The No-Dig Children's Gardening Book: Easy and fun family gardening

by Charles Dowding

Overview

Don't like endless digging and weeding? Don't let that stop you from gardening with your kids!

“This ambitious, attractively presented book encourages children to become not only gardeners, but also nature observers, scientists, and data collectors.”—Kirkus Reviews

The simple and achievable gardening projects in this book are perfect for parents and young children to do together. All are based on Charles Dowding's trademark no-dig technique, which perfectly lends itself to gardening with little ones who can't manage heavy digging and who will quickly grow bored of endless weeding.

Projects are broken down into easy, step-by-step processes, designed to be carried out by children. Attractive, full-bleed photography is supplemented with fun illustration and fully illustrated factual spreads. Running throughout the gardening projects are extra little facts about plants and wildlife, as well as things to look out for when you are outdoors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783129195
Publisher:	Welbeck Publishing Group Limited
Publication date:	01/17/2023
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	1,078,884
Product dimensions:	7.44(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Charles Dowding is an innovator of no dig, organic growing since 1983, who has built up a large and dedicated following on YouTube, where he presents videos teaching practical skills My weed-free methods are about growing more easily, in less time, by understanding and working with natural processes. An established author of books for adult gardeners, this is Charles' first book for children and families. Charles also writes for national and international magazines and appears on tv and radio including BBC Gardeners World. He sells produce and teaches courses from his vegetable garden in Somerset, where he lives.  www.charlesdowding.co.uk

Table of Contents

The basics of setting up a flower or vegetable bed (and Charles is an advocate of starting with a small area).
• Sowing seeds indoors and straight into the soil
• Spotting what's a weed and what's not
• Planting vegetables and fruit
• Easy annual flowers
• growing wildlife-friendly plants
• Ways to attract insects, birds and other wildlife to your garden
• Making your own compost
• making biodegradable plant pots
• Seasonal planting, including projects like growing a giant sunflower (and seeing whose grows tallest) and growing and carving your own Halloween pumpkin.
• Vegetables need company! Planting close together.
• What grows when? Simple visual chart of Spring, summer, autumn and winter growing.
• What is healthy soil? We (Illustrated non-fiction spread, inc. fun illustrations of worms, etc)

Editorial Reviews

This ambitious, attractively presented book encourages children to become not only gardeners, but also nature observers, scientists, and data collectors…there is a lot of cheering-on and an upbeat, can-do tone throughout. The book advocates for school gardening, market gardening, and gardening as a family and offers suggestions for encouraging children with ADHD or who are autistic to garden.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2022-11-29
When mulch and compost replace digging, gardening becomes easier for kids and better for the soil.

This ambitious, attractively presented book encourages children to become not only gardeners, but also nature observers, scientists, and data collectors. Comprehensible and enthusiastically but very briefly presented information is sometimes inadequate. We aren’t told exactly how to build compost enclosures from old pallets, how deep compost in a garden bed needs to be, how to tell when compost is mature, or how far apart to space zucchini and tomato plants (the same spacing is used for all the vegetables in the demo bed). The book is U.K.–centric, and some advice needs checking: Frost dates will vary, and composting bones is discouraged by the Environmental Protection Agency and might attract rats. Little help for the urbanite can be found. Purchased compost and mulch can be costly. Still, there is a lot of cheering-on and an upbeat, can-do tone throughout. The book advocates for school gardening, market gardening, and gardening as a family and offers suggestions for encouraging children with ADHD or who are autistic to garden. A sensory garden, “easy flowers,” and ways to attract wildlife are described. Abundant color photos brighten every page, and the layout is chock-full but clear. Individuals in the photos are mostly White-presenting; those in the illustrations are diverse.

Adults with the resources and climate to use this book can glean ideas for engaging children. (websites, index) (Nonfiction. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews