Through this collection of delightful essays and beautiful illustrations, long-time contributor to Country Living Gardner Sharon Lovejoy shares the boundless joys of a country garden. Lovejoy has chosen to focus on the natural world to be found just outside the door, including hummingbirds, caterpillars, and dragonflies, but her informative and witty prose also covers traditional plant care. The very titles of her sketches convey pleasure in the vibrant country landscape and the life that teems within it: "The Bumble Bee Rumba," "Faeries in the Fuschias (sphinx moths)," "Holiday Feasts for the Birds and the Beasts," and "Conversations with Sunflowers." This compilation truly is-to borrow another of her titles-"Something to Crow About."

Make leaf rubbings, learn the neighbourhood bird songs together, turn an aquarium into a worm hotel, create a firefly lantern. There are garden projects, both for the outdoors - grow a container snacking garden, sweet potato vines, peanuts and more. Cooking projects both in the sunshine - baking in a solar over and in the kitchen - what child will ever forget the time the two or you made Potato Volcanoes with Lava? And lots of rainy day activities for time when nature's in a cranky mood.

Plant a pumpkinseed with a child, and cultivate wonder. This simple act of reconnecting with children with nature is Sharon Lovejoy's purpose and joy and gift. Author of "Sunflower Houses: Garden Discoveries for Children of All Ages "and "Hollyhock Days: Garden Adventures for the Young at Heart," Sharon Lovejoy is a nationally known garden writer whose books, television specials, and projects at her learning landscape in California have introduced thousands of children to the pleasures of gardening.
In her newest book, "Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots," she presents 12 spirited, easy-to-implement ideas for theme gardens that parents and kids can grow together. Illustrated throughout by the author's own lyrical watercolors, each garden includes a plan, the planting recipe -- seeds, seedlings, and growing instructions spelled out step-by-step -- and activities. There's the Pizza Patch, a giant-size wheel garden planted in "slices" of tomatoes, zucchini, oregano, and basil. A Flowery Maze to get lost in. A Moon Garden of night-blooming flowers, including a moonflower tent. And Mother Nature's Medicine Chest.
Discovery Walks teach kids how the gardens work, and a chapter on gardening basics includes a child-friendly 10-Minute Plan for planting and maintenance, plus a list of the top 20 plants guaranteed to make gardeners out of kids.

Ever since she was old enough to help her grandmother in the garden, Sharon Lovejoy has spent her life working with plants--and along the way, through "trowel and error," she's accumulated hundreds and hundreds of remedies, tips, short-cuts, and cure-alls. Now Ms. Lovejoy--author of "Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots" and the award-winning "Sunflower Houses"--does for the garden what Heloise or the Queen of Clean does for the household. "Trowel and Error" collects all of her homespun garden advice into an inviting, environmentally friendly, whimsically illustrated yet dead-on helpful book that will benefit every gardener, beginner or experienced.
Cure plant viruses with spoiled milk. Steep a natural and effective insecticide out of fresh basil. Place flat stones under squash or melons to hasten ripening. Recycle an old apple corer as the perfect dibber for muscari and other small bulbs. Start rosemary cuttings in a green glass bottle. Sprinkle baby powder over seedlings to discourage rabbits. Crush a garlic clove and apply it to your skin as an insect repellent. From urging the reader to take an occasional shower with the houseplants to giving all-natural gardenside first aid, "Trowel and Error" is a direct line to the kind of practical wisdom that comes only after a lifetime of experience. The book is indexed by problem, plant, pest, and solution, and includes a list of tools and common household items--borax, cornmeal, vinegar--that completes the gardener's arsenal.

Make leaf rubbings, learn the neighborhood bird songs together, turn an aquarium into a worm hotel, create a firefly lantern. There are garden projects, both for the outdoors grow a container snacking garden, a pumpkin patch in a pot and the indoors, i.e., how to use something called "indoor garbage gardens" to grow pineapple tops, sweet potato vines, peanuts, and more. Cooking projects, both in the sunshine baking in a solar oven and in the kitchen what child will ever forget the time the two of you made Potato Volcanoes with Lava? And lots of rainy-day activities for times when nature's in a cranky mood.
Created by Sharon Lovejoy a grandmother of four and the author of two classic books of garden activities for grown-ups and kids, "Sunflower Houses" and "Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots" "Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars" is an ecologically inspired guide that combines more than 130 green activities with timeless grandparenting advice. Illustrated with Lovejoy's distinctive, delicate watercolors, it's an inventive resource for grandmother and grandchild to connect with each other through nature. It is the book to make sure an afternoon, a day, or a weekend turns into a memory that lasts forever."