'Garden Alchemy' is a recipe for success

Take soil science and add a little seed starting, compost, fertilizer and garden tea, and you have the delightful new gardening book Garden Alchemy by Stephanie Rose. Whether you are a new or experienced gardener, a food or floral grower, Stephanie's book includes fun projects and breaks down gardening topics so they are easier to understand.

Garden Alchemy is available at a perfect time, as seed companies rush to fill orders as people turn to gardening in this new world we are navigating with COVID-19. I read this book at night to help me unwind from daily stressors, and I found myself dog-earring pages for possible project ideas to try in my garden this coming growing season.

Stephanie empowers the reader to experiment with ways to fix common garden problems with minimal effort — and showing how there are so many things the home gardener can do before deciding to buy a "problem-solving" product at the store.

Whether for soil or fertilizer, Stephanie identifies different "ingredients" and explains how to create various "recipes" for making your own mixes for your garden. She includes easy ways to test soil in her soil science section and she shares a number of seed-starting projects and tips in her propagation section, too.

This is a great book to add to your gardening shelf thanks to the tips and knowledge tucked inside.



Garden Alchemy: 80 Recipes and Concoctions for Organic Fertilizers, Plant Elixirs, Potting Mixes, Pest Deterrents, and More sells for $22.99 and is published by Cool Springs Press.


I received a promotional copy of this book from Quarto Knows. Opinions expressed above are my own. 

Reuse plastic salad boxes to grow greens 🥬

Rinse out and clean with dish soap your plastic container. Dry.

Using a small sharp knife, cut six slits in the bottom of the plastic container for drainage.

Put your moistened soil mix inside, scatter some lettuce seeds, and then top off with a very thin layer of soil and lightly press down. You can keep the lid on top (not tightly sealed) until the lettuce sprouts.

To use indoors: Place the box under grow lights or your sunniest windowsill. You can let them grow in here for ‘cut and come again greens’ or transplant out when it is a little warmer (lettuce doesn’t mind cool temperatures but will need to be hardened off before you put outside).

To use outdoors: Want to skip hardening off? You can put the plastic box outside in a sheltered spot to grow. Once it starts to sprout, open the lid during the day, close at night. When the plants are large enough, you can plant them into a larger container or a spot in your garden.