A Guest Post From Amanda

Learning to garden was a process reflective on my stage in life. The first time I planted a vegetable patch, I worked for hours in the soil, tilling and clearing a space. My knees and the palms of my hands were stained with dirt. I was young and I didn’t have the patience or the softness of heart to tend to vulnerable seedlings, so I bought some plants from the hardware store and planted them. And I left them. I washed my hands and trimmed my nails and came back a few days later to find that every last plant had been eaten by deer. That’s the way life worked for me as an impulsive youth. I decided that gardening wasn’t for me.

As I got older and started a family, I became interested in the idea of eating local, eating organic and above all, eating actual food. I had never cared much about my health, but now that I had a child depending on me, I wanted to live well and for a long time. I looked at the ingredient list in the “heart healthy whole grain bread” I was feeding to my one year old daughter. Included in a list of thirty-six ingredients were things like: Enriched Bleached Flour, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Calcium Peroxide, Datem, Ascorbic Acid, Azodicarbonamide. I realized that this bread wasn’t actually bread at all. It was simply a monster science product, packaged as bread. If someone handed me a bottle of Azodicarbonamide and asked me to feed some to my child, I would most certainly refuse. So, why I was I okay with feeding it to her, as long as it came in a cleverly advertised package? If I bought bread from a local bakery, or better, if I baked it myself, it would contain flour, yeast and water. Those were all ingredients in actual food.

Over the next few years, my interest in eating actual food became stronger. I started to shop locally and made meals from scratch. I bought organic, seasonal produce and became seduced by the “shop local, eat local” trend. My daughter and I would go to the farmer’s market on Saturday morning and buy greens for our smoothies and juicy, real tomatoes that killed my ability to eat a supermarket tomato ever again. Mostly, we enjoyed the company we were keeping. The market was always filled with knowledgeable, liberal people with a wonderfully positive outlook on food and the way it related to society. I started to understand the concept of buying local produce was more than just a trendy mantra. It was easy, really. All it meant was that healthy, real food wasn’t grown with chemicals we would be afraid to allow our children to ingest. Actual, fresh food didn’t sit for weeks and weeks without being eaten or get injected with dyes. It was grown at home and eaten as soon as possible after harvesting. I realized that, while I had always enjoyed being one of those farmer’s market, organic-loving mamas, I was also one of the people who believed in being as self-sustaining as possible and I could do this on my own.

I had another daughter, and the three of us fell in love with the dirt over her first summer. I would plop my fat, healthy baby right into the soil and let her explore the textures (and more often than not, the tastes) of the earth. Her little toes settled right down into the mud. My four year old was interested in digging and feeding the soil. I gave her a little patch of land to cultivate all on her own and she grew bunches of kale that were bigger than she was. I was stressed out and cooped up all winter long, so I found the process of weeding and tending and watering in the fresh spring and summer air to be an annual experience of rebirth. I loved sweating out in the sun for hours with my babies in their sun bonnets.

It took a while to master the process of growing crops from seed. It also took me a while to get used to being a mommy. There was an art of persistence, gentleness and other-centeredness in both pursuits. While I learned to rise early and to work hard for my girls, I also learned that a garden wasn’t something that you could rush and power your way through, only to grow tired of the effort before the job was done. I learned that it takes time and love and care and sweat to bring a child into the world and to help that child to grow and thrive, and the same is true for seeds. The more confident I became as a mommy, the better I was at gardening.

Now, we’re at a place where we can supply basically all of our produce during the summer and early fall. We’re still especially fond of just picked tomatoes and wouldn’t be caught dead buying one from the supermarket. We’re kale addicts, admittedly and we supply our extended family with peppers and zucchini, (as well as superb, home baked zucchini bread.) We’re a city family and we don’t have the land or the freedom or the climate to be totally self-sustaining, but we sleep well at night with full bellies knowing that we’re a positive part of the way life works. We live actual lives in the sunlight and we eat actual food and we’re just three little women in the world, but we’re totally okay with having a little dirt under our nails.

Amanda is a 32 year old mom of two living in Pittsburgh and loving it. She is married to the world’s sexiest accountant, who is totally understanding about her love affair with her bicycle. She blogs at Last Mom On Earth.

