{Giveaway} Are You Ready to Start Gardening? Also, Chickens!

It’s time for a GIVEAWAY here at LoveLiveGrow, because it’s time to get ready for spring!

I know, I know, when it’s this cold outside it seems like springtime is too far away. But this is the perfect time to start dreaming and planning your garden, designing layouts, drooling over seed catalogs, and wistfully imagining the salads-to-be.

5 different books are up for grabs, which will go to 4 winners (2 of the books are companions). These are books that I have enjoyed and benefited from, and now I’d like to pass them on to other gardeners and gardeners-to-be.

Let me tell you what I’ve got for you.

Square Foot Gardening // LoveLiveGrow

Disclosure: All of these books are provided by me, and my opinions of them are entirely my own. The links in this post that go to book listings on Amazon are affiliate links, which means I get a commission if you choose to buy through them.

Square Foot Gardening and Square Foot Gardening Answer Book

This two book set provides all the information you need to get started with Square Foot Gardening. SFG is perfect for the beginner or for someone who just wants to dip their toes into gardening. These books will give you lots of information without being overwhelming.

Square Foot Gardening // LoveLiveGrow

You can Square Foot garden in as little as one simple 4×4 garden box, and you can get a lot out of that space! The tagline for SFG is “grow more in less space”. SFG makes good use of all the space in your garden box.

Square Foot Gardening has been my inspiration for my own garden boxes, and I’m sure you will love this method, too.

In addition to the main All New Square Foot Gardening book, I’ll also send out the Square Foot Gardening Answer Book, which will cover every detail you might need to know about this method in a Q & A format.

Any Size, Anywhere Edible Gardening

This book by William Moss is “the no yard, no time, no problem way to grow your own food”, which I reviewed here on LoveLiveGrow when it was first published.

You’ll get a crash course in many essential gardening topics, like soil amending and testing, seed starting and transplanting, watering, mulching, and more.

This is especially the book for you if you are doubtful that you have enough space to garden. Here is your inspiration! Tiny yards, rooftops, balconies, community plots – these are all great places to start growing. You can use raised beds, container gardens, vertical gardening, and window boxes, and all of these are covered in Any Size, Anywhere Edible Gardening.

A Practical Guide to Growing Vegetables, Fruit & Herbs

A Practical Guide to Growing Vegetables, Fruit & Herbs by Richard Bird starts out by guiding you through design, planning, greenhouses, sheds, and other equipment, soil, techniques, and common problems.

After that you can dive into 100+ pages of a directory-style display of all the fruits, vegetables, and herbs you could want to grow. Every page is overflowing with beautiful, full-color photos and in-depth information about each plant.

The Square Foot book and the Any Size, Anywhere book are a bit more on the “inspirational” side – good for beginners by covering the useful information while also helping convince you that you can do it. This book – A Practical Guide – is much more fact-dense and may be intimidating to the beginning gardener. On the other hand, it’s much more useful in the long run!

Keeping Chickens: The Essential Guide

And I’ve got a chicken book, too! Spring is also the perfect time to get started with chickens. Maybe this is your year!

This was the starter chicken book for Joshua and me. I reviewed it for you back in 2009 before we even had our chickens.

I like how comprehensive Keeping Chickens is, covering everything from chicken anatomy, housing, cleaning, food & water, and health issues. You’ll find information on 44 different chicken breeds. There’s even a chapter on egg and feather crafts!

GIVEAWAY Details:

I will choose 4 winners. Each winner will receive one book or two in the case of the SFG books. I will select winners using a random number generator. Who wins and who gets which book is ultimately entirely up to me.

MANDATORY ENTRY: In order to be eligible for this giveaway, you MUST leave a comment on this post telling me which book you most want to win and which book is your second choice. Be sure to leave a valid email address with this comment so that I can contact you if you win!

BONUS ENTRIES: After you’ve completed the mandatory entry, you can increase your chances of winning by doing these bonus entries. You must leave a separate comment on this post for each bonus entry so that each entry can be counted individually. If you have already done the entry requirement (already subscribe by RSS, for example) you can still leave a comment to get that entry.

Subscribe to LoveLiveGrow by email or RSS for 1 entry.
Like LoveLiveGrow on Facebook for 1 entry.
Follow @IssaWaters on Twitter for 1 entry.
Follow me on Pinterest for 1 entry.

RULES:

The giveaway ends 8:00pm EST, Sunday, February 23, 2014.
Contest open to U.S. mailing addresses only.
Leave each entry as a separate comment so I can count them all.
You don’t have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.
I will pick the winner through after the giveaway closes and send the winner an email notification. If I can’t reach the winner or don’t hear back within 3 days, I will pick a new winner.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me at erosissa@gmail.com