Customer Reviews

Don't Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scraps

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have one major problem with this book. I would give it an enthusiastic five stars but for this one oversight: it's very unclear about which plants are decorative and which will actually bear fruit/vegetables. On the cover of the book it shows a recycling triangle symbol with an avocado plant, suggesting that you could run a complete cycle with avocados. I'd be astonished if anyone got an indoor avocado plant to fruit. A few plants explicitly state that you can harvest (herbs, potatoes, and a few others), while a few pretty solidly suggest that they're just decorative, but an awful lot have no mention at all. For those of us with dreams of a mini-windowsill-victory garden, that's frustrating.

Another significant problem is that they'll casually mention when a plant is poisonous (potato, in the case that i recall). No bold face, no larger font, no red warning, just an offhand mention that every part of the potato plant except the potato itself is poisonous. For those of us with pets and children in the house, a little red warning box might be nice.

Beyond those, this is a wonderful book. I have but two west-facing windows in my apartment. No dirt. No patio. Not even any windowboxes. I've found, by trial, error, and luck, a few edible/fruiting plants that i can grow with some success in my windows (hot peppers, bush tomatoes, basil, mint). This book has 68. Sixty-eight. Wow.

And that's not even including hot peppers and tomatoes, which i suppose are less decorative than some of the book's suggestions.

Another omission that i'd love to see rectified in a future version of this book is the damp-paper-towel germination method. They include instruction on starting in water, soil, and gravel, and even have a description of the sphagnum-moss bag method, but for some seeds (avocado, especially), all you need is a dark place, a damp paper towel, and a plastic container. There's no reason to muck around with a sphagnum moss bag for that.

I know that sounds like a lot of criticisms for a book i call wonderful, but trust me, it's wonderful. It could be better, but it's still wonderful. Sixty eight plants!

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.

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.

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.

Last week, after I wrote about growing a tree from a grocery-store purchased avocado, I ran across a gem of a book: Don't Throw It, Grow It! by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam. Who knew you could grow plants from nearly any vegetable or fruit you buy in a grocery store? Not me! But in this volume, the authors give step-by-step instructions for doing just that.

If you have a sunny window, you probably won't need to buy much of anything to grow fruits, herbs, or veggies in your house. If you don't have a sunny window, you'll probably need a grow light (available at almost any gardening center). Aside from produce, the only other things you'll need you may already have around the house: a clear jar, skewers or strong toothpicks, gravel, and potting soil, depending upon the project you're beginning. In addition, many of the projects are marked "Easy," making them ideal for children.

You'll find instructions for growing green beans, beets, carrots, chickpeas, Jerusalem artichokes, lentils, onions, garlic, shallots, peas, potatoes and sweet potatoes, radishes, summer squash, turnips, almonds, avocados, Chinese star apples, various types of citrus fruits, dates, figs, kiwi, mangos, papaya, peanuts, pineapples, pomegranates, anise, caraway, celery, coriander, doll, fennel, mustard, many Latin American and Chinese foods, and more. There are even instructions for making your own bean sprouts. (It seems a bit troublesome to do very often, but appears to be a great project for kids.)

I was surprised to learn that some of plants will produce edible food - although most fruits will grow produce slightly different from the original fruit used (because they are hybrids). The authors are pretty clear about whether you can expect food from the plant, or whether you should only look for lovely foliage and flowers. (Did you know turnips and radishes bloom? Or that sweet potatoes produce flowers that look like morning glories?)

In addition, you'll find instructions on transplanting appropriate plants outside, and ideas for dealing with common houseplant pests.

I'm so glad I ran across the book, and look forward to using it to do many science and gardening projects with my children.

Kristina Seleshanko
Proverbs Thirty One Woman

I got this for my birthday because I wanted to grow plants for Food. The book in informative and has cute pictures. I found that I could have found most of this for the internet and that most of the plants wont produce food.

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.

I am pleased with this book - good ideas which can be implemented even by kids, including lots of little tidbits of general information. No actual photographs, just illustrations, which is fine for this type of activity book. I will be using this for projects in our school's ecology club and gardening groups. It's good for helping people see that the good we eat is useful for more than pure consumption from the grocery store, and helps you plan what else can be done. Kids are especially eager to hear about these types of things, not so set in their ways!

Great book. Enjoying the ideas & suggestions. Well worth buying if you are at all interested in windowsill gardening - even if you don't have a "green thumb." Don't Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scraps