January and February in this house means lots of garden planning. Last month the Worm Factory was set up to compost for us and this past week a small greenhouse went up. We are now itching to get to auctions and estate sales so we can grab up planters and to get seedlings going in the meantime. We have tons of heirloom seeds and lots of dreams AND fortunately for us our kids get just as excited about growing things as we do. They all want to help because a garden is magical.

Childhood is a time of curiosity, exploration, and adventure. A garden of is one of those great mysteries of life that can bring wonderment and joy to our kids and it is such an educational experience for them. Not only are they able to have a hand in bringing forth new life, kids benefit from being involved in an outdoor activity that enhances their health and their appreciation for the natural environment and how we need to cultivate it.

But not every parents loves to garden or even knows much about it. So what do you do? Well, start small. If you start big and take on more than you can handle you will fail and never want to try again. When planning your first garden I always recommend you choose one or two crops that you can grow at home in small rows or even containers. Strawberries and tomatoes are two good options. But how do you get kids excited about gardening? Here are a few ways:

Read Gardening Books - There are many children’s books on the market that incorporate gardening and child gardeners. What better way to get kids excited than for them to hear about other children and their grand gardening adventures.

One of our favorites is The Curious Gardener. It is about a little boy living an industrialized city who finds a small tree growing near some abandoned train tracks. From that humble starting place he creates a grand garden that motivates the entire city to jump on the gardening bandwagon.

Earth Tales gives children a global perspective as it shows many cultures come together with the goal of caring for their local environment and growing food. It also has several crafts for kids, like making a corn husk dolly.

Sunflower Houses – LOVE this book!! You can use sunflowers to create a playhouse. Once the sunflowers grow to almost full height you take string and tie the tops together to form a “roof” then morning glories can be grown up the sunflowers until they reach the string and fill in the roof. The whole concept is outlined in this amazing book. Another winner is Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots.

Apple Pip Princess – The story is about a sad King whose land and heart have been barren ever since the death of his beloved wife. Concerned about the future of his kingdom he challenges his three daughters to do something important to make their mark and after 7 days the King will see what they have accomplished and decide who the next ruler will be. The youngest daughter decides to use a magical Apple Pip seed from her mother as the basis of her plan.

Plan a Children’s Garden

Make a rainbow! Have the kids help you pick out flowers or herbs in the 6 different rainbow colors… red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Plant them in curving rows with gravel, pavers, river rocks between each row. When they bloom you will have a rainbow!

Grow a functional very fun, Pizza Patch. Carve out a circular section for this one and divide it into sections or slices. In each section grow a different pizza ingredient like tomatoes, garlic, onions, oregano, basil, rosemary, etc. When harvest time comes go out together and gather your ingredients and make pizza from scratch together.

Build a garden tee-pee. This is similar to the sunflower house in concept. You put wooden poles in the ground and angle them to form a tee-pee, tying them together at the top. Make sure it is big enough for kids to pay inside. Then plant vines like morning glories, beans, or gourds so that the walls will fill in with vegetation. Guide the vines at first to make sure that an entrance is left open for little bodies to crawl through.

Create a fairy garden. This can be done indoors or out. For the outdoors, use twigs and sticks that have fallen from nearby trees to make fairy houses and furniture. Use tempera paints to give them color and texture. You can even use hollow nuts to make little boats and beds for them. For the indoors you can make a moss garden in a wide mouth pot or tray and if your kids have fairy dolls or gnomes this can be their new home. There are even complete kits that you can buy to make these easy.

Garden Equipment for Kids

Children love to have their own tools. It really makes them feel like an important member of the family gardening team. There are plenty of children’s tools on the market, like this ToySmith Garden Tote with Tools. You can also scope out thrift stores, and yard sales to find regular tools and then personalize them with a fresh coat of paint in your child’s favorite color.

Play a Game

There are some board games on the market that have a garden/farming theme. Playing these on winter or rainy days will be educational and motivating. Our faves include:

Wildcraft – An herbal adventure games that helps the family to identify herbs and pinpoint their medicinal value.

The Farming Game – My daughter adores this game and requests it VERY frequently, LOL. The gameboard is a working farm, with fields full of produce. Kids harvest the food to sell at their fruit stand. The player who gets to the Fruit Stand with the most produce that wins the game!

