Gardening With Your Kids

A few posts ago I talked about the little steps towards healthy eating that I do with my family. One of the ways I provide healthy food is by growing some of our own veggies in the summer.

I grew up with a family of gardeners so I have a bit of an advantage when it comes to the amount of background  knowledge I have. Nonetheless, I have had my fairshare if gardening failures but haven't let it deter me from continuing to try new plants and grow new things. 

I am now trying to teach my daughter these things so she develops a love and appreciation of gardening too. I love seeing my child's eyes light up as she sees the perennials pop up each spring and the excitement when the first tomato appears on a plant or he first strawberry is ready to be picked. 

I am a firm believer that children should see plants grow and so they understand where plants come from and how much work goes into helping them grow. Also, children seem much more eager to eat veggies when they've helped grow them!

The return on investment is really pretty good. A few dollars for a set of tomato or pepper plants, some herbs, or any other plant will usually provide I have more than we can eat at the end of the season.

I strongly encourage you to garden with your children, even if you only do a simple potted plant such as a tomato plant or a bowl of lettuce. No one says you need a full size farm. The process of planting, caring for, and harvesting is full of teachable moments. 

Here are some other tips I've gathered:


~Grow a theme garden. For example, a pizza garden. Grow pizza ingredients - basil, tomatoes, oregano, onion, and green peppers, etc.

~Let you child feel special by giving then their own kid size gloves and shovel/spade to use while helping you or working in their own special area. 

~Plant a sensory garden. Let you child explore gardening by using all their senses. Kids enjoy touching plants so plant a variety of textures, lambs ear is very soft in contrast straw flowers are very crispy. Sense of smell is very powerful. Look for fragrant flowers such as sweet peas, marigolds, and freesia. Bright colors are great visual stimulators. Look for a varity if colors or let your child pick their favorite color but in a variety if plants. Introduce new tastes by picking a few new veggies that your child has never tried and make a special meal out of it come harvest time. 

~Encourage your child to experience all the things that go along with gardening. Let them browse the seeds at the store and chose flowers or vegetables they want to grow. Have them start seeds in simple Dixie cups ans place near a window to grow in they are big enough to transplant outside.

~If you have enough room let hem have those own little comer of the garden to plant and care for.

In the end it doesn't matter how much you harvest from your garden, the important thing is to let your child enjoy the expierence. 

Natural VS Organic VS Healthy….. What is a mom to do?

After my little yogurt ordeal in the grocery store the other day I got to thinking about healthy eating and the challenges that moms face when having to provide their children with healthy foods in such a challenging time.

We all want to feed our kids the best. I know when my daughter was born I wanted to give her the most 'organic' and 'natural' foods I could. Especially when first introducing solid foods that first year. When we switched to milk I vowed to buy the good stuff (lets rephrase that, I bought the expensive stuff) so she wouldn't get hormones and all those other "terrible" things that I read about as a new mom…..

Here is a study from Stanford about organic vs regular produce…. I consider Stanford a pretty good source. I was surprised by this study. https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2012/09/03/research-shows-little-evidence-that-organic-foods-are-more-nutritious-than-conventional-ones/

Fast forward 4 years…. I am still trying to provide healthy foods for all of us but i feel like i am fighting a losing battle. Between living on a budget and the cleverness of the advertising companies along with limited time (I am a full time working mom) and a host of other things in life.

We are not the prime example for organic healthy eating……  However, we are not unhealthy either.

I'd say we fall right in the middle. I decided to do a bit of my own web research and share some tips on how I balance todays mass produced foods with some healthy choices for my family.

1. We decided to purchase our beef locally from a farmer who raises and slaughters his own cattle. The cattle are very well cared for. Raised in small numbers. Hormone free. Feed a primarily grass diet with supplementation of oats, hay, and other healthy materials during the winter months. Let me tell you, I have never liked red meat. This meat is phenomenal!

2. We garden during the summer. We have a 4'x8' raised garden bed and we grown lettuce, tomato, spinach, carrots, strawberries, lots of herbs and more. (we tried beans and peas but I can't seem to win the war against aphids.) Gardening is easy. Gardening is fun. Gardening is a great way to get your little ones outdoors and involved so they see where food comes from.

