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I have just finished reading one of the best gardening books, ever! Jere and Emilee Gettle, of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, have a new book that has recently been released. The Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally is a gorgeous hard-cover text loaded with full-color photographs and fantastic tips and gardening information for everyone – novice to seasoned pro.
Container gardening can produce abundant food for those with small space for gardening.
After the Introduction, the book contains 8 information-packed chapters, (see below) an appendix, contact information for a variety of gardening resources and a complete index. The chapter titles are:
- Growing Up With Heirlooms
- The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company
- Seeds in America
- Collecting Seeds Around the World
- How To Garden
- Seed Saving
- City Farmer
- A to Z Growing Guide
Artichoke section of the growing guide - Each veggie's guide begins with a description and history, then a section on Growing Tips gives advice for the best way to grow them, and ...
What’s different about this gardening book, when so many others are available? I’ve never read a more in-depth description of heirloom seeds and why they’re important. This book is for anyone who truly wants to understand the importance of heirloom seeds to our food safety. It’s common sense and logic, without a lot of sensationalistic hype. That makes it so much more credible to me, as I read through the heartfelt explanations and understand what they have learned from their own hands-on experiences.
then a section that discusses pests and diseases common to that plant, plus suggestions for treating them, before finally ending up in a section that....
I also like that whether you are just getting started and only have a pot or two on the deck or patio, or you have a giant garden with years of experience, there are tips, tricks and valuable information for everyone. There is actually an entire chapter devoted to city gardening and real encouragement for those who want to produce something amazing in their container gardens.
For me, the best part is the Growing Guide. This very detailed and informative guide has given me the confidence to try and grow vegetables that I had previously considered too difficult and an understanding of why I haven’t been successful with some others. The introductory section of each vegetable’s guide describes the plant and some of its history. This is followed by growing tips, then pest and disease information (with suggested help), seed saving tips for that specific vegetable and finally, in the kitchen, a section on the different uses of the vegetable.
details all the ways to use the vegetable, cooking, freezing, canning, etc - In the Kitchen.
I know this book is a resource that I will refer back to over and over, again and I’m excited that Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is going to give away a copy to a Busy-at-Home reader. To enter the giveaway, just visit Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and find a seed you would love to try growing or a piece of information that you didn’t know before. Leave a comment on this post, telling me what you’d like to grow or the new fact you learned. Hit the DO IT button on the Rafflecopter form, below, then ENTER and that’s it. Not only will you be entered in the drawing to win this book for your own gardening library, you will have opened some additional optional entries to help increase your chances. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I received a copy of “The Heirloom Life Gardener” in order to read it, test it in my own garden, and gather the information to write this review. No monetary compensation was received and a positive review was not required. As with all Busy-at-Home reviews, the views and opinions expressed are wholly my own and based on my personal experience with the product.
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I found some flower seeds that I would like to try. They are called Love-in-a-Mist.
Isn’t that a pretty name for a flower!
They have so many interesting things . I found the Rat’s Tail- a podded radish that looks very unique.
I would like to try the Early Prolific Straightneck Squash.
I think the Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate flowers would be neat to try and grow!
I’d love to try the Paul Robeson tomato. I’ve heard wonderful things about it.
I like the Baker creek on FB
This looks like a wonderful book! Can’t wait to get my garden going.
I forgot to add, I would love to try the Marketmore 76 cucumbers.
i would love to grow Green Globe Artichokes
I am growing Florida market eggplant this year
I would love to try the Cherokee Purple Tomato seeds!
Golden Bantam 12-Row Corn
I’d love to try growing squash because it’s such a plentiful crop and I know it does well in my area! Thank you for the giveaway!
I would like to try Chinese Red Meat Radish (also called Watermelon Radish). I just saw a nice pickle recipe for these.
I would like to try bok choy due to its high calcium content!
I grew so many new heirlooms last year, and am excited to try new varieties this year! I’m thinking a new kind of raddish, maybe a new pepper to cook with… and who knows what else!
So excited to try the Dragon Tongue & Chinese Red Noodle beans I just received in the.mail. Even more excited that I just recently discovered you!
interested in heirloom grains – please enter me in the drawing. Thanks!
Awesome giveaway! I adore Baker Creek seeds and will be trying the Moon & Stars melon for the first time this year.
I would love to grow stevia. Plants are sold here (zone 5) as annuals, but it is a perennial, just not hardy in this zone. I think I’ll try growing it this summer and over wintering it inside.
