The Nitty-Gritty Gardening Book: Fun Projects for All Seasons

by Kari Cornell, Jennifer S. Larson (Photographer)

Overview

Grow your own fruits, vegetables, and flowers! Become a gardener in any season with these fun and easy projects. You don't even need a garden space—many of these activities can be done by planting in containers to set on a porch or a patio or even in a window. Try your hand at growing potatoes and strawberries. Plant bright flowers that attract butterflies, birds, and bees. Learn how to get daffodils to bloom in the winter! You can even make your own compost. Colorful photographs and simple step-by-step drawings make each project easy to follow for gardening success. Ready to get your hands dirty and your garden growing?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467726474
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/01/2015
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	690,336
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	1020L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 10 Years

About the Author

Kari Cornell is a freelance writer and editor who lives in South Minneapolis with her husband and two young boys. When she's not working or spending time with her family, she loves to cook, tinker in the garden, knit, or run. She feels fortunate that she's been able to combine many of the activities she likes to do in her free time with her day job. Cornell is the author of several cookbooks for children, including Cooking the Turkish Way and Cooking the Indonesian Way. She is the co-author of Growing with Purpose: Forty Years of Seward Community Cooperative

Jennifer S. Larson has written many nonfiction books for young readers.

Editorial Reviews

"These simple, inexpensive seasonal projects are designed to inspire minds, busy hands, and yield edifying results....[K]ids will gain a sense of scientific wonder watching their completed activities come to fruition."―School Library Journal

From the Publisher

07/01/2015
Gr 3–6—Whether they have a green thumb or not, kids will enjoy learning about mapping sunlight, testing soil pH, and choosing native plants to fill diverse garden spaces. These simple, inexpensive seasonal projects are designed to inspire minds, busy hands, and yield edifying results. Planting in pots or prepping a patch of yard has never been so fun. A cleverly formatted table of contents lists information on colorful mock plant tags, followed by a thought-provoking introduction. Instructions are clear, complete, and simple. Bright photos accompanied by pen-and-ink sketches provide user-friendly visuals. Whether composting, building stick bean poles, or creating a butterfly garden or terrarium, kids will gain a sense of scientific wonder watching their completed activities come to fruition. VERDICT A solid book for budding ecologists, landscape architects, and horticulturists.—Kathryn Diman, Bass Harbor Memorial Library, Bernard, ME

School Library Journal

2014-12-22
Cornell presents gardening basics and a dozen projects, arranged by season.A six-page introduction establishes good reasons for gardening (producing healthy, colorful food and flowers; providing beneficial habitat for birds and insects). Short overviews begin each section, from spring through winter. Some projects, such as growing a plant from an avocado pit, often appear in children's gardening books. Others, like making an under-sink compost bin with red worms, are more novel. Each activity includes a list of supplies to gather or purchase and instructions laid out in steps (these range in number from six to 13). Cornell encourages children without garden spaces to create container gardens, gearing several projects especially to them. While the author writes well and with expertise, some quibbles can be pegged to the cramped 48-page length. The introduction contains a section on soil testing that reduces this complex topic to three short paragraphs. The plant hardiness zone map is so reduced in size that it's undecipherable. The text type's font is small, and some activities contain complicated steps, such as the instructions for double digging a soil plot in the "Birds and Bees Garden" activity. Many ingredient lists call for "1 bag potting soil" but never stipulate what size to buy. Pleasant photographs by Larson are supplemented with clear diagrams and stock photos. Shortcomings aside, garden projects for preteens are always welcome, and Cornell includes excellent resources for further endeavors. (glossary, bibliography, websites, sources for supplies, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews