Y’all know I’m no green thumb. But I like to try, even if things don’t always turn out the way I’d hoped. And I especially like to spend time in the garden with The Explorers.
Although the title doesn’t suggest it, Project Garden: A Month-by-Month Guide to Planting and Enjoying ALL Your Backyard Has to Offer is a guide to exploring your garden with kids.
Master gardener, nature lover and author Stacy Tornio believes that no matter where you live and what time of year it is, there are always new ways to introduce your kids to gardening. This book includes more than 175 such activities for the entire family. Looks like I’ve got some work to do.
Project Garden comes complete with a month-by-month guide to exploring your garden in a variety of ways:
- Grow It offers planting recommendations and general gardening advice,
- Plant It provides creative ideas for planting,
- Eat It gives you recipes for enjoying the very things you grow in your garden,
- Recycle It includes earth-friendly nature crafts and activities, and
- Make It has step-by-step instructions for nature-inspired projects.
Worried you might not be up for a certain task? Tornio’s got you covered. Each section and activity comes complete with a “spade” rating so you can put your skills to their best use.
If you’re interested in making more out of your garden space, Project Garden can help. Jump right in to May for ideas on what to plant, creating garden art and cooking up your green beans; or you can skip ahead to see what Tornio has in store for the summer.
The Nitty Gritty on Project Garden
I like that Project Garden provides a month-by-month guide to exploring the garden with kids. It’s a great way to help you know what to plant when. And all the creative ideas for make a nature connection are a nice bonus. Even though I’m not much of a foodie, including recipes in a gardening book just makes sense.
My only real gripe is that in many cases, the suggested plants in the Grow It section aren’t recommended in my zone (Southern California). Bummer.
Here’s the low-down:
- Tons of color photographs throughout the book – I especially appreciate that there is a photo for each of the suggested plants, since I’m not on a first name basis with most just yet
- Activities include a “spade” rating (aka difficulty level) so you know what you’re getting yourself into
- Plenty of interesting how-tos, fun facts, top secret tips and other interesting information sprinkled throughout
- Retails for less than $13 (Kindle version also available)
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| Recycle It: Tennis racket garden art |
The Giveaway
Author Stacy Tornio has kindly agreed to provide a free, signed copy of Project Garden to one lucky reader!
To enter, leave a comment sharing your favorite thing to grow or do with kids in your garden. Good luck!
- This giveaway will run through midnight PST on Sat., May 12, 2012.
- You must include an email address with your comment. Entries without an email address will not be included.
- This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.
- The winner will be chosen using the nifty random number generator at random.org.
- Winner will have 24 hours to reply to my notification. If I don’t hear back after that, I’ll pick another winner.
Note: I received a free copy of Project Garden in exchange for providing my honest review with you. Read my full disclosure policy for more information.
SORRY KNOW IT'S TO LATE BUT <br />cmoody2@columbus.rr.com
Don't forget to leave an email address to complete your entry. Thanks!
This year we are growing a bean teepee! The plants are almost ready to start climbing the poles. I also just planted the marigolds and forget-me-nots in a big plastic rope handle tub. The kids got me the seeds for Mother’s Day. 🙂 kc28570@yahoo.com
We grow a veggie garden and sunflowers. The sunflowers will be planted as a sunflower hut. The children love to play and draw in it!
We're growing sunflowers now and loving them — cherry tomatoes are lots of fun too & instant gratification. This book has been on my wish list, would love to win a signed copy
what a great giveaway! I would love this book. Last year I enjoyed successfully making a sunflower house with my students. rebbeccajackson@yahoo.com
We're currently in the process of making our yard into a wildlife habitat. My son and I have been having fun in the garden putting in native plants and creating homes for the animals. Email is lindabernardi(at)ymail(dot)com
My son loves the flowers and rolly-pollies in our garden, we have large collections of each. Email is bl(dot)norman29@yahoo.com
My boys and I love to look for bugs or "buried treasure" while gardening! email is memefe(at)gmail(dot)com.
No garden yet, but we are in the planning stages. We've finished some small planters of spinach and we're ready to tackle more. We love the fact that the kids are picking their own vegetable to grow and care for. Plus – more time outdoors!<br /><br />Justin contact(at)packofwolfs(dot)com
We love to grow grape tomatoes and peas! They eat them right off the vine.<br />Danette (decjec@yahoo.com)
Ooh, this book looks great! We make sure our garden always has some ready-to-eat component for the kids: snap peas, chives (they love them!), strawberries, and cherry tomatoes usually get us through the season with maximum kid graze-ability. 🙂 My email address is kwatrous(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks for this great giveaway!
Our favorite things to grow in the garden are tomatoes and cucumbers, my families favorites…I try to include them in as many meals as possible. And when they are so readily accessible the kids love it! They really enjoy the digging and making fun hide-outs for the beneficials. 🙂 lyssasletters@hotmail.com
I love to garden with my kids! Everything about it is fun, but perhaps my favorite part is harvesting… then eating food straight from the garden! (mycreativepathway@gmail.com)
My favorite thing to grow in the garden is anything that the kids can just pick and eat! cherry tomatoes, fresh snow peas, strawberries and green beans. We always grow a large garden, and my kids actually have there own small garden that they plant and maintain. They love to help plant, and water and especially eat all the goodies we harvest!! Thanks for the chance!<br />enchantedtree(at)
My 4 year old loves to dig in the dirt and help with the gardening. He has been wanting to start a vegetable garden of his own and I think we are going to give it a shot! This book looks awesome 🙂 thehikingmama@yahoo.com
i love gardening with my 4 year old son. Every step, from digging to watering, is always new and exciting to him and this warms my soul. <br />moguajardo@yahoo.com
Pam, can you please provide an email address to complete your entry? Thank you!
ive been wanting that book! love the tennis racket garden art! going to look for some rackets at the thrift store.
whoops: mountainmamatales(at)gmail(dot)com
Oh what a great idea! I would love to use this with my boys! We honestly don't have a garden yet, but I envision lots of room for digging, weeding, truck-driving and eating veggies! 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway!!! Oh and we LOVE to dig in the dirt!
I love to just be outside with the kids and we explore, plant and have tons of fun….<br />Pam