How To Window Box: Small-Space Plants to Grow Indoors or Out Book Review

I received this book free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Chantal Aida Gordon & Ryan Benoit are authors of the popular garden blog, The Horticult. It chronicles their learning experience about gardening and design. I personally love their blog and want to incorporate more of a "plant-infused lifestyle" into my everyday existence.

You don't have to have a lot of space to garden and window boxes create the perfect space for plants both outside and inside your window sill. Chantal Aida Gordon & Ryan Benoit's new book, How To Window Box: Small-Space Plants to Grow Indoors or Out, is a nod towards traditional container gardening, but with some exuberant flair. The book takes window boxes and breaths new life into them.

Book Contents.

This small hardback book is just under 6 x 9 – and less than 180 pages, but has a tremendous amount of  information. There are 16 total designs that this tiny book features: from herbs to succulents to carnivorous plants, to jungle plants to woodland plants and other plants in between. This book has a window box for everyone. Projects range from super simple to challenging. This book shows how to: choose plants, know where to purchase them, arrange them, cultivate them, make window boxes for them, use lighting, know how much to water them, know where these plants will likely thrive, fertilize them, prune them, do other fun projects to maximize your space, etc. The photos are colorful and inviting and help give reference to the plants and completed window box projects.

Inside Sneak Peek.

I am loving this gardening book! I highly recommend it to others that: don't have a lot of space to garden, need more ideas for container gardening, want to bring more plants indoors, want to brighten your window spaces, or just love gardening. I can't wait to try out the projects in this book!

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BUY IT
You can purchase How To Window Box on Amazon for $10.52 (at time of post).



DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Blogging For Books for sending me this book for free to review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Grow Your Own Avocado Tree at Home: AvoSeedo Offer #avoseedo

US Family Guide provided me with this promotional information and offer to share with my readers. I am getting something for free in return for posting this information.


AvoSeedo avocado tree germinator bowl makes it easy for everyone to grow their own plant at home from a simple avocado pit. Easy to use for all ages of amateur avocado arborists, clever AvoSeedo bowl design keeps the avocado pit immersed in just the right amount of water to grow effectively. Made for durability from recyclable, non-toxic materials and is reusable for other vegetables like lettuce, celery, carrot tops! Germinate and grow an avocado tree in your own home, whatever the climate. Fun family (Millennial parents, their young kids, grandma/grandpa) project to make a tree sprout and watch it grow from the pit of a common avocado. Increase kids' understanding of ecology, interconnections in nature, responsibility and care for the environment in a participatory and concrete way.

GROW YOUR OWN AVOCADO TREE AT HOME!
Save 20% on any AvoSeedo avocado grower or other product and enjoy FREE shipping too. Visit the AvoSeedo Shop today and get growing today! https://shop.avoseedo.com/ Use Code: sp20 #avoseedo

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Because I am posting about AvoSeedo I am getting a a voucher for a free AvoSeedo (including free delivery) to anywhere on the continental United States. Thanks to USFamilyGuide.com for providing me this promotion information and free product. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for posting this promo.

Benji & The 24 Pound Banana Squash Book Review and Giveaway

I received this book free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Benji & The 24 Pound Banana Squash is a hardcover children's book that is by bestselling author Alan C. Fox with illustrations by Eefje Kuijl. This adorable book is the story of a child named Benji's experience of growing a banana squash from start to finish. Benji & the 24 Pound Banana Squash is based on a real-life event that happened when Alan Fox was eight. It teaches kids about patience, love, dedication, and perseverance and how much fun it is to grow their own foods.

My kids enjoying our harvests.

Our Thoughts:
Benji & The 24 Pound Banana Squash is a wonderful story of garden-to-table. I love how Benji is so patient even though he sees nothing come from the seed he plants at first. After a while he reaps the reward of his determination and nurturing.

We loved this cute book and its lovely illustrations. The book starts from the beginning where Benji picks the perfect spot in the ground and plants the seed to his family sitting around the table eating the cooked squash with butter and brown sugar. The pictures are fun to look at too. One picture shows Benji trying to dig the hole himself with the shovel and he fell over on his back flinging dirt and earth worms into the air. Another shows his dog bouncing a ball on a small trampoline as Benji carries the large squash inside the house. My kids will treasure this book.