3. I read nutrition labels carefully at the store.

4. I cook as many meals as I can during the week
To me this means: We don't eat out often and don't microwave or heat up boxed dinners. I don't make everything from scratch, but I find ways to incorporate as many fresh and healthy ingredients as I can while still making it in a doable amount of time.

5. I balance my choices knowing that sometimes life isn't going to be perfect and we will occaisonally eat at a fast food restaurant, occasionally make boxed mac and cheese (see how i make mine a bit more healthy here), and yes, sometimes I will give in and buy a food because my daughter sees the cartoon character and begs for it and at the moment it makes my life easier.

I would love to be super mom and serve only the best but there is no such thing as 'supermom'. There is just me and I know that the decisions I make for my family in the moment are the best I can make at that moment. The older I get and the more life experience I have I realize how hard life is. I try not to judge other moms and I hope other moms don't judge me. If we all look into our hearts and know that we are doing the best we can for our families in the decision we make today then we are doing good.

In todays world, I feel like healthy isn't a place one can be but instead it has to be a goal that we strive for.

What choices do you make that make your families food choices a little healthier each day?

Some other resources for you to check out:

a great blog about a mom and her move from feeding her son all organic and her quest for knowledge about todays pesticides and todays foods. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/the_kids/2014/01/organic_vs_conventional_produce_for_kids_you_don_t_need_to_fear_pesticides.html

http://www.stonyfield.com/blog/natural-and-organic/

here is a great ABC news piece on how labels can deceive:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2014/02/natural-vs-organic-how-food-labels-deceive/

In my mind Mayo Clinc is a pretty good place to get healthy and medical information. Here is a piece they wrote about foods:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/organic-food/art-20043880

Free onions

Did you know you can get free onions! (Well you do have to grow them.)

In the spring and buy a package of 200 onion bulbs for a $1.99 and plant them in my garden because I love having green onions. They require very little care to grow, just occasional water if there us a dry spell, and then you just pull them up when you want them. These cost pennies a piece compared to the 10 for a $1 pay for at the store.

Here is the free part: Chop off the ends (roots plus 1/2 an inch to 3/4 of an inch) and replant them right back out I the garden. 

Just use your thumb to make a one inch hole, insert the onion roots down, cover with dirt, water, and walk away.

In a few weeks time you'll have another set of green onions!

*Note: Green onions are very hardy. If you don't have a garden bed you can also grow them in a container on your deck backyard as long as they plenty of sunlight.

Do you know any other good garden tricks?

How does your garden grow?

Do you have a back yard veggie garden?

Backyard gardening seems to be growing in popularity. The year after we purchased our house my husband built a raised bed for a veggie garden. 

Due to the cold spring I was really late in getting started this year but after only 3 weeks if growth it's looking good. I am already drooling at the thought of a fresh garden salad. 

New to my garden this year are cucumbers. (Lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, tomatoes, jalapeños, onions and herbs are all returning plants.)

I decided to nix the bell peppers. I've had no luck with those the last three years.

What about you? Do you garden? How big? For fun, fresh produce, to save money? Do you have tips to share?

Water the plants while I'm away.

I've seen those cool aqua globes, but can't get my fugal self to spend money on them. Last year I tried the wine bottle in the potted plant while i'm on vacation trick.

It worked fairly well while we were gone on a weeks vacation. But I'm sure my neighbors were wondering how much wine I really drink....

This year I decided to tweak the idea just a bit. If you can invert the bottle and water over a long time I thought why not punch holes in the bottom of a 2 liter bottle and bury it in the pot, then fill it with water and let it soak up from the bottom. It will serve the purpose of watering my plants while on vacation, give them a source of extra water on really hot days, and I don't look like an alcoholic or pop addict with bottles sticking out of my plants while i'm gone.

Step one: cut several holes into the bottom of a 2 liter bottle. Coke has those neat little feet that you can cut off.  (I also added a few small slits randomly on the lower half if the bottle) Be careful, a sharp strong kitchen shears and some firm plastic will make for a slippery surface. (as you can see by the Mickey Mouse bandaid on my hand)

Step two: add a small layer of soil on the bottom so the top of the bottle will be just above soil level once the pot is full.

Step three: fill with potting soil. Add plants. Water. Enjoy the beauty of nature!