Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children [Hardcover]

Sharon Lovejoy (Author)

Book Description

Plant a pumpkinseed with a child, and cultivate wonder. This simple act of reconnecting with children with nature is Sharon Lovejoy's purpose and joy and gift. Author of Sunflower Houses: Garden Discoveries for Children of All Ages and Hollyhock Days: Garden Adventures for the Young at Heart, Sharon Lovejoy is a nationally known garden writer whose books, television specials, and projects at her learning landscape in California have introduced thousands of children to the pleasures of gardening.

In her newest book, Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots, she presents 12 spirited, easy-to-implement ideas for theme gardens that parents and kids can grow together. Illustrated throughout by the author's own lyrical watercolors, each garden includes a plan, the planting recipe -- seeds, seedlings, and growing instructions spelled out step-by-step -- and activities. There's the Pizza Patch , a giant-size wheel garden planted in "slices" of tomatoes, zucchini, oregano, and basil. A Flowery Maze to get lost in. A Moon Garden of night-blooming flowers, including a moonflower tent. And Mother Nature's Medicine Chest.

Discovery Walks teach kids how the gardens work, and a chapter on gardening basics includes a child-friendly 10-Minute Plan for planting and maintenance, plus a list of the top 20 plants guaranteed to make gardeners out of kids.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Green thumbs and non-green thumbs alike will fall in love with Roots, Shoots, Buckets, & Boots, a remarkably fun and informative introduction to the wonderful world of gardening--and more specifically, gardening with children. Learn how to make everything from a pizza garden (pizza-pie-shaped, with herbs and vegetables for a fabulous pizza at harvest time), to a sunflower house (a secret hideaway with stately sunflowers and lovely creeping morning glories), to a moon garden ("Fragrance is the color of night"). Chock full of helpful hints, clever and artistic touches, and intriguing "recipes" (Moth Broth and Compost Sandwich, to name a few), this idea book will spark creativity and a lifelong fascination with gardening. Nine concepts for theme gardens are presented in a clearly defined yet non-rigid manner that is just right for encouraging young gardeners. Sharon Lovejoy, award-winning author and illustrator of several gardening books, including Hollyhock Days: Garden Adventures for the Young at Heart, has a true knack for working with all kinds of living things, including children. She understands how quickly young people will be turned off by inflexible rules, and instead encourages budding green thumbs to experiment and explore, while providing them with useful guidelines and helpful information. Wonderfully earthy watercolors make this cozy book even more welcoming. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-4-A compact treasury of gardening lore, tips, and ideas for adults to share with children. What sets it apart from other how-to books on the subject is Lovejoy's artistic, whimsical, holistic approach. She gives guidelines and instructions for a backyard moon garden that attracts night creatures, thematic suggestions for a pizza garden and a pumpkin patch, and includes the smallest of gardens in a discarded glove or boot. The author's list of top 20 plants for kids will get youngsters and their parents raring to dig. While some of the recommended plants are unusual, a generous resource list complete with addresses, phone numbers, and Web sites should make ordering easy. Other novel, thrifty advice includes how to harvest seeds and how to make your own seed tape with toilet paper, flour paste, and seeds. The sunny illustrations, informative sidebars, and nuggets of wisdom illuminate the text. Readers can almost picture Mother Nature leaning over Lovejoy's shoulder advising: "Don't forget herbal remedies" (she doesn't) or "Do include craft ideas" (she does-from a prosaic worm box to fanciful dream pillows).
Marilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 159 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761117652
• ISBN-13: 978-0761117650
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,369,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For the first seven years of her life, Sharon Lovejoy was introduced to the wonders of nature by her Quaker grandmother Abigal Lovejoy, a botanist and an educator. As an adult, Sharon's passion for the natural world guided her to become an award winning nature, gardening, and children's book author and watercolor illustrator.

As a graduate with Distinction in the Field of Art from San Diego State University, Sharon successfully combined her training in art with her love of botany and natural science. She worked as a docent naturalist for the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History and for the Smithsonian Institution in the lagoons of Baja, California.

In 1982, she founded Heart's Ease Herb Shop & Gardens in Cambria, California, where she shared her love and knowledge of nature and ethnobotany with visitors for the next 15 years.

Sharon's home, business, and display gardens first captured national attention on the cover of the August 1990 issue of Country Living magazine. Since then, her home and garden creations have appeared in numerous books and magazines, and she has been a guest on countless radio and television shows from coast to coast, including NBC's Today, HGTV, and The Victory Garden on PBS.

In 1991, Interweave Press published her first book Sunflower Houses: Garden Discoveries for Children of All Ages,a recollection of the influence from her Grandmother Lovejoy and the inspiration that has introduced tens of thousands of children to the wonders of nature through gardening.

From 1993 to 2006, Sharon wrote and illustrated the award winning, regular feature column "Heart's Ease" in Country Living GARDENER magazine. She currently is the Southern California regional contributor for the popular Lowe's home improvement store "Garden Grow Along" blog and a frequent contributor to Farming magazine.