Teela and Zari enjoying the Benji & the 24 Pound Banana Squash book.

I recommend this sweet and endearing story to anyone. It is perfect for those who want to teach their children about where their food comes from or even help them grasp the concepts of being more patient...because it will certainly pay off in the end. It is wonderful for those city folk that want to give a piece of country life to their kids.

BUY IT
Purchase The Benji & the 24 Pound Banana Squash book for $17.95 on Amazon.




WIN IT
Prize: Win a copy of Benji & The 24 Pound Banana Squash Book {US ONLY}

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for Rafflecopter below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this book for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links can be found in this post. Thank you for your support of this blog!

What I Learned At Soil School 2016

Did you know that:

• There are 1 billion organisms in every pinch of soil?
• There are 22 thousand different soil types?
• Mollisols are the most productive soil on the planet? 
• Legumes like fava beans are nitrogen fixing for the soil and are a great cover crop if you need that nutrient? 
• Like your veggie garden you should rotate cover crops too? 
• Some slugs and snails pollinate some plants? 
• Slug/snail slime absorbs 40-100 times its volume in water and therefore the best way to get it off your skin is actually using dirt? 
• 90% of flowering plant reproduction depends upon pollinators?
• There are over 4000 different species of native bees, 600-800 live in Oregon? 
• 70% native bees nest in the ground and need bare dirt? 
• Native plants are 4 times more likely to attract pollinators? 
• The best worms to use for vermicompost and a worm bin is the red wiggler or Eisenia fetida? 
• The ideal conditions for the worms in vermiculture is keeping them in a shallow bin with air holes and drainage holes in 59-77 degree temperature, 75% moisture, slightly acid PH, lots of oxygen, grit for their digestion, and their favorite compostable foods added?

I learned all this and more at Soil School, which is offered every year in Portland Oregon for farmers with small farms, landscapers, gardeners, grounds managers and anyone else who wants to improve their soil. I learned about it through my Master Gardeners Program. It is a jam packed learning day with a complimentary breakfast, snacks, and lunch. It costs $30 for a single person and $50 for two people.

This year it was held at the Portland Community College Rock Creek Event Center on April 16th, 2016 from 8am-3:30pm. My husband and I signed up. We all where treated to the "not to be missed" key note speaker, James "Dr. Soil" Cassidy who taught all about, yes you guessed it, SOIL! Then we broke up into our various classes of which we had to pick 4 each out of the 12 offered.

I took Using Cover Crops, Slugs & Snails, Planting for Pollinators, and Vermiculture. My husband, Brian, took Soil Testing & Analysis, Irrigation, Invasive Weed I.D. and Organic Weed Control. Then after we compared notes and I brought home a lot of printed information, a lawn sign and some other cool swag. We had a lot of fun and learned a bunch! Brian also won a door prize at the end which was a boot brush and scraper combo! We can definitely use that on our farm!

Classes and Speakers: 

• Key Note, Soil Structure/Composition/Test Analysis: James "Dr. Soil" Cassidy (OSU Soil Instructor)
• Soil Testing & Analysis, Landscaping with Native Plants: Weston Miller (OSU Extension)
• Using Cover Crops: Kim Galland (NRCS)
• Organic Weed Control, Lawn Conversion: Mary Logalbo (West Multnomah  SWCD)
• Stormwater Management: Clair Klock (Clackamas SWCD)
• Composting/Organic Matter: Dave Alba, PNW Organic Land Care Coalition
• Slugs & Snails: Claudia Groth, OSU Master Gardener
• Planting For Pollinators: Kammy Kern-Korot, West Multnomah  SWCD
• Irrigation: Dean Moberg  (NRCS)
• Vermiculture: Glen Andresen (Metro Area Master Gardener)
• Invasive Weed I.D.: Rob Emanuel, (Clean Water Services)

Sponsors:

• East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District  
• Tualatin Soil & Water Conservation District 
• West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District  
• Oregon Tilth 
• OSU Small Farms Program
• OSU (Oregon) Master Gardener Program 
• Metro Master Gardeners

The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden Book Review

Spring is almost over and summer is just around the corner. I cannot believe how the time has flown by so quickly!  My Mother's Day garden is growing very well. I still have a lot to do, but the main part is out of the way. Weeds still need pulled around my flowers, the soil needs tended to, and more seeds need sown and planted. I absolutely love growing in raised beds and containers because it means a lot less weeding. I love gardening! It is a favorite pastime of mine. Digging my hands into the soil and feeling the earth beneath me, relaxes me. It has always had this calming effect on me. 

