Idea Book for Gardeners Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed.  Go here to see who won.

I get a lot of email requests to endorse different products, write reviews and host giveaways.  Everything from bow ties (yes, indeed) to scrap-booking software to homeschool curriculum.  While I would love to help everyone, I politely turn down almost all of these requests.  Often, the items in question don't have anything to do with what I write about here but even when they do, I hesitate to promote things that I don't already love and/or that would make you, my dear readers, feel like you must buy something.

All this said, when I was contacted by Herrick Kimball about his book, The Planet Whizbang Idea Book for Gardeners, I was intrigued.  First of all, I've used the word 'whizbang' more than a time or two in my lifetime but have rarely heard anyone else use it.  Secondly, his book appeared to be right up our alley.

"An eclectic selection of inspiring project plans, useful tips, and how-to advice for people who enjoy growing their own food."

This isn't a beginner's gardening book that tells you how to plant each vegetable.  This is a book for folks who are already fairly established in garden routines and might be ready to try different approaches and techniques to improve yields while reducing labor. In addition to Kimball's own tried and true techniques, he includes some adaptations of old-timey methods, simplifying them into easy instructions.

When it came in the mail, it literally took me a few days to really get my hands on it because Jamey confiscated it immediately.  And devoured it.  It no longer looks like a new book.  It looks like a used book because it's been being used!

The chapters that have gotten the most attention from us so far are listed below:

~ No More Tomato Cages

~ Bush-Planting Raspberries

~ How to Grow Strawberries of the Largest and Finest Quality

~ How to Make and Use Solar Pyramids

In fact, while some of Kimball's ideas will have to wait until next year, we've already implemented his suggestion of how to support tomato plants (we've abandoned our tried and true method of the Florida Weave for the year to give one of the methods he suggests a try).

Other things I must mention are that he has illustrated the book himself and the drawings are excellent- both in quality and the way they show so clearly in images what he's explaining.  Also, all throughout the book are tucked helpful and fascinating quotes from all generations of gardeners and almanacs. Two of our favorites are...

"Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening.  A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world.  He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating." 

- Wendell Berry

"The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946.  That is not very long ago.  Until then, where was all the food?  Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests.  It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides.  It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard."

- Joel Salatin

All this to say, both his book and his website, The Deliberate Agrarian, are worth checking out.  And, Kimball has generously offered a copy of his book to one lucky reader!  Thank you, Kimball!

To Enter:

Leave a comment below letting me know what one gardening issue/problem you wished you had an answer for.  I can't promise the answer will be in Kimball's book, but maybe another reader will reply to your comment with a suggestion.

In your comment, please leave me your first name, nickname or initials so I can identify you if you win.  Only one entry per household.  I will randomly draw and announce a winner on Friday afternoon.  The winner will need to email me their mailing address which I will pass on to Kimball who will then mail you your book!

In the meantime, go here to find out more about the book, including a full list of the chapter titles.

P.S.  We were gifted a copy of this book to review however we liked.  As you can tell, we liked.  :-)

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