One seed, when nurtured, can grow and multiply to yield a garden that feeds a family for a lifetime. One penny, when saved and invested, can grow wealth that allows a family to live comfortably. It takes time, patience, and knowledge to grow a garden. It also takes time, patience, and knowledge to achieve financial well-being.

In her personal finance memoir, Growing Wealth, Julie Rains proposes three essentials for achieving financial freedom, just as she learned there are three essentials for growing a garden. She guides readers through those key essentials by sharing her initial failures and eventual successes in gardening and money management, using creatively crafted metaphors to engage her audience.

She takes her readers on a journey, bridging the gap between a scrawny bank account to a healthy brokerage account, all while revealing how to transform a patch of dirt into a batch of homegrown tomatoes. Overcoming her weaknesses in hands-on skills and drawing on her strengths in dealing with money matters, Rains shows how she learned to garden. While tending her garden and harvesting produce, she unearths truths about growing wealth.

There is more than one way to learn—just as there is more than one way to grow your garden and achieve financial freedom. Using Rains' emphasis on applying your strengths to mastering the essentials, your wealth and garden can thrive.