You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening

by Gayla Trail

Overview

This is not your grandmother's gardening book. You Grow Girl is a hip, humorous how-to for crafty gals everywhere who are discovering a passion for gardening but lack the know-how to turn their dreams of homegrown tomatoes and fresh-cut flowers into a reality.
Gayla Trail, creator of YouGrowGirl.com, provides guidance for both beginning and intermediate gardeners with engaging tips, projects, and recipes -- whether you have access to a small backyard or merely to a fire escape. You Grow Girl eliminates the intimidation factor and reveals how easy and enjoyable it can be to cultivate plants and flowers even when resources and space are limited. Divided into accessible sections like Plan, Plant, and Grow, You Grow Girl takes readers through the entire gardening experience:

• Preparing soil
  
• Nurturing seedlings
  
• Fending off critters

• Reaping the bounty
  
• Readying plants for winter
  
• Preparing for the seasons ahead

Gayla also includes a wealth of ingenious and creative projects, such as:

• Transforming your garden's harvest into lush bath and beauty products
  
• Converting household junk into canny containers
  
• Growing and bagging herbal tea
  
• Concocting homemade pest repellents

...and much, much more.
Witty, wise, and as practical as it is stylish, You Grow Girl is guaranteed to show you how to get your garden on. All you need is a windowsill and a dream!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439103517
Publisher:	Touchstone
Publication date:	06/16/2008
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	34 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Gayla Trail created her acclaimed gardening website,YouGrowGirl.com, in 2000. A graphic designer, writer, photographer, and gardener, she has contributed to BUST and ReadyMade magazines as a gardening guru. She lives in Toronto.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction

• In the Beginning • Getting Gardening Fever

Chapter One: Plan

Spaces and Places

• Whatcha Got • Growing Guerrilla • Defining Space • Blazing Trails • Rustic Woven Twig Fence • Homegrown Stones • What to Do with a Chunk of Dirt • Planning and Design • Designing with Containers • Planter Box

Getting Your Fix without Getting Burned

• Who to Bring Home • Tag Decoding • Annuals, Biennials, Perennials • Plant Science

Chapter Two: Plant

Soiled Again

• All About pH • Nutrients and Deficiencies • Texture • Texture Tests • Making Good Dirt • Making Compost • Mulch: Love it or Leave it

Container Planting

• Choosing Container Soil • What's in Container Mix • Mulching Containers • Growing in Containers • Edible Flower Container • Chive Blossom-Infused Vinegar • Healthier Candied Flowers • Growing in a Window Box

Gearing Up

• A Guide to Can't-Live-Without-Them Tools • Caring for Your Tools • Not Your Grandmother's Gardening Apron

Planting Seeds

• Seed-Starting Basics • Suitable Containers • Sowing • Labeling • Make a Copper Tag Holder • Light • Fertilizing • Thinning • Hardening Off • Protecting Your Babies

One, Two, Three, Plant

• Ground Planting • Container Planting • Companion Planting • Chalkboard Pots

Chapter Three: Grow

Good Growing Basics

• Growing Organic • Light • Water and Humidity • Simple Irrigation System • Succulent Container • Fertilizing • Organic Fertilizers • Become a Plant Whisperer • Rank Tea • Foliar Feeding • Subterranean Worm World • Pruning • All About Staking • Weeds

Here Comes Trouble

• Gardening with Insects • Good Bugs, Bad Bugs • Six Pest- Protection Pointers • Send In the Troops • Plants That Eat Meat • Pest Prophylactics • Natural Insect Control Products • Kitchen Concoctions: Pest Repellents • Animal Critters • Cat Garden • Chicken Wire Cloche • Diseases • What Ails Them: Common Plant Diseases • Organic Disease Remedies • Troubleshooting • Kitchen Concoctions: Disease Remedies

Growing Food

• Container Farming • Pretty Delicious • Potted Tomatoes • Herbal Tea Garden • Easy-Sew Tea bags

Chapter Four: Bounty

Collecting the Booty

• Herbs • Leafy Greens • Fruits and Vegetables • Harvest Tips • Green Tomato Chutney • Eat Less Dirt: Washing Herbs and Produce

Until Tomorrow

• Freezing • Oily Herb Paste • Drying • How to Dry Herbs • Storing Dried Herbs

Bath & Beauty Plants

• Body Food • Peppermint Foot Scrub • Herbal Hair Rinse • Gardener's Healing Hand Salve • Loofah Bath Scrub

Seed Harvest

• Smackdown: Open Pollinated vs. Hybrids • Seed Harvest How-to • Harvesting Vegetable Seeds • Fermenting Tomato Seeds • Storing Seeds • Putting Them to the Test • Seed Packets

Your Babies Making Babies

• Division • Cuttings

Chapter Five: Chill

Reflections

• Ch-ch-changes • Get to Learning • Garden Memory Journal • Make Your Own Bookcloth

All the Leaves Are Brown

• Fall Pruning

The Big Chill

• In-Ground Gardens • Potted Gardens • Keeping Them Cold • Salt Protection • Here Comes the Sun • Winter Prep Checklist

Appendix
• Glossary • Resources • USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Templates

Editorial Reviews

Reaching a new audience, this gardening book is as fresh and funky as the web site that inspired it. A professional print designer before turning to web design, Trail couldn't find gardening information geared toward young, hip, frugal, urban gardeners like herself, so she used her skills to create YouGrowGirl.com in early 2000. Like the acclaimed site, the book is artsy but informative. Highly appropriate for beginners, it covers the basics of planning, planting, growing, harvesting, and reflecting on your garden successes. Trail's organic and inexpensive methods for growing flowers, food, and herbs are practical for postage stamp-sized yards or even city fire escapes. Interspersed are offbeat projects like pest prophylactics, home-sewn tea bags, and a garden memory journal made of recycled materials. The creative design uses a nice combination of drawings and photos, while the author's edgy attitude and language are reminiscent of clever, suburban garden writer Cassandra Danz. Though other organic gardening books are prevalent, this introduction is recommended to public libraries catering particularly to twentysomethings and small-space gardeners.-Bonnie Poquette, Milwaukee Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal