Grow Now: How We Can Save Our Health, Communities, and Planet―One Garden at a Time

by Emily Murphy

“ Grow Now is an earth manual that applies to everyone, everywhere. Regenerating life begins with our hands, the soil, and our heart. Take this book and go outside, stay outside, and transform.” —Paul Hawken, author of Drawdown and Regeneration Did you know you can have a garden that’s equal parts food source and wildlife haven? In Grow Now , Emily Murphy shares easy-to-follow principles for regenerative gardening that foster biodiversity and improve soil health. She also shows how every single yard mirrors and connects to the greater ecosystem around us.
 
No-dig growing, composting and mulching smartly, and planting a variety of edible perennials that attract bees and butterflies are all commonsense techniques everyone can use to grow positive change. You'll also find detailed advice on increasing your nature quotient, choosing plants that cycle more carbon back into the soil, selecting a broader variety of vegetables and fruits to improve overall soil fertility, rethinking space devoted to lawns, and adding companion plants for pollinators to rewild any plot of land.

Exquisitely photographed and filled with helpful lists and sidebars, Grow Now is an actionable, hopeful, and joyful roadmap for growing our way to individual climate contributions. Gardening is climate activism!
 

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Nature, Ecology, Adult

248 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2022

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Lorilin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re interested in gardening but don’t know where to start, this is a good one for you. Nothing too complicated or crazy. Emily Murphy is all about good soil, compost, native plants, and veggies. Her gardening advice is simple, approachable, and, I don’t know how else to say it, very gentle. I think her vibe would be most appealing to the millennial crowd (or younger). Definitely worth looking in to if you’re at the beginning of your Plant Journey. 🙂

[Martina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite gardening books. It book combines the "how" with the "why" of gardening, along with latest knowledge about regenerative methods for healing and giving back to the soil. Great inspiration for all gardeners, and would be gardeners.

[Emma Loewe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Grow Now" is a comprehensive guide that can help anyone—regardless of skill or background—form a deeper relationship with their land and grow their way to a healthier, more diverse garden. In the age of the climate crisis, it should be required reading for all growers.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good! A bit on the preachy side at times, but has some helpfully organized information and takes a climate-optimism approach, which I find both more comforting and more actionable than end-of-times type writing.

[Barb Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can we save our health, communities, and planet? As every gardener I know will tell you, it begins in your own backyard!

Right now, thanks to my partnership with Workman Publishing, I'm reading "Grow Now: Go Beyond Organic, Rewild Your Land, Sequester Carbon, and Support Biodiversity" by Emily Murphy. This book speaks directly to home gardeners (or those aspiring to be) on how to help better our lives, communities, and earth one garden at a time.

This lovely guide is not only visually stunning, it's packed full of purposeful and useful information, tips and how-to's.

I love the author's point-of-view that gardening is climate activism. While I've certainly worked on keeping our little homestead environmentally friendly, I never quite thought of it this way. Now, I'm even more impassioned to do more!

The section I've found most helpful is on "Rewilding" with native plants. I've been thinking about more ways to make our front yard more into an edible garden and now have ideas for making it also a helpful habitat for birds and pollinators, too.

If you're looking for a place to start or for more ways to cultivate your homestead into one that's both a food source and a wildlife haven, "Grow Now" is an excellent resource to have on your garden bookshelf!

[JoAnne McMaster (Any Good Book) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is filled with helpful information -- if you live where there is a lot of rain. There is no information on irrigation for states that don't. I live in one of those states, and what good would it do to plant all these things if they're going to die? I can't afford to put in a high-priced irrigation system, and it would have been nice to have information on what plants don't need tons of water to exist.

Try growing blueberries in the desert. You can't. We already have desert plants and flowers, so there isn't anything new here that would give information on growing herbs that I didn't already have. Unfortunately, this book just wasn't what I was looking for, while it does have interesting information, if you have time to use it; and you will need a lot of time to grow the plants she mentions.

I was given a copy of this book from Amazon but this in no way influenced my review.

[Kristie J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the main concept of this book. The idea that each one of us can make a valuable contribution to helping stop or slow down climate change by growing as many native species as we can in the space we have. I love the idea of nature corridors in urban and suburban areas to help wildlife, especially pollinators. I love the word "rewild" and the phrase "rewild your land" and plan to use them a lot more often. However, I felt this book let me down a bit. There was a useful chapter with lists of plants in various categories like edible perennials, edible vines, perennial herbs, annual vegetables and fruits, etc. The rest of the book was a high level overview of gardening -- too high of a level (not enough details) to be really useful for me. There were also lots of pictures, although some of them too small, and some pretty illustrations.

[Alannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love how approachable this book is; from small steps to help increase our understanding of the natural world, to in depth explanations of various plant types, this book has really inspired me to further change my lifestyle for the better. There are stunning images throughout the pages, along with helpful illustrations that make this book even more digestible. While a home gardener can definitely learn a lot from this book, I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious to learn more about nature and what we can do to work towards a better planet. I received a free copy from Workman Publishing in exchange for a free and unbiased review.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grow now -Go beyond organic is more of a beginner's manual than i thought it might be. It discusses how to grow your own food. I was hoping for more indepth info on re-wilding my yard. It was a lovely book to read in pre-spring to get me all interested in gardening outside again. lots of lovely pictures, that make me want to start growing. So much that i actually bought a starter kit for indoor germination, which i haven't done for years. Here's to hoping it works! I'm better at just planting seeds outside.

[Logan Spader · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like readable books instead of manuals this should be your next gardening book! I give Emily 5 stars because she made a relatively boring subject very readable (gardening is fun to do, but boring to read). The pictures of wide-open spaces and gardens definitely help.

Really though, she is getting 5 stars for teaching us the best way to own a plot of land: stop drenching it in chemicals and start growing anything except a boring lawn. Seriously, I don't understand how perfectly manicured grass became so desired. What a waste!

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re new to gardening and are totally clueless, this may be the book for you. The photos are beautiful. The content is good, but very cursory. It could be a good starting point if you’re a true novice or are just learning to grow using organic methods. Otherwise, it’s probably not worth a read.

[Solarpunkmom · Rating 4 out of 5]

great for beginners

I think this book would be super valuable to folks who are fairly new to gardening and sustainability. I was looking for more advanced content, so I found the ideas and info to be a little more basic than what I wanted. Overall a great book for newbies though, check it out!

[Jen Bracken-Hull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the best, most visually appealing book about gardening-as-climate-activism I’ve read, full of a lot of the new conventional wisdom, but pitched in a hopeful, compassionate, way that is sure to appeal to beginners and those interested in changing the way they garden or landscape.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the time of year to read gardening books. This one is excellent, practical, and I can't wait to work on my garden now.

[Brenda Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great info on how to be more earth conscious, beautiful illustrations

[Georgie Melrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful photos, well written.

[Lori Palen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good content I haven’t seen elsewhere, on topics like the carbon cycle and biodiversity. A little repetitive in places.

[Mish Mash Succotash · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful call to action to grow organic, hyperlocal food and native perennials to support biodiversity and improve our own individual and community health.