Category: book review

The ability to grow your own garden and have it flourish is so important not only does it provide good food but also helps teach children about the importance of good food and growing your own food.

I fell in love with the easy to read Get Started Growing Vegetables from DK Canada. The guide ranged in difficulty from beginner gardeners to the more experienced. It included raised beds, tips on how to grow plants in pots and hanging baskets (which I loved!). I like to think I am not quite a novice but I definitely have room to grow with my knowledge.

With large pictures, plenty of reminders and tips this guide makes it hard to take a wrong step. There are instructions on how to grow pretty much any vegetable, fruit and herb you can think of – even how to place them to create a visually appealing and fragrant garden. The guide also included plenty of advice on what to do when things go wrong – which they so often can! I even used it this weekend to learn how to ‘pinch’ off my tomato plants that were getting out of control!

I wanted to give you a glimpse of my vegetable garden – one that I am quite proud of and a garden I hope my Grandfather would be proud of too. He was my inspiration on learning how to garden. We have harvested all of our spinach leaves which was the perfect addition to stir fries and omelettes. We have since planted carrots (seen below).

Here are my lovely tomatoes growing in – I am most proud of them.

As well as a little cucumber:

I also tried out cucumbers and radishes in hanging baskets using tips from the book (the rocks on the bottom and holes).

And some potted vegetables using their same tips!

That is my garden! Can you tell how proud I am? Are your growing your own vegetable garden? If so any tips and advices for this novice?

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned guide free of charge in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares is the romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world if she can let go of the one thing that she has found to hold on to.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

These are the three biggest rules that seventeen year old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve must remember. The only thing is that Prenna did not immigrate from a different country. She came from a different time – a future where a mosquito borne illness has mutated into a pandemic killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who have escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules to never reveal where they are from, never interfere with history and never be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she is told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

Where to start with this novel – I loved every moment! Ann Brashares has the most incredible way of writing that has you wanting more (to be honest when the novel was finished I was hoping for a teaser to a second part!). I love stories set in the future and the way they had traveled back in time was brilliant. The romance that blooms between her and Ethan is forbidden but could not be helped. I know that this will be a hit for many young readers!

Rating: 5/5

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book but was not obligated to write a post. I wanted to share this awesome book with you!