Cover Image: How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round

How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round

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Member Reviews

I was really looking forward to this book because I do a lot of indoor gardening and wanted to see what I could do to expand into edibles. Some of Roman's information is useful, especially concerning hours of grow light various plants need, and the photos are nice. However, it seemed like she spent just enough time on various growing methods to be confusing rather than helpful.

Also, her focus is very clearly on northern regions with mild summers. She does not take into account areas where summer is our dormant period. Here in south central Texas, we usually see highs in the 90s from May through October, with consistent highs at or over 100 for all of July and August. At the height of summer, nothing will grow outside but okra and succulents -- even allegedly "invasive" mint burns to a crisp and goes dormant until fall. Indoors, growing mint in a southwest window, no matter how well air-conditioned and watered, will burn it to a crisp in the sun. What this means is I can't rely on any of the "sunny window" recommendations Roman gives here to be accurate for my latitude. Which leaves me where I was before: guessing.

Also, she gives wildly inaccurate (to my experience data) on rosemary. In the Texas Hill Country, you can plant a small rosemary bush outdoors and in a year, it'll be taller than a man and wider than his armspan. All it takes is a LOT of heat and wind and a little rain. They're drought proof. The only bad thing is they are excellent for setting houses on fire, as the oil in the stems has a very low flame point. So, uh, don't plant them immediately next to your home if the siding is flammable. I haven't tried to grow rosemary indoors in decades, but I imagine the challenge is keeping the ambient temperature hot enough and the roots dry enough.

I got very lost in the section on hand-pollination, not because it's a confusing process; it isn't. What confused me was the notion of growing squash indoors. HOW?! Wouldn't it take up the whole room?

All in all, this was a frustrating read. Growing greens indoors is simple, but I found the instructions on growing fruits and vegetables lacking.


ARC

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Handy tips and some good advice, but I don't think it's aimed at the beginner gardener.
It was still useful for me and I'm looking forward to start growing a few things inside!
Thank you netgalley.

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Such comprehensive information here on how to grow your own food indoors! Highly detailed too, even including how to calculate how much soil that will be needed, how much water, how much you will likely spend, and so on. One thing we might not think about is how well our living spaces can take the extra weight that indoor plants might exert on our floors.- something vital to know if we live in apartments or condos.

I also like that the book is chockful of beautiful photographs that are relevant and helpful including one section on creative ideas for indoor gardens. There are also plenty of tables and charts for info at a glance.

The author knows what she is talking about as she holds highly popular seminars and workshops in home and garden shows, garden clubs, and Master Gardener Programs as well as online. She is obviously very knowledgeable, having taught the subject since 2010.

HIghly recommended!

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I love the section on herbs; I have tried planting coriander from seed but gone as far as 4 sets of leaves, true leaves included. It's really frustrating since I love herbs and it's not always available in our groceries, plus mighty expensive, if they are. I saw my mistakes and learnt a lot from this beautifully illustrated book.

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This is definitely an intermediary/advanced gardening book. It's focused on microgreens, indoor container gardening, and hydroponics. If you're a gardening newbie or haven't grown from seed before, I'd probably avoid this one.

That being said, there's a ton of useful information on how to make a cost-effective indoor gardening set-up. The charts on growing crops are fantastic. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to make the leap for all of this yet.

<i>Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.</i>

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I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

I’m more experienced with outdoor gardening - for the first 24 years of my life my family had a large vegetable garden outside. But now I live in an apartment with a balcony, and I thought this could be an interesting book for indoor gardening (and maybe some things I could adapt to my tiny balcony vegetable garden).

This books has an immense amount of information. So much information. It’s great - and it doesn’t cut down on the information to not scare off beginner gardeners. Gardening inside isn’t an easy task - especially for things more than herbs. I appreciated that layout of what you would need and the thought that went behind it. This books has everything from beginning to choose containers, soil, fertilizer choices, how to pollinate your vegetables, pest and diseases you should be aware of (and how to treat them), seed starting, and more. It’s almost an intimidating amount of information - but that’s great because growing more than a pot or two of herbs indoors is going to require work.

But even if you just wanted to grow herbs this books has tips for that. You could easily start out with a pot or two of herbs in a sunny window and slowly add more. And it’s honesty good for container gardening inside or outside. Very adaptable gardening information.

The only slight negative was that the formatting of the e-book I had was off and it made some sections hard to read. I didn’t take off any stars because this is an ARC and it could very well be fixed by publication. I hope it’s fixed for publication. I read on an iPad with the kindle app.

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A very comprehensive guide for anyone who likes to garden and wants to extend the season by growing food indoors. I think growing your own food will become more and more of a staple as the food prices skyrocket. So it was nice to have a handy dandy guide to everything that I needed to know. Some parts were too complex, I think, for the average reader. And in some parts, you should have a good command of general gardening, e.g. gardening outdoors. I liked the section about hydroponics the best.

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Thank you to Netgalley and Fox Chapel Publishing, for early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kim Roman has written a new beginners guide to gardening full of details, information, and recommendations. She takes the reader through the entire process of beginning a garden from seeding, lighting, soil, composting and even some trouble shooting. I think it was a very well written guide for the early indoor grower, which I am. The chapters are structured in clear concise ways and include lots of pictures and tips along the way. I am not sure how helpful this would be for an experienced grower or someone looking to grow a few herbs.

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This book is for someone like me, a person who wants to grow useful greens at home. Living up north with so little light during winter it is a challenge, but this book covers these issues as well. It is possible to grow some of your own food indoors at home, and that is something we should all try! I do not have a green thumb, but I try my best. This book has a lot of great tips, instructions and gorgeous pictures to take you through this journey. Highly recommended!

