Don't Throw It Grow It by Deborah Peterson

An old fashioned-new method of budget-wise growing is found in Don't Throw It, Grow It: 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps, by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam.

In their entertaining book, Peterson and Selsam present the ultimate recycling approach to making more plants – using kitchen waste. A basic introduction covers what plants need (water, heat, light, air), and how to combat bugs. Then the fun begins.

The plants you learn about growing from seeds and scraps include common vegetables and exotic fruits from ethnic markets.

Easy to find possibilities include: Almonds, lentils, kiwi, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, celery and mustard seed. Many of the exotics are available in Tulsa at Nam Hai (1924 S Garnett) and Whole Foods (1401 E. 41st).

The U.S. government irradiates all foreign produce, killing their ability to reproduce. That explains why my recent effort to sprout avocado pits and ginger did not work but planting the roots of used salad onions did.

Don't Throw It, 150-pages, Storey Books, 1-800-441-5700 and at http://www.storey.com/.
$8 at on line booksellers.

From the Storey site, Peterson's bio
"Deborah Peterson has spent the last 40 years in a wide variety of horticultural pursuits. She was a founder of The Manhattan Orchid Society, a founder of the Rare Pit & Plant Council, and the editor of their newsletter The Pits for 25 years. She has contributed to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Handbooks, lectured extensively on gardening with pits, seaside gardening, herbs, orchids, and ecumenical gardening. Deborah is the proprietor of Landmark Landscaping."

I tried to find the pits newsletters and they only go up to 2004 online so the newsletter may no longer be around.

Storey Books publishes quite a few fun and interesting titles. Click over to take a look.