The Yoga Garden Game – A cooperative game where the objective is to plant a flower garden before night falls. As players move the bumblebee marker around the board, they learn classic yoga postures, as well as have the chance to invent their own!

How do you get your kids excited about gardening?

When we decide to that we want to become more self sufficient and grow more of our own food, the cost may be prohibitive. We may have our hearts set on nice raised beds, wood planter boxes, a compost box, tools, ect but in all honesty you can grow food MANY different ways and getting started doesn’t have to cost much at all if you get a little creative. Your garden may not end up being a prime candidate for Home and Garden magazine but it will have a whimsical, magical touch and you will be taking charge of your own food freedom.

Usual Ideas for Planters

Tin Cans – Coffee cans and veggie cans make small but cheap planters! They are the perfect size for growing medicinal herbs and flowers and you can even paint a little strip on them with chalkboard paint so that you can write the name of whatever it is that is growing. Just make sure to drill some drainage holes in the bottom. Keep in mind that aluminum can leach and that one or two years may be all you want use aluminum cans and you may just want to stick to herbs or flowers you won’t be ingesting.

Old Tires – If you live in a rural area you may want to check your local Freecycle for old tires, especially tractor tires. You are recycling and they make GREAT planters. My grandmother use old tires on her farm for flower beds, which may be preferable to food if you are worried about leaching.

Pots and Pans – Often times you can get dirt cheap pots and pans at thrift stores and they make great planters if you drill some drainage holes.

Bath Tubs and Sinks – Got and old bath tub or sink and don’t know what to do with it. They make great raised beds!

Wheel Barrels and Wagons – If you have a broken wheel barrel or kid’s wagon they can be retired to the garden.

Coat Rack – If you have an old coat rack to spare or happen to find one at a thrift store they are great in the garden for hanging plants and bird feeders.

Old Appliances – An old stove makes a great patio planter. Open the door and place on it and any pots and pans planters can go on the burners. Make sure to hang a sign overhead that says “Open Range”.

Wooden crates – These can be easy to find at yard sales and thrift stores and they make great planters.

What unusual planter ideas have you come across?

I have an inner war battling inside me. I was born in farm country where corn fields abound and children can ride a horse almost before they can walk. But then I was transplanted to the 5th largest US city and developed a love for city life. I never forgot my roots though and spent every summer back on the farm, riding until my legs were jelly, catching lightning bugs, and enjoying the farm fresh air. Now I often alternate between dreams… a city or suburbs home with a little land to grow things and raise chickens or country home with acres of room to roam and play. I can’t seem to make up my mind… I want both.

Channeling my inner farmgirl

If I had to choose I guess I can now admit that city life is what I truly love but that doesn’t mean I have to completely abandon my farmgirl roots. Just as I would argue with anti-environment wackadoos that being green doesn’t mean living in a cave and eating grass, I believe that living in the city doesn’t mean we can’t also be farmers. They key in both scenarios is that we get creative and create the life we want with the values we want.

Resources for City Farmers

1. The Backyard/Porch Garden –  Most people can grow at least one or two things at home… herbs in the window, potted tomatoes on the patio, strawberries in a barrel, or wheatgrass on the counter. If you can have houseplants then you can grow edible plants too. With container gardening you can take advantage of every inch of space that is accessible to sun. You can even create compost yourself using kitchen scraps and a worm bin.

2. Become a Modern Day Johnny Appleseed – Over the years I have met several people who create gardens on the sly by planting in secluded public areas or abandoned city lots. When we first moved into a city neighborhood in Ohio we bought a very old house with planter beds that surrounded one side of it. Even though the house had been empty for a couple years the planters were full and and being cared for by the next door neighbor who had used all their growing space and co-opted ours. Since we had more than enough space, we allowed them to keep gardening in our yard, even after we moved in. If you see an empty property, contact the owner and see if you can use the land to garden because most times they will be happy to let you do so because it makes the home appear lived in… which buyers like and burglars do not. Well, at least the burglars in areas where copper pipes are still common.

