Backyard Gardening & Kale Chips

Jamie Ervin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:49:43 +0000

Gardening with your children provides valuable lessons, family togetherness time and plenty of fresh veggies to dress your table.

I’m a big slacker this year. My big, fat, Eco-Confession? I didn’t plant a garden this year. This means we have been relying on farmers markets and u-pick to survive! Ugh.

But, wait… I have a pretty good excuse. We moved this Spring. Our Spring was consumed with painting, cleaning, packing and unpacking. It was pretty crazy around here. Then my beloved Mama passed away and I didn’t want to do much of anything for a good two months. Now, I’m up and running… but my yard is far from it! Since this is a new to us home, there was already a bunch of yard work to do. Needless to say, we haven’t gotten around to much of it, which includes clearing the garden beds and replanting.

So, that’s the plan this weekend. Get those beds cleared and start our transplants inside the house. Good thing I have plenty of kids.

Gardening With Kids

Summer Minor — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:32:01 +0000

Despite the cold weather outside, seed catalogs are starting to arrive in the mail and making promises of the spring to come. If you are like me the idea of getting outside and digging in the dirt makes you giddy with joy. Of course, you don’t have to hog all that fun for yourself. Getting dirty, digging holes, and watching new little plants bloom make gardening with kids double the fun.

Getting kids involved in gardening is very easy to do, no matter if you have a huge yard to grow things in or are using pots on the balcony of you apartment. Even children as young as two can help with basic gardening tasks such as watering, planting, and pulling weeds. Begin by letting your little one in on the planning of your garden. Whether you are growing vegetables or flowers, letting them pick out some of the plants will make kids even more involved. Older children might even enjoy having a small garden of their own. A simple 3 foot by 3 foot square is big enough to grow nearly anything and yet still small enough for kids to manage on their own. Indoor gardeners could give their children a few pots or an entire window box of their own to care for.

Green Options » gardening with kids

Backyard Gardening & Kale Chips

Gardening With Kids