I had no idea they sell seeds in bulk. This will come in very handy for me. I’m already planning an order!
Just received my first order of heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I am so excited! Now I just have to wait for the weather to dry out a little bit here in Northern California.
I would like to try Cracoviensis Lettuce. Did not know it could be grown during winter and even under snow.
I’d love to try growing the cosmic purple carrots! And the melons…. and the striped beets… oh, I’d love to try them all!
I would like to grow Red Malabar Spinach because it climbs and looks interesting.
I would like to try the Aswad eggplant.
I’d love to try tat soi. It looks so pretty in that rosette, and anything that is cold-tolerant is loved in my household.
Nasturtiums and Sweet Peas!
Love to try black cherry tomatoes – look so yummy!
I’ve received my catalogue, ordered Costoluto Genovese Tomatoes, Dragon’s Egg Cucumbers, Marketmore 76 Cucumbers, He Shi Ko Bunching Onions and White Tomesol Tomatoes. All have been sprouted and will be in a new raised bed this weekend. I CAN’T WAIT!
I must say there is nothing more refreshing & rewarding than growing and eating your own food! I love foraging in my garden for fresh green beans, juicy ripe Heirloom Tomatoes and Sweet white corn and so much more!
I am so excited about this book! Getting the ground ready !
I would like to try Crapaudine Beet, maybe the oldest beet currently in cultivation.
Just started seeds from Baker Creek for German Cherry, Oxhart Yellow, Hillbilly & Pruden’s Purple tomato varieties. Hope they are good producers.
I would love to try the Strawberry Spinach! It sounds bizarrely tasty.
I’d love to try their dwarf coffee plant! I had no idea coffee flowers smell like Jasmine!
I have Taiwan Black Seeded Long Bean on my list of “to trys” this year. I think it would be especially good in this climate. Long beans grow well here. I’m grateful for Baker Creek’s terrific selection.
My husband have been trying to improve our healthful eating habits over the past few years, which has included growing more of our own food. We recently discovered Quinoa and love it. I’d be very interested in trying to grow some of my own.
I love their Parisian carrots!
Love planting my veg garden yearly. A family affair, a tradition. I love to read books on finding new ways and different ways to organic garding. Like raising our own food where I know it is safe to eat… Thank you so much for helping us do so with your seeds! Have a prosperous year and God Bless!! Mark Olsen
I just received the seeds i ordered from there last week, can’t wait to try the star and moon watermelon, it’s supposed to get up to 40lbs!
I will be planting Corno di Toro Giallo peppers among many other Baker Creek seeds.
The website has such a great selection of seeds. This year, I have already started carrots and peas that I ordered from the company, and I would also like to try the red mini bells later.
I would to try Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach.
Thai Red Roselle
I love all of their seeds but soooo wish they would get the Lollipop tomato back in stock! I’ve missed out on it for two years now.
I haven’t tried the Golden King of Siberia tomato – yet – looks yummy! Thanks for the giveaway chance!
I’d like to grow Kohlrabi
I want to try the little finger carrots — yum!
I’m going to try the Strawberry Spinach. Looks unusual, but tasty.
I would like to grow Kentucky Wonder beans! They are suppose to be heavy producers and I’m a suburban farmer, so every bit of my space is important and the more I can get out of it the better.
I love herb and vegetable gardening! I would like to grow zaatar, a variety of oregano.
I am trying some Five Color Beet Chard this year. Hope it tastes as good as it looks!
I’d love to try growing cauliflower.
I’d love to try a variety of Amaranth. Greens and grain? Seems like a win win to me.
I would like to try Irish Poet Tassel Flower. Found out it is also known as Flora’s Paintbrush. Flora is my best friends mothers name. I like the orange flowers that look like windswept hair!
I want to try growing the Half Long Guernsey Parsnips this year. It’s hard for some root vegetables to grow in the clay soil here in SC, but I think I could get a few good containers of them on my patio, and enjoy roasting all winter. Suddenly I’m hoping for frost next winter–another rarity in South Carolina!
I want to try growing Jarrahdale Pumpkin. I have heard they make excellent pies.
We just moved from town to the country and are getting our garden ready to plant with, for once, WHATEVER we’d like! I can’t WAIT! Sure would like to have some of those Gypsy Tomatoes or the Pruden’s Purple (both at Baker Seeds). We moved at JUST the wrong time, too. Called for a catalog to be sent to our house, but they’re out of the 2012 catalogs! Thank heavens we finally got internet set up so we can search and shop online!
