Don't Throw It, Grow It!: 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps

Wish I could remember who told me about this delightful book so I could thank them directly. Essentially a manual of plant propagation for some of the more unusual edibles out there, this book is sweet, delightful, fun and effective. I have a successful pineapple-crown start thanks to this book, after trying and failing using other instructions in the past. Very well-written and highly recommended to anyone interested in edible gardening or self-sufficiency.

You've come from the suburbs and liked the gardens and thought about a nice hoseplant for your city apartment window, but budget is limited and they cost so much at the florist and you don't know what will grow...here is the answer. From what would otherwise would be kitchen waste,you can have wonderful plants. This book will give you all the information you need to be successful at almost no cost. Should you get inspired to learn more along the way, the book will keep on being rewarding. The only possible problem is you may soon want a bigger apartment with more windows.

I have read hundreds of gardening books by hundreds of experts who know little about teaching - this author not only understands her subjects and her biology, she know how to teach it because she understands WHY her students want and need to know this information. She teaches, not only how to germinate these seeds of fruits, but why they germinate and how they grow. She teaches the promise that every seed will live a happy and fruitfull life with the promise of its own progeny. That is happy gardening and the joy and confidence of growing something beautiful from "the pits". I am giving a copy of this book to every budding gardener I know. Thank you and kudos to the author.

You can't recycle organics, only paper, plastic, and glass -- or can you? "Don't Throw It, Grow It! 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps" is a novel but effective guide to turning ordinary household organic garbage into a thriving personal garden. "Don't Throw It, Grow It!" promotes the ability to take the remains of countless vegetables and nuts such as almonds, celery, kiwis, squash, and others, plant them, and grow them once more into food. The veggies can then be consumed again, repeating the cycle anew. A conservationist's manual of efficiency, "Don't Throw It, Grow It!" is highly recommended for community library gardening collections.

While it's not really a cooking book, this little gem (6 ¼" x 7 ½") is a great resource for anyone--most especially teachers--who want to introduce the world of sprouting seeds and growing them to mature plants to their students. It was originally published as The Don't Throw It, Grow It Book of Houseplants (Random House, 1977), and with the Storey Touch it comes alive. As you read through the directions for each kind of seed and how best to grow it, it's likely you will think of Lois Ehlert's Growing Vegetable Soup as a likely source of seeds to grow and a read-aloud to start with. In addition to the obvious plants a classroom could grow using the author's simple "sphagnum bag" (a zip lock bag with sphagnum moss) method there are simple, encouraging directions for more exotic challenges like mango, ginger, papaya, avocado and persimmon. Why grow just beans when you can get your kids watching sesame seeds, mustard seeds and lentils? I didn't even know peanuts could be sprouted, or that pomegranates actually would grow inside the house. Among the projects to encourage hopeful botany projects you'll find sugar cane, taro, water chestnuts and jicama. Whoda thunkit? The directions are simple and include botanical name, plant type (Annual, perennial, bush, vine, bulb, tuber) and whether it's a quick growth prospect or not, whether you can grow it from seed (almost all of them), and how much light is required. What it looks like is an important section ab out what it grows up to be, but unfortunately, the illustrations are only simple line drawings. The projects that are truly easy have a little 'easy' label. Each seed has a sidebar telling its country of origin, and a small text section on eating it or cooking with it. The introductory text tells how the authors (both New Yorkers) would prowl around ethnic food stores back in the "old days" even before even the invention of the local mega-mart, looking for exotic new possibilities in the food aisles of small groceries. The Pits (an organization of pit-growers and pit-savers of which Deborah Peterson is the founder, newsletter editor and tireless missionary mother) also known as the Rare Pit and Plant Council is acknowledged at the end of the book, which I found reassuring because they did a delightful calendar a couple of years back with detailed instructions on sprouting pits of the most exotic types, to encourage even a black-thumb like me to partake of the magic of seeds and growth. Like the book says on the cover, "It's kitchen magic!" Share that magic with your students.