Sharing ideas for nurturing happy and healthy kids
After sharing my “May Bouquet,” I thought it might be fun to post a “Bouquet of the Month” with flowers from my backyard garden. This will hopefully give you more ideas of perennials to try in your own backyard. While I was snipping a favorite color combination of deep blue delphinium with citrus-colored butterfly weed, I realized the inspiration for this bouquet came … [Read more...]
Picture a salad bowl filled with a mix of fresh organic lettuce, mesclun and arugula. Then imagine the pride and joy you feel knowing it came from your garden! Salad greens are one of the easiest types of vegetables to grow, making them a great garden activity for kids. Only a few hours of sun in your yard? No problem—greens actually do better in summer heat without all-day … [Read more...]
While tulips and daffodils are flowers we most often associate with springtime, there are many other pretty perennials that bloom early to mid-spring. Over the last decade, I’ve planted a variety of perennials in my backyard garden so that something is blooming every month from March through October. With the warm temps this April, flowers seemed to pop up … [Read more...]
Reading the book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver made me want to run out and plant my very own perennial asparagus garden. So that is what we did last spring! We created a raised bed, filled it with compost, added some lime (asparagus like a higher PH soil), and put in crowns that we bought from Johnny’s selected seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com).  We … [Read more...]
Onion sets and pea seeds are both ideal for young children to plant in mid-spring. Their larger size makes them easy to see and handle. Plus, they grow quickly and the emerging shoots are large and dramatic looking. Harvesting is also fun. Kids love pulling green onions out of the soil or pinching pea pods off vines. Here are some helpful planting tips: Onion sets are … [Read more...]
Have you ever heard that advice before… the best way to ensure gardening success is to make a $10 hole for a $5 plant? I really had to keep this great recommendation in mind this past weekend when it was beautiful and warm weather here in Chicagoland. All I really wanted to do is plant --because getting seeds and plants in the ground is what makes me feel good and … [Read more...]
If Kathyrn’s photo of her first little sprout has inspired you to start some flower, herb or vegetable seeds indoors, here are some guidelines for a planting schedule. Northern Illinois is in Hardiness Zone 5a with an average last frost date of May 15. (If you don’t live in Northern Illinois and want to find your Zone and last frost date, click on the link below to help … [Read more...]
Snow may be on the ground, but sprouts are coming up for the flowers that we’ve planted indoors! Starting seeds indoors is a great way to involve your kids—from mixing and dampening the soil, to filling the seedling trays, to carefully dropping a seed or two in each cell. Kids can’t believe how tiny some seeds are, like impatiens flowers or coleus. We always start … [Read more...]
No, eggshells are not an endangered species that we must rally around. But if you’re planting tomatoes in your garden this spring, you might want to start saving eggshells. Last year I ran across a newspaper article explaining that tomato plants grown in calcium-deficient soil experience more blossom end rot—a condition where a watery spot appears at the blossom end of the … [Read more...]
Nothing warms the winter heart of a gardener quite like the arrival of mail-order seed catalogs. They usually start pouring through my mail slot in January, but I must have gotten onto some ĂĽbergardener list since a few arrived in December! I think I did go overboard last year buying seeds. I knew I couldn’t possibly plant them all, but when you’re a seedaholic (does … [Read more...]
