“R.H.S. How to Grow Plants for Free: Creating new plants from cuttings, seeds, and more” by Simon Akeroyd. Publisher, Mitchell Beasley London U.K 2024.
This lovely little book is the perfect introduction to increasing the number of plants in your garden easily and cheaply and for free by propagating them yourself. It demystifies the art of grafting, taking cuttings, dividing, and growing from seed all in one handy attractive little tome. Propagating your own plants is fun, inexpensive and a sustainable way to garden. It has a chapter for house plant enthusiasts, but the chapter that I appreciated the most was the one entitled “Plants from Supermarket Scraps”!
I discovered, if you wash and densely sow cantaloupe melon seeds in potting compost you will get a crop of micro greens for salad, if you rehydrate the root of a lettuce and plant it, you can harvest two or three more flushes of growth, and by removing and planting individual cloves of garlic from a store bought garlic bulb, you can propagate a whole season of garlic. I’ve never thought to do it that way. Have you? This is a really interesting read.
Also published in 2024 is ……
“The Money-Saving Gardener” by Anya Lautenbach. This book is wider in scope. For example, there is advice on building your own plant supports, recycling furniture for the garden, and sourcing equipment second hand.
Order online at biblioottawalibrary.ca or by calling your local library.
Josephine Norton