Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 Days

Burke, founder of the Daily Gardener website, gets downright nerdy about seeds, soils, and salads in this treatise on the soil sprout. Not to be confused with the microgreen or the common sprout, Burke’s soil sprouts grow in a special soil growing mix. The seeds start their life in a dark place indoors where they stretch out looking for light. When moved onto a windowsill, the seed leaves turn green—from seed to salad in less than 10 days. The author promises that the process is fairly forgiving of errors, but he also spends a good deal of the book giving precise details about the tricks, tips, and troubleshooting that has occupied his attention for many years. This obsession has become the basis for workshops and even a small indoor “farming” business selling greens to the local school cafeteria food service. Yet something about his enthusiasm makes the average home gardener want to run out and buy a bunch of aluminum foil loaf pans and a bale of vermiculite, and go to town with some pea shoots. Recipes and a list of the best seeds to be grown are essential references. The book makes the enterprise of growing salad year-round and inside seem at once appealing and daunting. (Sept.)