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Sprout Your Own Sweet Scents: Complete Mini Garden Kits with Seeds, Peat Pellets, and Planters Review by Heather Randall

Chronicle Books
680 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
800-759-0190
http://www.chroniclekids.com/

Sprout Your Own Sweet Scents is a garden kit that contains three packets of seeds, peat pellets, three planters, stickers, and a 30-page guidebook. Spearmint, lemon balm, and cinnamon basil are the seeds included in this kit.

The guidebook will walk you through the steps for preparing the soil and planting the seeds. Be sure to follow the directions carefully. Lemon balm should be left on top of the soil to sprout and should not be covered. While waiting for your seeds to sprout, you can read the guidebook to discover all kinds of fun facts about how seeds grow, what makes them smell, and how each plant can be used. You'll even find experiments and recipes for using the herbs.

I really like the guidebook. It was very thorough, educational, and fun to read. I also liked how colorful the planters were. Everything was packaged very creatively. Most of the seed packets contained enough seeds for multiple plantings.

I was disappointed when I opened my cinnamon seed packet and found it empty. The other seeds sprouted, but they are thin and not as sturdy as I would expect. As much as I love the shape and color of the planters, they aren't the easiest for growing. I eventually replanted them into little clay pots and they did much better. The water didn't drain very well out of the pots provided in the kit, and the sprouts molded very quickly.

Overall, I enjoyed Sprout Your Own Sweet Scents. I believe it was probably just a fluke that one seed packet was empty. The guidebook really impressed me, and honestly, I'd probably buy it with or without the rest of the kit. The kit costs $18.99. That is a little high for my taste, but the guidebook makes it almost worth the price. If I could buy the guidebook separately and pick up the seeds and planters on the side, I'd do that in a heartbeat.

Product review by Heather Randall, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June 2009

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