Nothing gets kids more in touch with food and the seasons than growing a vegetable garden. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Celebrate Arbor Day All Year Long
Make plans to plant a tree to celebrate Arbor Day (April 29) and celebrate all year by tending, watering and all-out pampering your new tree. Plant a fruit-bearing tree, and the love comes right back at you (well, maybe not immediately—it will take a few years). For more information on planting and caring for trees, go to arborday.org.
No Place for a Garden? Make One on a Windowsill
Recycle cans for herb containers. Fill the bottoms with rocks, then with potting soil and your herbs. Place on a sunny windowsill and watch them grow. Parsley, basil and oregano are great starter herbs that make any dish taste better.
Assemble your garden as you would a pan of lasagna—with layers and layers of rich organic material.
How to Plant:
Find a sunny spot in your yard, and have the kids map out what they’d like to grow. There’s no need to remove the grass and weeds or till the soil. Simply place several layers of wet newspaper over the grass. Top with layers of “green” (grass clippings, vegetable scraps and small garden trimmings) and “brown” (dried leaves, manure, pine needles and peat moss), interspersing a few inches of topsoil and compost in between. Top with 3 or four 4 of topsoil and compost. Your finished layers should be about 2-feet tall. No worries—they’ll settle considerably in just a few weeks. Your garden is now ready