Review: Grow Curious

I have been following Gayla Trail since the early 2000s - well before my first gardens and have most of her other gardening books which I enjoy for their generally approachable gardening advice. As a result of this I was quick to jump on the kickstarter for her 'garden activity book for adults' which is called 'Grow Curious'.

This book has 199 activities that are separated by season as well as by 'tags' such as inspire, explore, and create. The tags seem to cover overlapping topics so they are not much help when attempting to identify activities by type. Some activities include several pages of personal essays, art, and/or additional information while some are simply a sentence followed by a page of empty white space. Most of the activities relate strictly to the five senses with the addition of an artistic exploration and a lot of the activities require you to simply 'note' something. This book is aesthetically pleasing with a lot of wonderful garden related quotes.

Overall, I do not find this book very inspirational. I would rather it was a series of personal essays that inspire related activities rather than a series of very similar activities. The chosen quotes and personal essays that are included relate to the author's relationship to the garden which leads me to think that a book of garden essays from Trail would be a joy to read.