out some old potatoes that had grown eyes. I asked a friend of mine if I could plant them and she said no - I had to buy the seed potatoes. I thought, well, seed potatoes are just the eyes of the potatoes that have been cut out and dried - so why couldn't I do that. I took four of the sprouting potatoes and cut out the eyes and placed them on paper towels to dry for about a week. I then planted them in my little garden in the front of my apartment in Anchorage, AK. I actually forgot about planting them because it seemed like nothing was going to grow so I planted a different seed in the same area. About a week later, I saw some sprouts to I assumed the seeds were growing. Within a couple more weeks, I had these big tall leafy plants that I didn't recognize. It wasn't until the early fall when I pulled up one of the plants that I discovered that my potatoes had grown. They had a great flavor and I actually ended up getting about 5 lbs. out of the "eyes" I had planted. I'm going to do that again this year - only this time I'll remember to mark what I planted where.....lol.
I have a lemon tree growing from a lemon I used for baking 5 years ago, I'ts lovely and full and about 5 feet tall, I keep it trimmed small so that I can bring it indoors. I'm hopeful that it will produce fruit sometime in the next few years, but even if it doesnt, the leaves smell lovely and I use them in some recipes!
I stuck the top cut from a grocery store pineapple in a little potting soil and it is still growing! Looks great. I haven't replanted it but my Mom tells me sometimes you can get a small pineapple from a plant like that.
Each year I want to start my own sweet potato slips (because sweet potato vines for "real" sweet potatoes [and not the lush foliage used in landscaping] are hard to find in our area). Reading this post just reminded me and I'm going to get some started now.
I usually plant dried beans that I have in my pantry in my garden. My favorites are pinto beans. They are perfect and I can wait to harvest until the pods dry up. Shell them and put them in jars and they're ready to go.
Fun - fun!
I have done hundreds of avocado pits, I find a worm compost bed to be and excellant place to start avocado pits and mango pits as well. You can also start pineapple tops, seeds from papayas and so much more.
I have a "pineapple tree". I planted a pine tree about 20 years ago and I guess the birds dropped seeds from crabapples while perched in the tree. Inside the pine tree branches grows a tall single trunk crab apple tree as tall as the pine tree itself. It's hardly noticeable until the fruits turn bright red each year!
My compost bin is the ultimate in sprouting seeds! Amazing what I've got in the spring.
Nancy
I've grown an Avocado from it's seed before. It grew quite tall (about 8 inches) but then it died and I'm not sure why. I haven't tried since then as I moved to a much colder place where we cannot grow them!
Last year we tried to grow garbanzo, soybean, sorghum and rice in our raised bed gardens. We got the best results from the soybean! We live in southern Idaho.
Jordanne, this book sounds like just what I need. I've tried to start seeds without success. It would be a great help to have some expert information as to how that process works.