Zero Waste Gardening

The topic of this book should be in every gardener's mind, and when it comes to the eating, everyone needs to pay attention. I once saw a cooking book for poor people, where the use of carrot tops was included in recipes. Why throw them away?
The text is very easy to read, it delves deep enough into the matter, and the disposition is perfect as there are lots of examples.
The drawings are good, and even if I prefer photos, I like it when the drawings are drawings and not trying to look like photos.

This book is a wealth of knowledge. for both large and small gardens. I particularly love that the author gives you a variety of vegetable examples for how to grow, harvest and store them. This is definitely one of those books that will sit as a reference for many years as I start my own garden.

All you need to know on about gardening. From planting to picking to storing. I struggle with knowing when and how often to harvest my plants. This book takes all the guess work out of that. Oh and the illustrations are so cute!

Forty-eight years ago my husband and I took a class in organic gardening and rented a plot in the seminary garden. We grew tomatoes and zucchinis and green beans and leaf lettuce and radishes and more, watering the garden from a creek nearby and mulching it with newspaper. I canned quarts of tomatoes and green beans for the winter.

Now we are in retirement and gardening again. Only one parsonage in the intervening years provided us with a garden plot; for a few years we had the best broccoli I ever ate!

We have a small suburban yard. There is an herb garden and two raised planters for spinach, chard, and leaf lettuce. We have huge tubs for tomatoes.

But I want to expand my garden and I wanted new ideas. I hoped that Zero Waste Gardening would give them to me.

'Zero waste' is about sustainability, the awareness that resources are finite. Making use of everything we grow, and using the whole plant, is the focus of this book.

The presentation is very attractive with full pages with color illustrations. The contents are divided into Space (including preparation of the ground, manure, inter-planting, under-sowing, space, yield); Taste (recipes, using all the plant, food preservation, storage); and Waste (sowing and harvesting, reducing energy, water); and information on the garden plants.

The garden plants include the stock choices but also more unusual crops. Information on plants include when to sow, plant, and harvest; yield per plant; how to pick; growing tips; zero waste tips; and how to use.

There is a page on gardening tools needed and how to keep them sharp. And a full index and glossary.

I learned to use the leaves of root vegetables as food and that some seeds are also edible. I did not know that we can eat the roots of Swiss Chard. But we do eat the stems, which we cook and serve in a white sauce on toast with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

I especially liked the idea of not disturbing the soil but adding mulch to disintegrate over winter, providing soil for planting.

There are numerous ways we can participate in zero waste. For several years we have shopped with a delivery service that distributes 'imperfect' vegetables and fruits. They are too big or too small or have blemishes or are in oversupply or being phased out.

Microgreens are all the rage now. The raised planter beds need to be thinned out, and I plan on keeping the baby plants for eating.

We save zinnia seeds. I dry herbs. We freeze leftover veggies for soups, and dice up and freeze vegetables on the verge of going bad.

I always thought of these habits as being economically and environmentally friendly. Now I know, they are zero waste habits!

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

As a soon-to-be allotment holder, I was desperate to read this as soon as I saw it, and it didn't disappoint. With great illustrations, easy to digest text, there's a lot to like about this guide to zero waste gardening. As well as covering each individual vegetable in details - including tips on growing, harvesting and minimising waste from each individual vegetable - the books opens up with chapters on everything you need to know. I found it interesting to find a gardening book that focused on minimising waste, including in particular eating parts of the vegetable we would be quick to dispose of. At a time where we all need to start becoming climate change activists, this is an important, yet accessible read, and one that I will be no doubt returning to for a long time.

Zero Waste Gardening by Ben Raskin is a great book with tips from start to finish for no waste gardening. I love the description of every vegetable with a page that tells you everything you'll need to know about growing and harvesting the plant. It also tells the yield per space. I think most hobby gardeners and even more seasoned gardeners would find this book useful.

