A Gardening Book Review

And A Microgreen Update Too!

Basil Babies!

We have a lovely little blizzard thing going on outside here in North Idaho. I have this strange feeling that I won't be seeing much of the ground til toward the end of the month, so instead of rolling around in my soil and compost like a hog that hit the fermented apples hard; I must instead satiate my gardening-want-to-woes in other ways.

See the moose tracks? The poor creatures probably press their frozen forms against the side of my abode at night for fleeting bit of warmth. The full form embrace of such a toasty feeling a memory long forgotten.

I can't even remember what bluebirds and Sitka Roses look like....

This poor hyssop plant is on Stand By

First, after snapping a few pictures of the frozen wasteland that is my backyard, I came in and took a few psyche-reaffirming pics of my almost ready microgreens. I am going to make a big batch of homemade tomato soup and launch a few of the basil babies in there for bit of flavor-explosion. That should get me through at least two more weeks of snow, ice, and mud!

Another diversion for this garden-labor deprived girl is provided at the library. There are some really neat reports that I can run on the library catalog. One of them gives me all of the new titles that our collection folks have put into the catalog, and of course I put holds on any interesting looking garden-related tomes. Hello work perks!

I mentioned this book in my microgreen post:

Here is my take on its contents.

So, the actual title of the book is: Indoor Edible Garden: Creative Ways to Grow Herbs, Fruit, and Vegetables In Your Home. Wow! That was a mouthful! The author's name is Zia Allaway, and one thing I will give Zia is that she is incredibly thorough and creative.

The first whole section of this indoor edible garden primer covers planning. There are floor plan renderings that outline the different growing "zones" typically available in one's abode. They are classified by light and heat availability. There were no explanations pertaining to harassment by pet and children "zones", but overall, I really enjoyed the focus on where you could grow what based on underutilized space that we all have available to us in our houses, no matter the home size.

The rest of the how-to-do-indoor-food book was cleverly divided into the following chapters: Herbs and Edible Flowers, Sprouts, Leaves, and Roots, Fruiting Vegetables, Fruit, and the super important last one: Experts' Tips.

There were a couple of projects in the book that really stood out to me:

The first was, "Edible Orchids Mounted Onto Bark"

Talk about bringing the outdoors in! This project was not only pretty, but functional as well! I've ate my share of nasturtiums sprinkled in my salads over the years, but I had absolutely no idea that,

Dendrobiums are a group of edible orchids that taste like a mixture of cucumber and kale.

Sign me up! I'll totally take my kitchen looking like an Ent's backside!

Another project from the book that completely tickled me was the, "Create A Tabletop For Spicy Asian Greens." I love spicy things, but I'm not too sure about cutting holes in my kitchen table and sticking stainless steel containers in the resulting cavern. Don't get me wrong, it looks super cool and functional, but I don't think it would work at my house. Instead of serving Asian greens; I feel like feline Tootsie rolls would be offered at that buffet.

Also, I absolutely died when I read this disclaimer:

Before sawing, check the width of the lip on the containers to ensure they won't fall through the table.

There so has to be a story there.

Seriously though, if you are looking for a very thorough how-to book that will give you a useful overview of how to turn your home into an indoor edible food oasis, look no further than Indoor Edible Gardens by Zia Allaway. You'll have pots and containers of everything from lemon trees to mushrooms adorning every available surface in your lovely abode!

And as always, all of the images in this post were taken by the author, on her bleepity-bleep snow dusted iPhone.