The newly revised edition (which now includes a whole chapter dedicated to heirloom vegetables and herbs) of the Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden book by Karen Newcomb is a great resource with a lot of ideas to grow tons of organic vegetables in small spaces and in containers. This book is a very practical do-it-yourself (DIY) guide. In the beginning there is an introduction which introduces the history of small gardens. Eight chapters covering different topics, from planning your garden to controlling pests and other maladies, follow to host the bulk of knowledge being put forth. An appendix a and b containing how to compost and seed sources, a glossary, about the author, and an index ends the book.

Table Of Contents

Introduction   1
Chapter 1 Planning Your Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden   5
Chapter 2 The Postage Stamp Soil Mix   35
Chapter 3 Getting Your Ground Ready   43
Chapter 4 When and How to Plant   50
Chapter 5 Watering Your Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden   64
Chapter 6 Heirloom Vegetables and Herbs You’ll Love to Grow   68
Chapter 7 Plants That Like Each Other   165
Chapter 8 Controlling Pests, Diseases, and Critters   172
Appendix A How to Compost   186
Appendix B Seed Sources   195
Glossary   204
About the Author   211
Index   212

In retrospect, I really should have read The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden book before I planted my garden. Since it got a late start though, I was rushing to get everything in the ground. I went with a more conventional row design which isn't really the best way to plant. This book could have helped me tremendously in: planning the arrangement of my garden and maximizing my crop production.

I love that this book makes it easy to have a garden in a very small plot that produces a lot while taking very little work and water. Karen Newcomb recommends beds that are 4 by 4 feet minimum to 10 by 10 feet maximum. She also states that from a 5 by 5 foot bed you can produce a minimum of 200 pounds of vegetables, if it is properly prepared and maintained. This is really amazing if you think about it. There are also some very helpful crop stretching techniques that are talked about in the book like: French Intensive Biodynamic Gardening in a small space, vertical gardening, intercropping, succession planting, catch cropping, container gardening, raised bed gardening, window sill/box gardening, patio gardening, companion planting, etc. The book also talks about taking advantage of better planting times: planting by season, zones, and moon cycles. Watering techniques, soil enriching techniques, and how to organically get rid of or deter: pests, diseases, and critters that might devour your garden are also included in this book. I loved the part of this book that covered other plants to consider growing because I am well aware of the advantages of adding pretty edible flowers and plants that attract beneficial bugs and hummingbirds to pollinate and possibly eat some pests. I love the idea of having a garden also for the hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, etc.

The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden book has great garden plans, charts, and tips to keep your garden growing gorgeously. I will just mention that if you like a lot of color photos or pretty pictures this will not be the book for you because it uses a simplistic three color (browns, grays, and greens) printing process for the drawings and charts throughout the book.

There is so much to consider when planning a garden. I wish more people out there would grow their own food because the benefits are just so great! The benefits of growing your own organic garden include: better health, less stress, feeling better, saving money, getting fresh air and exercise, eating healthier and safer and saving the environment. Even someone living in the city with very little space really doesn't have an excuse. This book is chocked full of helpful information to maximize yield organically and ecologically friendly in small spaces. I would recommend anyone who wants to have a wonderful organic garden to read this book, especially those who don't know where to start because they are just in the beginning stages.

BUY IT


DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program for free in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for posting this review. This post contains affiliate links which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and make a purchase. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Wordless Wednesday Memorial Planting of a Tree

We lost our goat suddenly to illness on the 9th of February.

We buried our goat and planted a tree out in the field to remember him by. We will miss Goatee/Hedge, as my children fondly called him.