Sharon has been a consultant for the Reader's Digest Association and a children's garden design consultant at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in San Francisco, the  Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College in El Cajo, California, and for EDAW, one of the world's leading landscape architectural firms (now AECON), at the Red Butte Botanical Gardens in Salt Lake City and the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. In 1996, she was chosen to design the Children's Gardening Pavilion for the highly respected Cincinnati Flower and Garden Show. She currently serves on the National Children and Youth Garden Advisory Panel of the American Horticultural Society.

As a recognized gardening expert, Sharon has lectured throughout the United States at conferences, educational symposia, museums, botanic gardens, arboreta, public and private educational institutions, and for professional trade associations and gardening organizations.

Her professional affiliations include The Authors Guild, Inc., Garden Writers Association, Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and American Horticultural Society. In 1995, Sharon served as President of the International Herb Association.

For her contributions to education, Sharon received the Key to the City of Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Gold Leaf Award from the Santa Clara Department of Education at the Kindergarten Forum in Saratoga, California. Her writings have been reprinted in educational and testing publications in English and Spanish.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New ideas for kid-friendly gardens, March 19, 2001

By 

"alight" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children (Paperback)

This book does more than just suggest seeds to plant or tools to buy--it's full of the coolest garden designs I've ever seen that are focused on kid fun. Lovejoy presents a large number of gardens based around a central theme- some edible with veggies and herbs, some aimed more at flowers. Each theme includes a list of plants for different zones and a garden-related project or two that brings new dimensions to history, nutrition, science, cooking, ecology or art for your kids. Several of them revolve around a "tent" frame that needs a couple of adults to build it; it's sort of like a teepee, but with more supports. Once the frame is built, you can add a variety of different vines to create anything from a "night garden" tent of scented white flowers to a thickly-screened shade tent for hot summer days. Since the frame can be covered with annuals, you can plan a different garden each year. There's ideas for traditional knot gardens, proper composting, flowers for craft activities, and unusual and easy-to-grow edibles, and it's easily possible to combine a couple of Lovejoy's themes to creat your own. Lots of basics on plant care are included--even if you've never really gardened before, you can handle these layouts if you don't mind getting dirty. You also don't have to have a huge yard to apply some of these ideas; some of the projects can even happen in balcony containers. It's a great gift for your own kids or any other family you know who likes to have fun outside, and by far the best kid gardening book I've ever seen.

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go no further..., March 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children (Hardcover)

This book put an end to my search for a GREAT gardening book to which my boys,ages 4&7, could immediately relate.The beautiful and precise detail of the illustrations grabbed their attention and stimulated many great ideas for how the imaginative plans and designs could be used in our raised garden. The suggestions for creating special little spaces such as the canopied walkway using morning glories grown up the sunflower stalks or the gourd tee-pee with the snap bean entry way really got them excited. What's great is that no suggestion is too complicated for a small child's first time gardening attempt or so simple as to be dull or predictable for an older child or adult. I 'm really enjoying the garden tips that I've never come across in my 15 or so years of gardening. I've recommended this book to a farmer friend and a long-time teacher who also found this book to enchanting. The authors could teach a thing or two to most authors of adult gardening books as well. This really is a "must have."

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gardening Adventures, September 5, 2000

By 

"mancill" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children (Paperback)

Reading this book is like exploring a garden; there are new discoveries every time you look. Much more than a "how-to" garden book, "Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together With Children" takes you and your child on a gardening adventure. Author Sharon Lovejoy weaves garden planning, plant care, nature explorations, science, art, and storytelling into creative garden themes.

For example, the Moon Garden features fragrant, luminous flowers twining around a pole tent. Sit in the tent at night to discover that "fragrance is the color of night." Along the way, learn which animals are active at night, how to tell the temperature by listening to crickets, and how to attract moths with homemade moth broth. At the end of the season, hold a seed-saving party.

In the Zuni Waffle Garden, "dig into the ancient traditions of Native American gardeners and harvest some of their best ideas for your own backyard." Learn about waxing and waning moon cycles, plant the "Three Sisters of Life" like the Iroquois, and sing a traditional Indian song to your plants. Finish off the season with a harvest celebration by making Indian corn jewelry and cornstalk animals.

The author's enchanting watercolors are a perfect match to the text, and even children who cannot read will enjoy looking at the colorful garden images.

In Gardening Basics, Lovejoy's straightforward, concise explanations are perfect for beginning gardeners of any age. Get to know your soil, learn about organic gardening methods, and discover why compost is "garden health food." Garden maintenance is tailored to kids with the ten-minute plan and an explorer's kit.

You'll buy the book for the imaginative theme gardens; you and your child will keep coming back to it for the tidbits of advice and activities sprinkled throughout book. Don't plan a child's garden without this book!