Strollerderby : gardening

Grow Baby, Grow!

JeanneSager — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:38:00 GMT

When pumpkins started sprouting out of my compost pile last year all of their own accord, I was probably even more excited than my daughter. I didn't have to figure out how to get those things to grow!

The top two things holding most parents back from growing their own food? Space and fear . . . fear that they don't have the money, the time, or the know-how.

Turns out you don't need much of any of the above.

A Georgia family made this video for Earth Day, but it's appropriate for all spring long - and for every family. Living in a city area, BreeAnne and Courtney (owners of one of my favorite clothing stores) show you don't need much land or much money to grow a few things. And their daughter has more fun than you can shake a worm at (no, really, watch!).

They're not growing much, but even just some tomatoes and peppers have the makings of some yummy tomato sauce (and if you've ever eaten a fresh-out-of-the-garden tomato, you have now lived long enough to die and go to some food heaven somewhere . . . seriously).

Inspired? Check out this great composting for kids how-to and this primer on gardening with kids and get eating.

Image: Kids Gardening

Do You Dig for Victory?

Shannon LC Cate — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:07:00 GMT

During World War II, the concept of the "victory garden" was introduced by the federal government to encourage people to grow their own food in their backyards, and thus decrease the strain on national commercial food production, allowing that energy to flow to the war effort. One 1940s-era book on the subject told people they'd save money on groceries and then suggested what to do with the money:

"Those dollars can go into the bank account, or you may patriotically transform your beet, onion and cabbage savings directly into Defense Bonds."

These days, with increasing popular concern about food safety, increasing interest in organic eating and a growing desire among more and more people to reduce their "carbon footprints" food gardening is popping into vogue again. The L.A. Times recently reported on the phenomenon, anecdotally suggesting that gardening for political, ecological or budgetary reasons (or all three) are standing in these days for the single-minded war effort of the 40s.

I found the article intriguing in part because, after having children, my insistence on organic produce increased a hundredfold and my grocery bill almost increased as much. I have shopped farmers' markets and joined CSAs but when desperate, I've forked over the hard, cold cash at Whole Paycheck as necessary.

This year, with an increased amount of outdoor space--albeit, on a third-floor condo patio--I've decided to try container gardening for food. My older child will be four next month and I am planning to involve her in the whole project from sprouting seedlings and transplanting to harvesting and preparing the food. This way, I get even more for my time, money and effort. I get educational enrichment and fun family time with my kids.

Do you garden? Do you garden with children? Do you garden for fun, profit, food security, politics or other reasons? Have you taken up gardening recently, or have you done it for years? What's your advice for me and any other gardening newbies out there?

image: local harvest.org

They Say: Gardening Makes You Green

Amy Kuras — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:02:00 GMT

Want to raise kids with a strong connection to nature? You don’t need to look any further than your backyard, according to a new study from the Horticultural Sciences department at Texas A&M University.

Researchers at the school looked at whether or not formal, hands-on youth gardening programs had any effect on elementary students’ environmental consciousness.

Study results indicated that children that had any type of experience with gardening – and 80 percent of them had had previous experience before the gardening program that was studied -- had more positive attitudes toward the environment when compared with students that had not gardened in any setting.

Researchers concluded that hands-on gardening activities are important to the development of environmentally concerned citizens. Interestingly, they also concluded that children's involvement in informal gardening experiences has as much impact on their environmental outlook as involvement in formal school-based programs. So it’s true that raising a budding environmentalist may start with asking your little one to help water your vegetable patch.

Girls and Caucasians appeared to draw more benefit from the gardening curriculum. The study authors suggested that future research should focus on the development of gardening curricula that target the needs and interests of boys and minority children.

Greenhouse: Weeding Out Weeds

Amy Kuras — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:02:00 GMT

Let's talk about weeds. No, not the Mary Louise Parker vehicle, and not the smoky-smoke kind. The ugly, prickly, insidious kind that crowds out friendlier plants.

With two little kids, about 17 jobs, and a house to take care of, I've given up my customary gardening this year save for a few tomato and basil plants. But that leaves fertile ground, literally, for weeds to come in and take over. Even if I were not attempting a more green lifestyle, I have plants in there I want to encourage, so soaking the beds with Roundup and being done with it is out — not to mention I’d rather my kids not eat tomatoes that had been so recently exposed to God-knows-what chemical herbicides.

And then there's our lawn. Suffice it to say when a photo of my daughter, husband and dog on the front walk of our house ran in a local publication last year, more than a few people commented not on the significant cuteness of all three, but on the visibly weedy lawn.

