Hello, friends! Our book today is Plant, Sow, Make, & Grow: Mud-tastic Activities For Budding Gardeners by Esther Coombs, an extensive guide to help young green thumbs start their first garden.

Gardening can be a wonderful hobby, but it can also take a lot of work and know-how. This guide aims to help little gardeners with their first foray into planting a full garden, offering 38 different projects split into the four seasons, in addition to tips, tricks, background and historical information, and fun facts about their favorite fruits, veggies, and flowers. Kids can learn to recycle milk jugs into watering apparatuses, cultivate tomatoes in hanging containers, make seed bombs, and much more, all while spending a year raising a garden of corn, pumpkins, sunflowers, and other beautiful and tasty plants.

This was a pretty amazing guide! While it’s definitely geared more toward middle-grade readers, it’s a great way for adults and kids to get into gardening together, as many of the activities would require some form of adult assistance (though this is very rarely mentioned). Coombs’ pen-and-ink beautifully detailed illustrations explode across the page, and call to mind the look of classic almanac art with the addition of rich color. This is a European import, so some of the advice isn’t applicable (there are not adjustments mentioned for climate zones, for instance), but most of it translates well. There’s also a strong focus on recycling, ecology, and conservation that earth-lovers will appreciate. JJ was a little young for most of the content, but she loved the illustrations; however, JJ’s daddy – an avid gardener – was very excited to share it with her when she’s a little older. Overall, a wonderful way to introduce garden care to young readers, and it’s Baby Bookworm approved!

(Note: A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)