Free Burt's Bees Wildflower Seed Packets For Pollinator Week

Photo courtesy of: Burt's Bees. Information about the promotion was provided free as well. All other thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any compensation for doing this post.

Bees are important to our life cycle. They pollinate the plants we and other animals eat. We live in a world that unfortunately favors lawns, monoculture and pavement. The bees need our help to survive and thrive.

Burt's Bees is giving away free wildflower seed packs. Plant these to give your outdoors some color and the bees a feast. You can also get tips on how you can go wild for bees, and learn what Burt's Bees is doing to help our favorite pollinators.

Sent by mail within 6-8 weeks | Subject to availability, while supplies last | Limit one per household | Valid only in the U.S. 

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Photo courtesy of: Burt's Bees. Information about the promotion was provided free as well. All other thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any compensation for doing this post. I did register to receive a free seed packet for my garden.

Earth Day Freebies, Activites, and Events 2013

If you look around you can find all sorts of fun FREE Earth Day activities and events that are going on around where you live. Here are some I have found that most of my readers can participate in. 

© Day2Day Printing
1. You can get a FREE set of 4 Earth Day Cards at Day2Day Printing. These cards have seeds embedded into them and are biodegradable and earth friendly. If you plant them the seeds will grow.

2. Pottery Barn Kids has a free in store event on Saturday April 20 - Monday April 22. Go to your local store to get a FREE packet of seeds to plant (while supplies last). Plus the proceeds from of select lunch products will go to Trees for the Future. Find a nearby store to you to participate. There are other in store events there also throughout the year.

3. Jo-Ann Fabrics and Craft Stores has a free in store event on Sunday April 21 from 2-3pm at participating stores. You can make a FREE Make It-Take It Earth Day Planter.

© Target
4. At Target you can get a FREE reusable shopping bag (while supplies last) at participating stores the day before Earth Day on April 21st.

5. At the Disney Store you can get a FREE Brave or Cars 2 Reusable Bag when you come in and recycle 5 plastic shopping bags (while supplies last) on April 22.

6. At participating Michaels Stores on April 20 celebrate Earth Day and learn how you can upcycle your old T-shirts into trendy and fashionable accessories for FREE when you register at your local store.

7. At the Home Depot you can register online for their FREE in store event on April 20 from 10am-11:30am to Learn how to build and maintain a "Flower Tower".

© IKEA
8. IKEA Portland is having some fun Earth Day Events. If you don't live local to Portland, Oregon try your local store. On April 2 - June 23 you can donate $1 to plant a tree with American Forests while you are in the checkout line. On April 22 from 5am - 7pm IKEA Portland will be having a FREE Shred Day. Bring up to two boxes or bags of paper to be safely and securely shredded in their parking lot then recycled at no cost to you.

9. April 22 - April 26 is National Park Week and National Parks are FREE to experience during this time. You do not have to pay an entrance fee. So get outdoors!

10. Portland, Oregon is having some fun FREE local events for Earth Day for those of you that live nearby. Some are free on these lists... Red Tricycle, PDX Pipeline, Radio Disney Portland's Team Green, Around the Sun, NW Kids, PDX Kids Calendar

11. Cowlitz County in Washington is having a FREE event at the Cowlitz County Expo Center on April 20 from 10:00 am - 3:30 pm. Activities include steel drums, trout pond, whirly bird, gyroscope, rock wall, petting farm, reptile roadshow, wildlife rehab trailer, planetarium, OMSI, and historical society recycled crafts, to name a few.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I wrote this blog post because I thought you might be interested in knowing this information and taking part of these fun activities. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any compensation for doing this post.

Wordless Wednesday Garden Seedlings

Here is a little green for St. Patrick's Day...the starts of my garden. If you look out the window you can see the big patch of dead grass in our backyard...that is going to be tilled and become our garden :)

If you are participating in Wordless Wednesdays, click on the Mister Linky image, enter your name and URL in the form, and press Enter.

Nature's Bounty

I have planted a large garden in my backyard and had the boys help with planting, weeding, and watering. My boys love helping me out in the garden. I looked out there today and two of the yellow crookneck squash were ready to harvest. We picked them and a whole bunch of Oregon Giant peas. Take a look...