I disliked the cover but the title was eye catching enough to make me want to read it. The book is not all encompassing and just really has basics about gardening. Some of it was more focused on storing and how to plant your garden. I was hoping it dealt more in waste and how to flip those into compost.

What did I like? Very colorful illustrated book with some great tips on a variety of everyday vegetables and fruits grown in a household garden. From carrots to pumpkin. If you have limited space then knowing what will grow in your soil and what won’t helps you produce more. Really though gardening is trial and error.

Would I recommend or buy? I bookmarked some of the items I am trying to grow. Really though gardening is just trial and error. Crop rotation and no till are becoming bigger because of climate change. I’d recommend it to beginner gardeners just looking to start growing.

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review!

Thank you Quarto Publishing Group for sharing a copy of Zero Waste Gardening by Ben Raskin for review.

I am a very very new gardener so this book had a lot of information packed into it. It would be perfect to have nearby for reference as you need it along the way. I appreciated the tips for how and when to pick the fruit or vegetable to get the best crop. The easiest part to follow was the second half where he laid out each kind of plant and when and how much it typically produces as well as tips to use up any extras.

--Maximise Your Garden's Bounty By Making Better Choices--

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley, and here are my thoughts.

This is a fantastic book to guide those just starting out with vegetable gardening, and there are plenty of tips for more experienced gardeners as well. I have a Permaculture Design Certificate, and decades of gardening experience, and still found many useful tips in this extremely knowledgeable, concisely written, and beautifully illustrated book.

There are so many things I love about this book.

---The zero-waste ethos...and hundreds of tips to help you maximise the productivity of your gardening efforts with a minimum of waste and cost. Tips range from selecting the best plants for the size of your garden, how to underplant or prune for better results, storage and food making tips, and much, much more.

--Concise writing and logical organisation of information.

--Excellent text and graphic design. Everything is clearly laid out for easy reading and fast location of the very tips you want to know.

--Wonderful artwork. I already mentioned this, but the illustrations by Alice Pattullo greatly enhance the book, and are found throughout. I see she has also illustrated an edition of Pride and Prejudice that I have on my shelf.

This book will be especially useful to those who don't have a huge garden, so need to be extra particular about the edible plants they choose to grow. However, those with a large garden will find most of the tips relevant, and learn things specific to larger spaces as well.

All in all, this is one of the most useful and well put together gardening books I've read. I think it takes the best of permaculture practices and makes everything easy and accessible. The information is there at your fingertips, and easy to locate if you want to go back. There are many attractive gardening books out there, but "Zero Waste Gardening" has zero fluff, and none of the pedantic passages that can be found in some other gardening books.

For this, it deserves 10 stars.

Zero Waste Gardening by Ben Raskin is a great book for the organic gardener no matter if you're a master gardener or just a beginner. I have gardened for 40 years but this book had great ideas for even a seasoned gardener such as myself. I learned to garden from my Grandmother, who's garden was planted according to space, crops, harvest, and seasons and allowed for no waste. Gardening was not a hobby, it was a way of life and all those she was responsible for feeding needed it to survive. My Grandmother feed her family, including grandchildren who lived on the farm and farm hands daily. Every part of the vegetable was utilized in harvesting, cooking, canning, freezing and preserving. Waste not, want not was the family's motto.

The illustrations in this book are simple, attractive, and modern and the text is easily understood. The author shares more than 60 uniquely interesting plans to help with untilizing the green space you have, foods that will easily grow and calculating your yield to zero waste. With tips for root to stalk cooking techniques and tips on edibility this book will help the beginner or expert to develop their gardening skills to zero waste.

Thank you to Ben Raskin, Net Galley, and the publisher for sharing this book with me in exchange for an honest review. #ZeroWasteGardening #NetGalley

This was a great book about sustainably maintaining a garden. I liked how accessible and readable it was. I really appreciated that they broke down plant by plant at the end of the book. For inexperienced gardeners, this is a great resource all around! Highly recommended!