Grow Indie Guide to Gardening ‘No Matter Where You Live’
Written by Robyn Jasko
Review by Ellen Eldridge
The bad news is that you really are out of excuses to delay growing your own food now that Robyn Jasko, founder of www.growindie.com, has published Homesweet Homegrown: How to Grow, Make, And Store Food, No Matter Where You Live. As the title suggests, this nearly pocket-sized manifesto presents the views of its author that should be the perspective more of us act on. That is not to make political implications, but the idea of growing one’s food extends beyond the mere beauty of a garden. As the first chapter explains, “Homegrown food tastes better, it’s fun and it’s cheaper” (pg. 9).
Inside the eight chapters simply titled: Know, Start, Grow, Plant, Plan, Eat and Store, Jasko guides us each in the hows-of gardening for life, liberty and the pursuit of healthy food. Personally, Jasko sold me on the idea as soon as I heard the title because I understand both the value of eating organic fruits and vegetables as well as the rising costs associated. Not to mention all the recent news of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the not-so-recent news of the deteriorating farmland across the country. I’m not quite ready to move my family to a farm and raise chickens, yet, but starting with a few seeds and Jasko’s manual makes perfect sense. The fact that the seed germination guide targets optimum soil temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees means now is the perfect time to start for most places in the United States.
Homesweet Homegrown’s step-by-step tips on transplanting to a garden or planting a “lasagna garden” mean that no one, not even you, has an excuse to delay any longer. I’m awfully excited to start growing my own tomatoes, asparagus, eggplant, squash and more that I don’t know why I’m even still writing this review! I’m off to start a garden! (And I’ll probably put a Gnombie in it to stay with the zombie spring theme).
I met Robyn Jasko in high school what seemed like a million years ago. She favored fine art and I writing so we compromised — she took a creative writing class with me while I conned my way into “Senior Art Portfolio” (a class where I painted in water color and made clay compositions of Willy Wonka’s head while the other students prepared for art colleges). Jasko decided to follow the writing path, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work she’s done over the last million years. We should look up Ms. Brown from that creative writing class. The accompanying illustrations by Jennifer Biggs bring such a sense of earthy peach to this book; it’s a guide I will most certainly treasure, and store copies of in my fallout shelter.
Jasko is currently putting together a book tour for 2012 and is asking for help along the way. This is such a worthy cause that in addition to offering to put an old friend up if she comes through Georgia, I kicked in a few bucks for her Kickstarter plan. If you haven’t bought a copy of this easy-to-use and supremely valuable book yet, please consider getting a copy as a gift for helping the book tour. Click here to get your copy and help the tour!