I would love to try the Black Futsu Squash. I love all the unique pumpkins and squash you offer!!!!
Really like dragons egg cucumbers . Want to try Quinoa this year.
I want to try some lemongrass. They are one of the few companies that sell the seed. And I would LOVE to read their book. I grow both heirlooms and some hybrids.
The book looks beautiful and interesting! I have some Baker Creek seeds in seed starter already – I bought the small bucket of seeds for northern climates, and the seeds were very fertile – just about 100% germination rate! I am esspecially looking forward to trying the Stupice tomato, which is supposed to do well in cooler climates such as I have in the San Francisco area.
I would like to try the Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate! I’m a big fan of Baker Creek, and bought some seed from them the first time this year.
THe European Mesclin Mix sounds wonderful. We love a fresh salad right out of the garden.
I would like to try the Five Color Silver Beet Chard.
I am just so excited to get my hands dirty and smell the earth!!! I would love to try your spaghetti squash seeds !!!
Ground Cherry is what I would like to try. My dad, many years ago, grew these … their fruit is very good .
I really want to try the black pineapple tomato seeds! I get the Baker Creek seed catalog as well as the heirloom gardener magazine which I love!
I just got my seeds from Baker Creek yesterday, wish they hadn’t run out of the White Spine cucumbers- will have to try them next year. The Pandora Striped Rose Eggplant looks fantastic- can’t wait to plant it!
I want to try the Sugar Ann Snap Peas in my Fall garden, can’t wait!!!
I’d like to try the Kiss me Over the Garden Gate flowers!
I would love to try the Pink Brandywine tomato seeds like your customers, the Staffords of Brooksville, Florida
I would like to try the Evening Sun Sunflower Seeds
I’d like to try the Tomatillo Purple seeds. What fun it’d be to grow purple tomatillos !
I LOVE Baker Creek seeds!!! I’ve ordered from them several times – HIGH quality seeds!! They ALWAYS sprout!!! I’d love to try one of the melons – any of the ones from the Ukraine or the middle east!!! They all look so interesting!!!
I would like to grow the Wetherfield Red Onion!!
I would like to grow lots of flowers, maybe start with Pansy and Hibiscus.
It has to be the Red Wethersfield onions! The image of the red onions braided with yellow as described in the website by William Woys Weaver was a “why didnt I think of that” moment. Red onions are my all time favorite. I go through more bags of red onions then I can grow. Most due to having always read the red onions are not very good for storing. Mr. Weaver clearly states THIS was the onion of the Dutch and first mentioned in 1780. Being it was THE braid onion, bought as bunches one would find garlic in… oh my.. now that has me imaging the cellar wall in braids of red onions and garlic..
I would really like to learn more about the City Gardening!
I’d love to try the tiger eye mix sunflowers and the cocozella zucchini.
Would love to try the Scarlet Runner Beans for both the flowers and the beans…as well as some winter squash- so many it’s hard to choose!
They are some amazing beans, but make sure to have a very large, sturdy trellis. The vines grew over 15 feet, and talk about loaded with flowers and beans! Have fun with them!
I’d love to try the Purple of Sicily Cauliflower. What fun to eat naturally purple foods!
I’d like to try growing the Catskill Brussels Sprouts
Chadwick Cherry
I just sent in an order for a bunch of different seeds, I went through Heirloom Acres last year and was not impressed and the local guy I used to get seeds from no longer takes orders due to physical health problems. I found Baker while stumbling on a few different blogs, and have heard nothing but great things about them. I ordered zucchini, eggplant, a few herbs, tomatoes, onions, wild strawberries, peas, carrots and melon. Can’t wait to get them!
Spilanthes acmella: Toothache plant. As an herbalist, I am always looking for new-old ways to add more herbs to my repertoire. Looking forward to getting to know a numbing one! =)
I’m drooling over the Sugar Baby Watermelon. Summertime watermelon looks so delicious this time of year when most of my garden is just seedlings!
I Love Baker Creek and every year I try a new seed variety. Any seed would be worth trying and fun. I would especially enjoy trying a new kind of eggplant.
I would love to try the Amazonian Chocolate Tomatoes!
i love their selection of ‘black tomatos’ paul robeson is my favorite mater ever!
