Gardening Hacks is a must-have book on your bookshelf if you have a green thumb. This non-fiction book provides tips to become a better gardener. It doesn't matter if you are a novice or an expert everyone will take away something from this book to improve their garden. I also liked the way that the author was eco-conscious, for example planting in used tires, making your own bird feeder from plastic bottles, using milk cans to protect the plans and cardboard as mulch are a few of the examples. The book also has illustrations so that a few concepts are clear. I also liked the organization of the book, the chapters cover various types of gardening, container, outdoor, indoor gardening, and how to deal with pests, etc. Start your Spring with the Gardening Hacks books for a livelier garden.

I thought this was an informative book that had some great tips! Most of the tips are actually great hacks. Sometimes gardening "hack" books throw some pretty useless and random tips in there so I was pleasantly surprised that this one did not. There are many green friendly tips of how to reuse typical one use trash items that I especially enjoyed. The one thing I wasn't delighted about was the lack of pictures. The book looked polished throughout, but there were very few pictures. This made some of the how to's unclear to me since I'm a visual learner. I still really loved this book though and learned quite a few new hacks to try out in my garden!

Last year, like many others at home during the beginning of the pandemic, I tried vegetable gardening for the first time. I did an "anything goes" approach along with methods I learned via google searches. This book would have come in handy! It offers lots of budget-friendly tips for new gardeners as well as seasoned growers. I look forward to trying many of the suggestions and saving money. It's an easy read thanks to the format of bite-sized pieces of information.

I am a library paraprofessional and received an advance reader copy. Opinions are my own.

This is a really cool book with lots of tips that I ended up noting along the way. It’s broken up into sections like seedlings, indoor, outdoor & container gardening as well as a section dedicated to helpful tools and ways to deal with pests.
This book would be a great resource for any beginner or experienced gardener and would make a fun gift idea.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced review copy of this book.

Growing your own vegetables and landscaping your own yard or home is a necessity for some and a fun hobby for others. It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. I love finding books that give me ideas beyond what I’ve already learned about making my yard a lovely place to see and be, spend less and repurpose what I have, and get better results especially from my veggies and herbs.

Garden Hacks caught my attention as soon as I spotted the title. It shouts practical and do-able to me. The book is broken into five chapters: Chapter One Seeds Seedlings, and Cuttings, Chap Two Container Gardening, Chap Three Outdoor Gardening, Chap Four Indoor Gardening, and Chap Five Tools, Pests, and Harvesting. Followed by a thorough Index and helpful further Resource List.

The text of the book is straight up what the title says- a list of hacks sorted into the topics of the chapters. Some are just quick ideas for how to do something like a simple science experiment that determines the acidity or alkali of the soil or another might offer a how-to with illustration for building risers to make tiered growing stations. Sometimes its advice for how to keep tools from rusting or a quick suggestion for saving your 2-liter plastic bottles and plastic gallon milk jugs to further their use as garden aids.

The ideas and suggestions lived up to my expectations and my head is buzzing with excitement to go out and do so many of the ideas. Some are old tried and true methods that I’ve heard from other gardeners while others were new-to-me and welcome ways to use materials I already have or recipes from items in my pantry for pests or diseases that attack the plants. I admit to being skeptical about a few of the hacks whether it was the idea working or my ability to make it work. But, there are a plethora of suggestions. Even suggested ways to extend the life of a few different vegetables to keep producing. I definitely want to try growing a second head of Romaine leaf lettuce from the base of the one I just finished. And, I spotted some extra cinder blocks out behind the garage that are left over from one of my husband’s projects that I can repurpose into containers and raised bed borders. And, the list of hacks I want to try go on…

Oh yes, Gardening Hacks was a wonderful find. Not everything was new to me and probably won’t all be new to other gardeners, but it was easy to pour through the book and find several ideas that were. I can definitely recommend it as a practical resource for the beginner to moderate gardener’s shelf and especially those who are gardening on a budget or want to use up and reuse what you already have.

Thank you @NetGalley and @adams_media for allowing me to preview the book, Gardening Hacks: 300+ Time
And Money Saving Hacks. This book caught my eye because I just can’t wait to get back outside and plant something. I am always thinking of ways to improve my outdoor garden space and my indoor plants. Gardening Hacks is for the gardener who likes to use every scrap available. There are so many great ideas for using recycled items and food that you have around your house. I really liked all the practical suggestions that you can do to fertilize your plants and keep pests away from your plants with simple things around the house.

Thank you to NetGalley and Adams Media for this advanced released copy in exchange for my honest review. Gardening Hacks by Jon VanZile was filled with fun tips for those immersed in the world of gardening. Personally, as a total garden novice, I struggled to follow along with all of the information in this book. For me, the info was helpful but a bit disorganized. I found the tidbits interesting, but the book didn't have very clear structure to follow along with. As a beginning gardener, I wish this collection of helpful odds and ends was organized for me to more easily find the information I needed when I needed, not simply scattered throughout the text without much indication of where the info lives. Overall, this was a very cute book with some helpful tips, I just personally struggled to navigate through the info as a new gardener.

Love this book, just an honest book with heaps of information -no photos or fancy stuff, just information to save money in the garden with simple things.. Starting with seed, seedling and cutting and progressing through container gardens, indoor gardens, outdoor gardens and finally ending with tools, pests and harvesting.
Some of my favorite tips range from starting rose cuttings in a potatoes, adding perlite to potting mix to help drainage, and the best one, deter snails and slugs with copper. There are many other, but you will need to get the book.