Good old Organic Gardening mag to the rescue (I remember my dad getting this in the 1970s — these guys were green way before it was trendy). They have a whole section on identifying, treating and eradicating weeds. I've already done one thing, mulched the hell out of the beds. Extra bonus, now I know exactly what a hoe is for. With a little more work, soon I can spend weekends in the yard with a glass of iced tea instead of sweating over the weeds outside.

Front Yard Gardens Improve Diets, Communities

Alisyn — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:26:00 GMT

Ripping up the front lawn and planting a garden may sound rash, but not only is this new trend improving the diets and culinary skills of many families across the country, it's also a great way to strike up conversations with neighbors, and make a statement about the importance of fresh, local, seasonal eating.

Architect and artist Fritz Haeg is part of a project called 'Edible Estates' (the book, due out in 2008, is called Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn), and says he's been overwhelmed by the response people have had to the front yard garden, and who want him to design their front garden next.

'People are obsessed with their homes, creating these cocoons that isolate them,' he said. 'This project is about reaching out, getting them connected to their streets." Not only will it look beautiful, but, as one front gardener points out, growing your own organic fruits, veggies and herbs will ensure clean, healthy eating without breaking the bank. It may help you make new friends, too: Some front-yard gardeners say that ripping out the sod and putting in vegetables gave the neighbors their first-ever excuse to speak to them.

We live on a busy suburban street - and only know a handful of our neighbors. I'm thinking this could be just what the doctor ordered - a great conversation piece, and a healthy family project to boot! Think the car exhaust would contaminate the crops, though?

[Via NewforParents.org]

Organic Food: Not As Great As We Think?

Karen Murphy — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:37:00 GMT

I've been paying the extra bucks and feeding my kids organically-grown foods for years now, because like many parents, I believe that pesticide-free food is better for small developing bodies that are less likely to be able to effectively assimilate chemicals. I know, too, that eating locally is also "better": not only does it help support your local economy via mostly small family farmers, but energetically it's preferable as well (stay with me here: this is macrobiotic theory), as your body can better use the energy from foods from your climactic and geographical region.

But how to balance the two? Typically, the organic produce I see in, say, Whole Foods isn't local (nor, mostly, is the other stuff, but that's beside the point). So, is it a big deal? Why yes, it is, actually, if part of your reason for eating organically also has to do with the environment and the chemicals released through large-farm production. Because guess what? The environmental cost for organically-grown produce may actually be higher than conventionally-grown produce. Grown without pesticides and herbicides, organically-grown produce is more labor-intensive (think about all those weeds in your own garden), and the cheapest labor is the farthest away, at least if you live in North America.

Yikes! Makes you think, doesn't it? It does me. Right now is a good time, seasonally speaking, to be thinking about making changes, as there are in most areas plentiful options that are local, and in most cases, cheaper: farmer's markets, CSAs, local family farms. But what about the rest of the year? Unless you have your own space for gardening and grow enough to put up the excess for the winter, it's a quandary. I guess it's time to decide how much that kiwi and that mango means to you in January, let alone those strawberries.

[original article pointed by Karen Rani guesting at The Zero Boss]

Open Your Mouth: Grow Your Own Dinner

Patti — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:28:00 GMT

Early this spring our family had a great time planting a huge herb garden, with a few tomato plants thrown in for good measure. Our preschool-aged children were totally up to the task of helping dig and place the tiny seedlings, and thereafter if they were bored, they could be sent out to water or weed the plant beds. Within a couple weeks, virtually every meal we prepared had something in it that we had grown ourselves.

Then we moved. Now we've got a plastic pot of basil from Trader Joe's sitting on the steps, and I have a couple of teensy pots of grow-your-own parsley seeds from the dollar bins at Target, which have yet to sprout. Thank goodness for farmer's markets, right? Only I can't send my kids to the farmer's market to play when they're squirrelly.

I can't rave enough about gardening, on any scale, as a family activity. Even though nurturing a plant hasn't made an immediate impact on my picky-eating older child's habits, her interest in what each plant is and how it's used gives me hope for her palate. And it doesn't require a particularly green thumb: herbs practically grow themselves, you can even buy Chia Herb Gardens.

This week if I had lemon thyme, I'd be roasting a chicken. If I had tarragon, I'd be making a big mustardy potato salad. And if I had dill, I'd be grilling salmon with it. Instead, I guess we're having pesto. I can't wait to get another garden into the ground, and neither can the kids: watering the ficus isn't quite cutting it for them.

George Hapgood explains the benefits of gardening for kids, without even getting to the part where you can make them put in some hard labor go play in the dirt when they're working your nerves. Kalyn's completely sparking my envy with her herbs and vegetables (maybe I can go steal some of my herbs from the old house?). And over at Adventures in my Urban Garden you can learn about how one person is getting her dirt fix right in the city, participating in a community garden project.