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How to Garden Indoors and Grow Your Own Food Year Round, yes please!
I’m a big fan of square foot gardening and have used Mel’s techniques off and on for years. I’ll garden in my small beautiful space successfully for 2 years and then take a year off. But as I get older I’m becoming more committed and want to grow year around.
So when I found this book I got really excited. She cares about world hunger and helping people garden successfully. She created this book to encourage people like me to grow my own food.
I loved the garden tower and hope to have success with it. There are lots and lots of pictures in this book, which I love.
FYI, this isn’t a weekend project book, just so you know. It’s a commitment with a big pay out of accomplishments and a personal satisfying indoor garden experience.
In this book, there is:
• Tips and troubleshooting
• How to’s
• New ideas
• Start up costs for every budget
• At-a-glance charts
• DIY projects to construct
• Hydroponic gardening and maintenance
• Wall gardens
• Plants needs
• Pollination
She challenged me before starting with questions like:
• What are my yield goals?
• How much time do I have?
• Where are good locations in my house for this?
• How’s my home lighting?
• How much should I grow?
• How long it will take?
I highly recommend book if you want to be an indoor gardener. It’s doable with everything right at your fingertips in this book.
Thanks Creative Homeowner via NetGalley.

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Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I have never grown a vegetable in my life and I thought this would be a good way to learn to grow some vegetables in my kitchen.

The first 10% of the book with all descriptions of other people's gardens. I think they were quoted posts from people all around the world on their Facebook or instagram accounts? I'm not sure. The author also talked a lot about why she wrote this book at the beginning of the pandemic when people wanted to grow their own food for numerous reasons.

The book then went on to subjects like lighting, moisture, mold, mildew, etc, etc. By this time my eyes are glazing over. All I wanted to do was learn how to properly grow a little tomato plant in my kitchen.

I gave up, after reading about 25% of the book. Clearly I'm not in the target audience for a book like this

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This is a very interesting and comprehensive guide to indoor gardening. Every aspect of indoor gardening is covered in fascinating detail.

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Very useful gardening book! There's a lot of good information and it's very complete. It's a great companion for people that lives in apartments and want to have their own little garden. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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No room to garden outside? No problem! This book delivers! I have so many ideas now of how to grow some of my own food in my 700 sq ft apartment.

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I'm a beginner gardener living in a very cold climate and I picked up this title because I was thinking it would be amazing to not have to deal with the weather and potentially grow things year-round. But, I ended up being really overwhelmed. There is a lot of great information but sometimes I think it is too much with too many options that all seem like they have major drawbacks. I was excited about reading about hydroponics but that section opens with saying that it's basically a big pain and not worth it. Even the microgreens section I couldn't totally understand what I was supposed to do and instead had to go online to figure it out. The section on plant profiles was very useful for figuring out what might be good options to plant.

Thank you to Fox Chapel Publishing and NetGalley for free access to this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

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This is a very thorough, informative book. As others have mentioned, it's the kind of book that may make you realize you don't have the time, money, room or energy to do this after all. :) That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's very in-depth and there are lots of photos, tips from real people and a boat load of information. This should be your go-to guide if you want to get serious about growing food indoors.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

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I am trying usually aromatic herbs indoors but it is not easy. The tendency to overwater is constant during wintertime. I will try the hydrophonic method one day. I found much interesting information in this book.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

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Calling all veggie lovers! You can now grow all your fresh produce indoors!

I am so excited about Kim Roman's new book "How To Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Around". Kim gives exact plans for gardening big or small in containers, hydroponic and microgreen gardening setups economically. The plans include considerations for space, light and cost. Wouldn't it be great to have fresh peas, herbs, greens, carrots, cucumber eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers year around? Plus you get the joy of growing them yourself! This beautiful book has gorgeous photographs and step-by-step instructions to ensure your success.

Thank you NetGalley and Fox Chapel Publishing for letting me review this fantastic e-book. It will be available for purchase March 15, 2022.

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This book is the most informative book on gardening I have ever had the pleasure to read! I am a hobby gardener and as such, I often learned as I went along. This book is a store of invaluable information and I learned so much despite my years of gardening (both indoor and outdoor).

The author thought of everything. This is not simply a how to guide, but a guide on WHY which I feel is incredibly important. The author with this title gives a practical guide both to the obvious parts of gardening (you need seed, soil, light, containers, etc…) but also the parts of gardening that normally hit us too late once we’ve realized our mistake.

Not only does she give a plethora of practical advice, but she also provides tips (such as using the dollar store for supplies) and I particularly enjoyed the images provided of thriving plants in reused plastics that otherwise would have been deemed trash!

I loved the focus on reuse/recycle and I love that the author explained the small things such as lettuce needing to be planted weekly to truly last as it doesn’t regrow, and explanations on why one may want to use vertical space and even something as simple as the difference in lumens and watts.

I’m a member of many Facebook groups for gardening and honestly I feel the majority of questions people have both for indoor gardening and even houseplant growing would be avoided if everyone read the advice within these pages.

As a hobby gardener, this book answered questions I have had and opened up a greater world of possibility than I even realized. I am anxious to try out hydroponics next!

If you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this book will help you with your upcoming seasons.

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Interesting way to garden inside, and the author shows multiple examples from around the world where people are learning to grow indoors. I started last year trying to start seeds inside but I still don’t think I’m advanced enough to try more than a basil plant or aloe. Still I love to peruse books offering different things and insights. You never know what you might pick up. Four stars!

I received a complimentary copy to read and am voluntarily leaving this review.

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