Gardens from Garbage: How to Grow Indoor Plants from Recycled Kitchen Scraps

by Judith Handlesman

Providing clear advice on how to use kitchen scraps--including seeds, cuttings, and leftover fruits and vegetables--to build an indoor garden, an illustrated guide offers both practical hints and an inventive look at recycling.

48 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jennifer Heise]

Hands-down, the best topic on starting indoor plants from kitchen leftovers, which sounds like faint praise. But in the home or in the classroom, helping kids -- some of whom have never gardened and may not have seen a real vegetable that isn't prepped for eating -- start plants from potatoes, carrot tops, etc. is a real eye-opener, and it's hard to get good advice to help you succeed.

I read this as a kid and enjoyed it, and would recommend it to other crafts/gardening kids and also for adults who do these kinds of activities with kids.

[Kaye Tatara]

I think this is a wonderful resource for connecting plants and gardening to everyday life. I used it years ago when I was teaching botany and gardening lessons to city kids in Chicago. I'm currently writing a similar lesson for a different job and I'm finding it difficult to find simple instructions for growing fruit trees from seeds found in the kitchen online. As I can't find my old copy, I'm ordering a used copy of this out-of-print book online today!

[Natalie]

This is basically a children's book for houseplant vegetable projects. Some little history parts of the vegetables and fruits themselves. I thought it was going to be a real book I just put a ton of gardening books on hold at the library and didn't really know what I was getting. It is neat how many things you can grow just from seeds in the things you eat. I already had some lemon seeds growing to make a cute little pot of green leaves.