Customer Reviews

Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children

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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.

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."

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!

This really is an enjoyable gardening book. However, since it is
a children's gardening book, I feel caution should be given
concerning some of the plant/seed suggestions.

For example, the sunflower house ingredients include Morning
Glories (part of the Ipomea family). All members of the
Ipomea family have seeds that are mildly to highly toxic. As Morning Glory flowers set seed readily, seeds will abound in the area in which they are planted. This may not be a problem in a
household with older children. For the younger set though, this
could be a poisoning accident waiting to occur.

As well, recommendations for the Moon Garden include jasmine
tobacco, moonflowers and four-o-clocks. Jasmine tobacco (Nicotiana alata) contains a highly toxic alkaloid, nicotine (think cigarettes), which is readily absorbed through ingestion or via contact with scrapes or cuts on the skin from handling the plant. Moonflowers (ipomea alba) belong to the same family as Morning Glories and their seeds should be considered potentially dangerous if eaten in any quantity. Four-o-clocks (mirabilis jalapa)have poisonous seeds and roots.

In the introduction to the book, Lovejoy write "Since children will be touching and eating some of the plants, gardens should never be treated with herbicides, fungicides or pesticides." This is wise counsel, but given the potential natural hazard created by some of the suggested plants in the book, warning should be given to prospective gardeners (of all ages)concerning the caution required when choosing to introduce plants (especially
those that set seed readily) into a child's garden.

This book was an impulse buy for me at a local department store. Boy am I glad I trusted my impulse! This book provides kids with easy to follow garden "recipes". A great book for parents and grandparents who want to share the joys of gardening with the children in their lives. The idea gardens presented make it difficult for kids to resist the urge to get out and grow something in their backyard! My kids are having a hard time deciding which 2 (or 3, or 4) gardens to try this next Spring!

Or better yet, a fork and an old rubber boot. Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots is a veritable journey into gardening with children of all ages. The illustrations will warm your heart and the activities help you to form a special bond with your child. The author has been gardening most of her life. She encourages parents to do the same, and to introduce nature to children from those very first days. Gardening, using Sharon's ideas, is an inexpensive way to teach so much to your child. Tools can be as simple as a spoon or a fork. Everything from gardening gloves to old boots can be used for containers for planting. Gardening teaches life lessons and allows you to spend time next to your child making daily discoveries. Sharon's book is a bargain too. You will get not only a book that is an awakening of the senses to read but one which will provide you with years worth of activities with your child. If you have never gardened before or even if you are a seasoned gardener, this is the book for you. By Carol Laliberte

Sharon Lovejoy probably wasn't the very first gardener to think of creating fairy gardens, pizza gardens, sunflower houses and flower mazes; but I'll give her credit for introducing them to the gardening public like no one else had before or since.

ROOTS, SHOOTS, BUCKETS AND BOOTS is a delightful introduction to gardening for children and the people who cherish them. The book is grounded on the idea that gardening should be shared with kids at a young age, the better to nurture a lifetime of healthy pleasure and respect for nature: therefore, learning how to grow things should be a fun experience, without a lot of restrictions, rules and long waiting to see results. Every project is scaled for children -- with a little help from parents - to be quick, do-able and fun.

Parents will appreciate that the theme gardens in RSB&B will not send them running to the local garden center to charge up a small fortune in tools and materials. In keeping with organic horticultural practices, the author explains simple, homemade composting techniques and recipes to build soil and feed plants. Whenever possible, readers are encouraged to use found objects around the house and garage for cultivating and planting: she gives "permission" to dig and work the soil with spoons and forks, pot up potatoes in colanders and herb gardens in old gardening boots, and find new purpose for rusty old wagons as movable feasts of annual flowers.

Kids can't help but learn quite a bit from their experiences in sowing and growing. The author opens up a world of wonderment that tantalizes kids to learn from the changes and growth taking place. She subtly encourages kids to watch for all the insect and animal life their gardens will attract. RSB&B is densely packed with fun factoids like, "Run your fingers over the pumpkin vines. Farmers use them to protect the plots of other crops" and "If you like the taste of licorice, you won't be able to pass your fennel without nibbling. Fennel is called the weight-watcher's herb because it satisfies an appetite."

Designed with humor and illustrated with charm, RSB&B will prompt people of all ages to rediscover why they love playing outside in the sun, fresh air and dirt.

Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots is a delightful collection of gardening projects and personal experience. Ms. Lovejoy's incredible book not only educates -- it inspires you. It makes you want to get out into the garden and have fun. It's the perfect book for kids and adults. Highly recommend it for anyone who has a child in his/her life -- or for anyone who still has the child within them. Especially wonderful are the illustrations. What a magical book!

Sharon Lovejoy's new book, Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots is another treasure for adults and children alike. The water color illustrations are just the enticement one needs to try new garden projects! Great resource for parents, teachers and anyone who loves to be outdoors with children!

This book is just full of creative and amazing ideas on gardening with children. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and it really inspired me to do more gardening with my little one this year [and I'm looking forward to doing some even more ambitious projects next summer when she's a little older]! I was really impressed with the fantastic ideas and it was very helpful that the author broke everything down into easily achievable steps. This is a GREAT book and I recommend it to anyone who is the least interested in playing in the dirt with their child!