Kids With Gardens Eat More Vegetables

Karen Murphy — Sat, 19 May 2007 14:41:00 GMT

As parents, we're often trying to get our kids to eat something, anything, healthy, and it turns out that there's a pretty easy way, as long as you have the back-forty cleared and easy access to a rototiller: a new study shows that kids eat better when they're eating from their own garden .

According to the study, "garden-fed children were more likely to see their parents eating fresh fruits and vegetables, and that people in homes with gardens had access to greater variety of produce." (Except in my garden, where I refused to grow anything but tomatoes, green beans, and cucumbers.) Actually, I would say that this was true in my kids' case. They now look on vegetables differently had we not had several years of our own backyard garden. And there was a fair amount of enthusiasm for the project, which helps tremendously.

Great! So get out your Garden Weasel and your Troy-Bilt Lead-Free Garden Gloves and $100 worth of organic seed, and you're set! No word about what to do when you don't actually have a back-forty, or even a back yard. I dunno, lemme think about it after I open this bag of Oreos.

Earth Day: Fun Ways To Celebrate

Patti — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 22:19:00 GMT

Earth Day is this Sunday, and man, they really knew what they were doing in 1970 when they originally set the date for April 22. This is the time of year in most parts of the country where things have really turned to spring and people are finally able to get out and enjoy the outdoors. It's a perfect time to reintroduce your family to nature, whether that means outdoor activities like hiking or camping, learning to ride a two-wheeler, or getting your garden on.

Even if you're in one of the parts of the planet where spring hasn't quite settled in (Northeastern US, holla!), there are things you can do this weekend to observe Earth Day and get your kids thinking about their role in the ecosystem. Over at Kaboose, there are tons of crafts for kids of all ages, including awesome (and tasty) herb pots, a great "fossil" project using recycled coffee grounds, and some tasty recipes.

One Hour Craft also has a terrific gardening project for kids that doesn't require a yard or any outdoor space at all, really: starting seeds in tiny greenhouses made from plastic soda bottles. And if that's too crafty for you, head to Target--they've got tiny little terra-cotta pots with dirt pellets and seeds in the dollar bins right now.

Urban Gardener: Willow Wigwam for Kids

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:31:00 GMT

Are you thinking about gettin' your yard or garden (or patch of dirt) on for Spring? You might want to consider setting aside a corner for this cute willow wigwam. It's no secret that kids love to garden, and this is a fun family project. Plus, this is way cooler (and far more eco-friendly) than any of those ugly, plastic, snap-together playhouses.

My brother built one of these out of bamboo in his yard, only his is about 10 feet high and big enough for 3 or 4 kids to fit easily inside. He started with green bamboo poles that he buried in the ground then bent gently together to form the top of the teepee. As the bamboo dried it got more sturdy.

In the spring sweet peas and flowering vines cover the the structure making a green and shady haven. In the summer he grows squash and vine tomatoes on it, and his kids get a kick out of harvesting the vegetables that grow in and out of their "playhouse." In the winter, devoid of greenery, it serves as a reminder of fun times past and future.

No yard? Perhaps your local park or garden co-op would be willing to let you build one of these. You never know until you ask.

[photo: kiddley.com]

Get Your Garden On

Patti — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:25:00 GMT

Suddenly it's springtime in the Bay Area: like early springtime everywhere the weather sporadically turns very warm and sunny, alternating with chillier and rainier days. You never know what you're going to get, but you can tell that it's going to start tipping in favor of more warmth and sunshine, as the trees are starting to bud and the daffodils are already giving way to the tulips. The warm weather means a few things to my family: one, that it's time to stop ignoring the tiny patch of grass we call a yard. Two, that the girls can finally celebrate the return of water and swimsuits to their outdoor play. And three, that it's time to get down and dirty in the garden.

Gardening is something we are learning as we go, and one thing we've learned is that if you choose your plants carefully based on what grows best in your region and keep your expectations low, you can't possibly fail. We replaced some annual herbs and added a couple of tomato plants to the strip of back yard we've designated as our little farm, and our 2.5- and 4-year-olds were instrumental in the hole-digging, dirt-patting, water-spraying processes.

If you don't have a yard, there's a lot you can do in a pot. We've got a dwarf lime tree in one that now produces heavily enough to keep us in margaritas for months, and it takes up one square foot of space, and this year we're trying our hands at strawberries for the first time, supervising our preschoolers as they gently pressed tiny seeds into wee little starter pots of soil. For the next several weeks it will be their responsibility to help me remember to water the new plants, and a few months from now they'll be tasked with helping find the ripest fruits on the tomato vines. And if the pests get us, or the birds eat our strawberry seeds? We had a heck of a day sitting in the dirt together, anyway.

For gardening resources:

KidsGardening

EarthEasy's Gardening With Children

Container Gardening