Recently I have developed an interest in patio gardening which has led me to explore grow bags instead of pots and planters. Grow Bag Gardening was a great book to start with. It was full of great information spanning everything from choosing the right bags to use, the correct soil and fillers for your bags, maintaining your bags and ideas and inspiration for your grow bag gardens. Grow Bag Gardening was full of beautiful photos and all the info a beginner grow bag gardener would need!

Excellent book on everything related to grow bag gardening! This was something new to me and I actually had no idea how useful this type of gardening could be. Great DIY projects and garden "recipes" throughout.

Grow Bag Gardening is a tutorial and technique guide by Kevin Espiritu. Due out 16th March 2021 from Quarto on their Cool Springs Press imprint, it's 176 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats (ebook available at time of review).

Several years ago I began noticing these fabric bags showing up in garden centers in my area. I didn't give them much thought because I had a fairly fixed idea about what my home flower and vegetable beds should look like and wasn't all that intrigued with things which didn't fit into my preconceived mental image. (shame on me). I had some serious problem areas with my home garden, for one thing my house is literally built on solid rock - zero soil, lots of gravel and no options other than raised beds or other permaculture type structures. These challenges also made grow bags a viable option for areas which I hadn't yet converted to raised beds. So I bought a dozen grow-bags and off I went and had one of the best gardening years with the vegetables I had growing in the grow bags.

This is the manual I wish I had had when I started with grow bags. The author is knowledgeable, cool, and writes with enthusiasm and genuine warmth. He knows what he's talking about and his positivity and encouragement are infectious. The book's layout is logical and information is easy to find and remember. The introduction explains why grow bags might be a good option (and where), choosing and sourcing them, what to grow in them, soil and substrates which will give optimal results, maintenance/culture, and ideas for planting and siting.

The book includes a short resource list with links (aimed mostly at North American readers, but including some useful for readers located elsewhere), and a cross referenced index. As with most Quarto books, the art layout and photography are superlative (they must have a killer graphics department). The photos are colorful and engaging and got my fingers itching to get started gardening immediately.

This is a well done gardening book and would be a good choice for coop garden libraries, public or home library acquisition, gifting to a gardening friend (maybe someone with limited space who wants to get their fingers into the dirt), or for activity/scouting group projects, or even rehab/retirement/or school gardens.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

An extremely thorough guide to grow in grow bags. I admittedly didn't know much about this method so I learned a lot. Espiritu guides you through the specifics of choosing your bags (including sewing your own), filling them, feeding your plants, setting them about, and goes plant by plant to offer suggestions on how to grow them effectively. I will definitely come back to this book were I to have a yard again. It's particularly a useful method for renters-you can move with your garden!

Grow Bag Gardening by Kevin Espiritu is a delightful guide to growing plants in bags! Espiritu suggests that this book is best for gardeners with some prior experience in gardening. In my opinion this book is so well detailed that a novice could experiment with a grow bag garden with the guidance from Grow Bag Gardening.

I loved Eapiritu’s introduction to how he started gardening and using grow bags. The rest of the book gives you all the information and answers to any questions you could ask. The detailed pictures are bright and beautiful. Espiritu will go over the science, pros and cons, a diy dolly, how to buy, care and store your bags and much much more. This is great for any gardener but if you are looking for alternative containers this would be a must have guide.

My favorite part was how to attract pollinators and the ideas for what to grow near the end. I will definitely be setting up a kitchen and stir fry bag. This must have guide will have you itching for spring to start your own garden!

#netgalley #GrowBagGardening #KevinEspiritu #containergardens #gardening #garden #homegarden

I had never heard of gardening in this style until this book. Grow bag gardening is a lot like container gardening, but since the bags are lighter in materials, it actually helps your plants to grow better and healthier. This book goes through the pros and cons of gardening this way compared to other methods. It also breaks down the best ways to use a garden of this type for the most successful gardening experience.

Oodles of information for growing things in grow bags. Grow bags are very useful and I'm glad they're coming into more prominence. A bit optimistic in places - I can't imagine growing artichoke in one is very practical!

Talk about an inspiring book! I could almost taste the plants and smell the soil mixes. Grow bags are brilliant for so many reasons. The author describes everything one could possibly wish to know for utilizing them, especially great for tiny urban areas such as balconies. Helpful gardening terminology is explained, too, and all done in an accessible, friendly and encouraging way.

Espiritu discusses the many positive attributes (convenience, easy storage, lighter material, more breathable than plastic and terra cotta) and includes wonderful photographs to illustrate. Amongst topics are soil mix ingredients and recipes, air pruning, mulching, weather protection, instructions for sewing bags (why didn't I think of that?!), what can be grown in them (you may be surprised!), square foot gardening, irrigation, attracting beneficial insects and birds and so on. I'm a master gardener and have yet to grow pop-up raised bed bags! Gardening in Zone 2a (only about 80 frost-free days a year) is a challenge but if I can grow vegetables and other plants in bags, anyone can.

The number of growing options is staggering including many vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruits (think figs, raspberries and blueberries) and shrubs. Kids would love to have their own wee bag garden, too. Not only are they fun but very practical. Gardening means you are doing something lovely.