I've been interested in taking up gardening for awhile and I'm glad I came across this. It's an insightful read that makes gardening far less daunting and has me excited about trying out all the tips and tricks VanZile has suggested. I've already highlighted and bookmarked quite a bit, and definitely plan on buying a copy for my Mom.

What a fabulous book. I enjoyed every moment and will buy them for the plant lovers in my life. Such great writing

I began my first herb garden last year and this book is such a great tool! I wish I had this back then. However, I now need to buy this and keep handy as a reference.

I will say this is a great beginner book, not so much for those already advanced in techniques. The lack of images and diagrams did bother me a little, it would have been nice to see more.

Really easy to read and simple explanation of garden ideas to do indoors and outdoors. Basic for a different variety of gardeners and plants and to start growing.

Loved this book! It's chock full of good tips for gardening and sorted by topics like planting seeds, so you can easily flip around depending on where you're at in your gardening process. I learned quite a few things I didn't already know and I think it's especially great for new gardeners or those who don't have a lot of money and want to look for money-saving shortcuts.

Gardening Hacks: 300+ Time and Money Saving Hacks
by Jon VanZile

In a well-organized collection of tips and hacks, Master Gardener Jon VanZile offers hundreds of time- and cost-saving suggestions for the indoor and outdoor garden. Workable and effective non-toxic and natural shortcuts are a valuable commodity, and this knowledge is creatively and systematically shared, numerically and through a searchable index. VanZile covers germination of seeds and propagation by cuttings, container plants, containers, care of tools, pest control, and collecting the harvest. Among the more interesting tips: using honey as a rooting hormone, seed starting in an ice cream cone (not the sugary kind), cinnamon as an anti-fungal treatment to protect seedlings from wilt, powdered milk as a calcium booster for tomatoes, and the myriad uses of coffee grounds.
For some, the proposed outdoor decorations might go against personal aesthetics and allowable degree of whimsy in the garden—re-purposing broken and discarded objects into “funky displays” might not suit everyone’s style. But the wealth of advice presented is sound and safe, and the presentation style is readable and sincere. (Adams Media, paperback/ebook/audiobook, 256 pp., 6 April, 2021)

This book covers it all. From simple gardening hack to more involved. I highly recommend this read. But please note there are no examples or colorful pictures. The one and only thing this book is missing.

I am of the notion that I am about to become an expert gardener thanks to this book. Huge thanks to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this book and recommend it. I love how it was written, how it caters to beginner gardeners as well, and how it's easy to grasp. Highly recommend it!

An excellent resource if the target reader is novice gardeners. It is full of the information that you would learn from your grandmother or -father, similar to the Farmer's Almanac, but all in one handy book. For the more experienced gardener, like me, you likely already know most of the hints, tips and hacks that are included.

The book is divided into five chapters that cover the topics of: 1. Seeds, Seedlings & Cuttings, 2. Container Gardening, 3. Outdoor Gardening, 4. Indoor Gardening, 5. Tools, Pests & Harvesting. A helpful index can also be found at the back of the book along with further resources. The resources are all United States focused so as a Canadian reader this section was not as helpful as it would be for an American.

It would've been a 5star book if there were real photos or even better hand-drawn pictures. This book was mostly just words. Pictures or diagrams would be helpful especially for novice gardeners.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

A fun lil book. It wasn't as much a list of hacks as Pinterest DIY and craft ideas. I did like that the author focused on a variety of gardening styles from potted plants to raised beds to indoor plants.
Favorite tips included:
Reuse squeezable condiment containers to dose fertilizer
Create cheap seedling mats with LED strip lights
Make a raised bed with cinder blocks and create a living edge by planting flowers, herbs, or small veggies in the cinder block holes.
Some tips might require more than blind faith from the reader - like I recommend looking into what your garbage bin is made of before repurposing it as a rain barrel unless you don't care over much about chemicals from plastic seeping into your water or, for myself, researching more about baking soda and tomatoes before I go hog wild on adding it to my heirlooms.
A cute book, especially if you're trying to stay offline or off social media during your gardening escapades.

Gardening Hacks is a very well curated encyclopedic collections of tips and tricks (or "hacks" if you prefer) for gardening more easily and effectively, presented by Jon VanZile. Due out 6th April 2021 from Simon & Schuster on their Adams Media imprint, it's 256 pages and will be available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a well written and accessible collection with a bit of something-for-everyone. I've been gardening the better part of 6 decades and I learned some new tricks. The tips are arranged thematically into chapters: seeds seedlings & cuttings, containers, outdoor gardening, indoor gardening, tools pests & harvesting.

The hacks are all numbered and arranged in easily understood short entries. There are no photos included, but the book is well illustrated with clear and restfully rendered simple line drawings and pictures to enhance the text. In fact, I really liked the sort of retro-vibe of the entire book's graphics with small drawings in the footers, nicely typeset chapter and section headings, and a calm friendly aesthetic throughout. There is a short cross-referenced index included, so specific information is easy to find as well as an abbreviated links and resources list for further reading.

This would make a good choice for library acquisition, gardening groups' lending libraries, makers and activity groups (all-ages), home library use, or for gifting to a gardening friend.

Four stars. Lots of good info here.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A really useful book for gardeners. It's well set out and I have already implemented some of the tips - growing tomatoes from a slice of tomato (who knew?!), I've given my houseplants a shower (they seemed to like it), and have put some old sponges to use in some large pots. There's tons of different ideas for all different gardeners - container gardeners, veg gardeners, houseplant lovers etc... I will revert back to this book time after time.

Thank you to netgalley for the digital copy of this book in return for an honest review.