Looks like a book this generation needs! love to watch my children save seeds!
I need to learn more about how to use kolrabhi…. sounds interesting!!
i love the idea of kids in the book!
Looks like a great book
I am a big fan of Baker Creek Seeds. I am anxiously waiting for my strawberry spinach to come up.
I would love to try asparagus beans!
The Ali Baba Watermelon sounds really good to me. Its special skin is supposed to withstand sun scorching and I live in the desert.
I would love to grow Blacktail Mountain Watermelon, which grow in 70 days.
eve2570@msn.com
The new Black Pineapple tomatoes from Belgium look really interesting. I need to try those!
I really want to grow kale this year!
I would like to try the Cracoviensis Lettuce as well…for the quality that I MAY be able to grow it year round and enjoy my own freshly grown organic lettuce all year – knowing the source!
Woo! Baker Creek is the best… I like them on Facebook already! I’ve got many veggie seeds on order from them, but I’m especially looking forward to growing their Thai Roselle hibiscus. Such a useful, yummy, and versatile plant that is also drop-dead gorgeous! Also the orangeglo watermelon… and rocky red lettuce mix… I can’t pick just one favorite item!!!
I already like Baker Creek on Facebook and bought some seeds to use this year. THey are great! I’d plant the Helios Radish- I love that Baker Creek has so many unusual seeds that you can’t find anywhere else.
I know, I don’t know what I would do without them!
I’ve wanted to try growing carnatians for a long time! http://rareseeds.com/chabaud-picotee-fantasy-mix-carnation.html
I also would like to try this flower, in fact I just ordered some seeds.
I am so glad that this book stresses the importance of heirloom seeds, especially in this GMO-laden food world! I hope more people will consider growing heirloom seeds in their garden!
I want to try all the different colors of tomatoes. Cherokee purple sounds interesting.
Early Prolific Straightneck Squash.
I’ve grown Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck and will grow it again. It was a GREAT keeper, lasting well into the spring just sitting on a basement workbench here in NH. No special canning or freezing needed. It was like a gold mine downstairs – always a squash for pie or dinner.
I would like to try Baby Doll Dianthus flowers.
I loved the article about raising the Lemon Drop peppers for seeds… It gave me inspiration for when my basil bolts and starts creating seed pods! Maybe I’ll try harvesting some this year.
I love how the book is about heirloom seeds and not gmo! I want to try lots of different varieties
Costoluto Genovese tomatoes! I would so love to try these, my mama used to love these old strange shaped tomatoes growing up and these look just like them! she used to buy them at a road side farmers market on the way out of town. I love tomatoes and i believe i’d want to try them all but these 1st!
Honeysuckle & Wisteria!
I found the article about saving seeds fascinating…i look forward to looking more deeply into your web site…thanks for all the wonderful info!
The only way to truly garden is with HEIRLOOM SEEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wetherfield red onions look really good. Plus the lettuce, we always have to get spinach as well! Yum now I am hungry!
I would like to grow some Morning Glory flowers.
I’d love to try growing the Green Globe Artichoke. Thanks!
I was so excited to get my Hopi Black Dye Sunflowers today. It was an important item on my want list. Especially since I grow the Hope Red Dye Amaranth ..for some sentimental reason I wanted to keep it in the same tribe
But more than that I know it is high in nutritional value for my flock of Americanas. We are working hard to grow enough to help supplement their feed and organic feed costs have risen so high this year with all the crazy weather. Especially down here in Texas with our severe drought. I also want to ensure we have plenty of bees and they are eating healthy as well. Thanks for all you do Bakers Creek!! ~ Pammy
open-pollinated seeds: pure, natural & non-GMO, I love this about Their seeds.
Peppers – sweet & hot, red, yellow, green, orange – all of them! Thanks for the give-a-way!
I would love to grow the violet de provence artichoke. Thanks for the giveaway.
I’d like to try the parsley seeds!
Nothing like fresh parsley for all those great dishes!
ababe28 at hotmail dot com
this book looks amazing!
I would like to get seeds for the Nature’s Riddle Tomato.
I would love to try the Siam Queen Thai Basil. I love making Thai food, and I can’t find this anywhere, so I would love to grow it.
I’d like to try the Orange Bell Pepper seeds
I would love to win the book! We have just got seeds from a supplier that uses Baker Creek seeds! Truly a world apart! Thanks!
i will try it
the Listada De Gandia Eggplant looks fun!