My sincere thank you to Quarto Publishing Group - Cold Springs Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this gorgeous book in exchange for an honest review. I will definitely be buying the hard copy.

Grow Bag Gardening is a comprehensive book which is just what I wanted for this year's foray into growing veg in bags and pots. The images are clear as is the written content. The science parts were easy to understand and I gained a lot of knowledge about mulching and watering to heat protection and prolonging the life of grow bags (which I hadn't given the slightest consideration to!). All-in-all this is an informative books for growers and one I will return to time and again.
I received this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Goodness, my head is reeling! There is so much information packed into this book.
Author Kevin Espiritu is obviously passionate and incredibly knowledgeable about gardening in general and grow bag gardening in particular, and his enthusiasm shows on every page. It’s only to be expected that the reader absorbs this fervour too, along with all the information.
Anyone, anywhere can do grow bag gardening, whether you only have a balcony or are blessed with a good-sized garden. Grow bag gardening means you can create a small, dedicated environment for a particular plant. If your soil type has hitherto limited what plants you can grow, well, that’s no longer the case. You can create a patch of sandy, well-draining soil in the midst of your heavy clay, or vice versa. You can grow everything from microgreens to a tree in a grow bag. The author gives you the ‘how’ for every scenario. He also throws in the where (indoors and outdoors), when (seasonal or pretty much all year round depending on the plant involved and where it’s being grown), what (everything) and why (too many reasons to list here!) for good measure. And don’t forget the who – everyone can grow-bag garden.
I learnt a truckload, and not just about how to choose or make the ideal grow bag for whatever project is in mind. I’ve been gardening for years but hadn’t come across air-pruning before, nor such detailed guidance concerning creating your own potting mixes and fertilisers. I love to discover new concepts, approaches and ideas and I’m already putting them into practice.
The book is well written in that everything is clearly explained and demonstrated, and the accompanying photographs are relevant and instructive.
It’s without a doubt one of the best gardening books I’ve ever read. And in nearly six decades I’ve read a heck of a lot!
I could go on for days about this book, but you'll have to excuse me now as I have to go and do some grow bag gardening!
Revolutionary, inspiring, absolutely to recommend.

This book was a pleasant surprise. I do raised bed gardens and was curious about the grow bags that I see in the garden centers. Kevin lets us know that grow bags are so much more that they seem. He covers most everything that I didn't even know would be important...from the dirt in the bag, to the size of the bag, and how to water them. I will be trying potatoes and carrots in a grow bag as soon as I can. This book was very well written, lots of nice color photos, and a nice balance of reading and pictures. A good book to have.

What on earth are grow bags? I was so surprised to see the cover of this book. I have never heard of grow bags before and as someone who does not have a lot of space for gardening, the idea of plant pots made out of fabric just fascinated me.

After looking through the book, I think the real beauty of grow bags is that you can design and sew your own relatively easily as opposed to making your own clay pots. I loved the bag in the book that had lots of pockets sticking out from the sides. So many possibilities if you have access to suitable fabric and a good sewing machine.

The idea of having pots that you can fold certainly appeals to me as a small condo dweller. Will have to look into making a few to try out!

Beautiful book with lots of colorful pictures bursting with lush plants potted in grow bags and lots of useful and helpful information and projects.

I live in a flat with a paved over shared garden, so most of my gardening happens inside. As I’m running out of surfaces to put houseplants on I thought I’d pick this book up and have a flick through for ideas of what I can do with my share of our rather sad back garden.

I was familiar with the author from his YouTube channel, which I’ve found helpful for tips on growing basil before. In this accessible book Espiritu extols the virtue of grow bags, an option I’d never really considered before. He presents the different kinds of plants that can be grouped together, related DIY projects and recommended varieties, amongst other things.

I appreciate that he also mentions the cons of using grow bags, and what problems may occur.

I look forward to trying out some of the smaller projects in the book and would recommend it to anyone strapped for space but wanting to garden.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fine book if you want to get into grow bag gardening. I didn't end up convinced, as this method is more expensive, more trouble, and worse for the environment than other types of gardening that are available to me (raised beds, no-till, etc.) and I don't necessarily agree with the author that these plastic-based bags are healthy for food crops. He points out that you can also plant in fabric like burlap but that those will disintegrate after one season. There are lots of great photos but not a lot of concrete information about what to plant and how to care for it. You'll also need to do more watering and he talks about methods like drip irrigation which seems like such a costly, work intensive way to water plants that are in bags. He goes into what soil mixtures to buy and mix up, what fertilizers to buy and so on, which is more expense and work as opposed to back yard composing and letting nature do way more of the work for you. I love my gardens but I like lazy gardening that also supports my back yard ecosystem, and this really doesn't seem like that method.

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

I did some experimenting with grow bags last season and was very pleased with the results. With the knowledge I learned from this book I am looking to even better results next year. Great ideas for watering and placement. I will be on the lookout for seeds for the varieties of vegetables mentioned.
This is a great resource for anyone interested in grow bag gardening.

Fantastic book with great pictures. Spent the weekend gardening with tips and tricks from this book.
Loved it