3. Yard Shares – This is closely linked to what I mentioned above but involves people actively seeking to pool their space and resources to grow their own food. Contact friends and neighbors and to see if they have any space to donate to the cause. You could also put an ad on Craigslist or your local Freecycle to find more people wanting to participate. In exchange for offering up some gardening space you get a portion of the bounty or even rent money if you want to go that route… usually $20-$30 a month, depending on the size of the space. If you have always imagined having blueberry plants along your fence line or some fruit trees but aren’t confident you could plant and care for them… ask friends or family to help (labor and $)  in exchange for a share in the annual harvest. We actually did something like this a couple years ago. Another idea might be a chicken coop share.. where one person with sufficient land hosts the chickens and other people spring for feed and volunteer certain days to feed them and clean up after them in exchange for fresh eggs each week or every other week. The key is find other people who value the same things you do and work together to make it happen.

4. Community Gardens – This is a basically a yard share on a much larger scale. A community comes together to garden in plots or spaces. Sometimes they are free but usually you pay rent on your space. These are particularly good for people who live in areas with no yard space available. If your community doesn’t currently have one, see if you can start one. Do you have an empty lot in your area that would make a great garden? Call the owners and see if you can make it happen! Another idea might be to ask your local elementary school to start a community garden using some of their space. Families could volunteer to set up the space and volunteers could meet with kids weekly to help maintain the gardens. It would be educational for the kids and helpful to local families if you donate a portion of all the food to area homeless shelters or food banks.

5. Eat Local – Perhaps you don’t want to grow your own food but you do want to eat farm fresh and have that farm experience. You can visit You-Pick farms and pick your own strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peas, melons, pumpkins, apples, etc. My area in central Ohio has dozens of places that allow you go to the farm and pick your own food. Just this weekend we got a big basket of fresh strawberries from a local strawberry farm and this month we are already looking forward to picking our own raspberries and blackberries. Yum! Half the fun in living in any given are is scoping out all the local farms and places to get fresh food!

Are you a city farmgirl? Have any tips to share?

Related posts: Freedom Gardens – Grow Your Own Food & Composting – The Basics

I am in one of those areas that got lots of snow this past week. We have 1-2 feet in our front yard and rather than being depressed about it… I am loving it. Winter in general this year has been very easy on me. I just stay home and relax. As I look at the calender I am a-okay with a many more weeks of cold even though Spring is my favorite season. Why? Because winter is for dreaming and planning. All good gardens and beautiful yards begin in the winter time… with seeds that begin sprouting in our imagination.

Now is the time to search your local Craigslist and thrift stores as I have been… to look for garden tools, planters, trellises, seeds, seedlings, harvest baskets, and other garden goodies. Now is the time to think about what you will plant and where. I must have kept my hubby up for half and hour past his bed time last night mumbling about snow peas and sugar snap peas. We have decided to gut our front yard and take advantage of the empty flower beds. We are going to remove some ugly bushes and plant herbs instead. We are also going to remove some of the lawn to grow food. In the backyard we are going to build some raised beds and I found two ready-built ones on Craigslist recently for $20!!

I have been compiling my wishlist with things like pea fences and bean towers. I have also been deciding what we need to plant. We are going to have a salsa garden and a salad bar garden this year for sure. In general we will concentrate on growing as much food as possible to see just how self sustainable we can be and it will be a tall order because we used to have 2 acres and now he have a teeny city lot. But I love challenges! To help us get a lot out of a little space  we will be doing square foot gardening. I also want to plant lots of wildflowers and sunflowers in the unused space around our garage. We eat outside almost every night in the summer months so I want fresh cut flowers on the table. Another goal is to make my own Citronella candles and bug-off bars to deter bugs. The bug-off bars recipes is from one of my FAVE books for winter dreamin… MaryJane’s Outpost. Also check out MaryJane’s Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook: For the Farmgirl in All of Us. MaryJane Butters is someone I really admire!!

We also plan to help my parents with their garden and share the bounty. The kids and I will likely be spending every weekend with them come Spring, since hubby might be switching to a three day (weekends only) work week. We will have two gardens to work and enjoy.

AND we are planning to make up for the trip we missed in the Fall and hopefully will get to DC to see the Cherry blossoms this year. Smithsonian here we come!

So what are YOU dreaming up this winter?