Now some of you have children who will willingly eat the family meal, spinach and all.  Well done!  I would love to know how you did it.  My three year old won’t be receiving specialized cuisine for the rest of his life but for now it makes mealtime infinitely easier.  Simply listing out a few ideas for breakfasts, lunches and dinners and then posting it has made life so much easier.   It means that we don’t have to think in the morning after a horrid night with the baby and that we can be sure to have items on hand for kid-friendly meals.

Before we tried this simple tip, we spent a lot of time standing before an open fridge trying to think of healthy combinations for our son.  Also, we made the mistake of listing several choices for him each meal as if we were catering to a very demanding customer.  Now we put his meal before him and find that he’s far more willing to try it.

Our son helped us come up with the list and buy some of the items that we needed to have on hand.  It helps him be involved in mealtime beforehand so that he’s less likely to balk when the meal is placed before him.

Breakfast

• Homemade cocoa-oatmeal, peanut butter and banana
• Cereal and milk, soft boiled egg
• Toasted bagel with peanut butter and raisins, frozen blueberries
• Cottage cheese, apple slices and peanut butter

Lunch

• Peanut butter and honey sandwich, carrot sticks, raisins
• Tortilla roll up with cream cheese and ham, cut into slices, edamame
• Cheese slices, crackers, garbanzo beans with dipping sauce
• Cheese sandwich, dried mango slices, dried seaweed (nori)

Dinner

• English muffin cheese pizza, frozen peas, blueberry smoothie
• Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, garbanzo beans
• Yumm bowl, apple slices
• Cheese quesadilla, lima beans, dipping sauce

I know this isn’t gourmet fare, but it’s nice to have a list of a few meal ideas to get us going. Do you have other favorite meal choices that your child loves?  Please share!

It’s the beginning of November, and my tomato plants are still churning out tomatoes. The beans bit the dust weeks ago. Aphids attacked the carrots, so out they went!  Once everything gets ripped from the ground, how do you get your garden beds ready for winter? Here are some tips I learned from The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C. Smith:

Prepare the soil. Edward C. Smith, or “Ed” as I like to call him, recommends preparing the garden beds in the fall rather than waiting until spring. Once you’ve harvested your veggies, take a broadfork or pitchfork and loosen up the soil. Add in some compost.

Plan ahead. If you know where you’re planting what next year, you can amend the soil accordingly. Carrots like leaf mold and cabbages enjoy lime or wood ashes, for example.

Mulch. Ed says mulching is the number-one most important thing to do to prepare your garden for next year’s planting. Cover those beds with a thick layer of leaves or hay. Or, try planting some winter rye. Till it into the ground once it’s 8 to 16 inches long.

Here is a picture of one of my prepared garden beds. I have left the parsley and scallions, which I can eat all winter long, and covered the rest with red dogwood leaves. In the spring I’ll work the decomposed leaves back into the soil and plant some new crops.

Do you have any other tips for fall gardening? Let us know!

If you read my dejected post outlining my garden failures and my subsequent, more hopeful garden update, you’ll be pleased to know that I am now swimming in tomatoes! My wildest gardening dreams have come true, because I’ve always wanted to be someone who had more tomatoes than she knew what to do with. This year, I can’t claim I’ve saved any money by starting a garden, but in the following years I just may break even or even start saving a few dollars by planting my own produce.

Over 8 pounds in one day!

So what can I do with the eight to fourteen pounds of tomatoes I’m picking each week? Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Gazpacho (Here’s a recipe from the Gluten-free Gourmand)
• Spaghetti sauce
• Roast, then freeze
• Caprese salad

I am also considering canning, but I’m a little intimidated by that. Any other ideas?

If you’ve been following along, you are probably already aware of my black thumb. With my garden failures fresh on my mind, I am shocked to report that I am actually enjoying some success with my tomato plants. So while this post may have nothing to do with green babies, it has everything to do with green tomatoes. Beautiful bouncing green tomatoes (maybe it’s time for a new blog. . . .):

I suffer from Black Thumb. I can’t seem to grow veggies! I’ve tried. Year one I had moderate success, despite starting too late in the season. Year two yielded a few pounds of green beans and maybe five tomatoes from five tomato plants. The next few years were a blur of blossom end rot, un-sprouted seeds, and one-inch carrots.

This was my garden about a month ago. It actually doesn’t look so bad here, but keep in mind that the raised bed in the background has virtually nothing in it but a few dying cukes and peppers.

This year in a new house with a new back yard, I vowed it would be different. I checked books out from the library and pored over my copy of the Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Ed Smith. We made new raised beds, filled them with brand-new four-way soil recommended for veggie gardens, and planted everything according to the directions. It was sunny and I watered my garden faithfully. Why, then are the leaves from my pepper plants turning yellow? Why aren’t some of my plants any bigger now than they were a month ago? Why won’t the carrots, lettuce, and basil sprout?

My friend Ingrid came over to analyze the situation. She recommended amending some of the soil with compost and getting a drip irrigation system. Despite the fact that I’ve already poured too much money into this project, I’m going to take her advice.

The most disappointing thing, for me, is how much time and money I’ve wasted. Isn’t gardening supposed to save money? I am not a gardening failure all-around–I’ve managed to grow a nice organic lawn, maintain around sixty rose bushes and other shrubs and flowers. So what is my problem?

If you have any gardening advice or commiseration, please let me know! I need all the help I can get. It’s not too late to save my garden! (I hope.)

Note: I wrote this about a month ago and have somewhat revived my garden using the method I described above! So if you are a garden failure like me, keep trying. . . . And for more enthusiastic posts about home gardening, check out our organic gardening archives.

I’m all about organic gardening. In fact, even since I became a homeowner in 2004, I’ve managed to use completely nontoxic methods. Now that I’m in my new place, however, I have a problem: aphids. My new yard features about fifty-five rose bushes, and a couple of them happen to be bug-magnets. I tried an organic spray, which does get rid of the aphids–but also turns the leaves strange colors. I’ve bought bags of ladybugs, but they didn’t seem to stick around long enough to do much good. For now I’m just keeping my eye on the aphids and cutting off the leaves and blossoms they congregate on. Any other solutions?

Just one of my fifty-five rose bushes.

When I first read Dr. Alan Greene’s Raising Baby Green, I found it strange that he devoted an entire chapter to gardening. What does gardening have to do with a baby? I wondered. Now I think my view of green parenting was a bit limited. Sure, we should reduce, reuse, and recycle, but it’s also important to avoid polluting the environment with chemicals–chemicals your baby will be exposed to if you plan to spend time in the yard this summer.

I’ve been a homeowner since 2004, and my organic lawn has always looked like something off the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. (Slight exaggeration.) How do I do it?

Use a push mower. I have fear of power tools–and they use energy to run. My yards have always been small enough to mow without gas or electricity. The clippings decompose on the lawn or go into the compost bin. I also have manual clippers, edgers, and other tools.

Prevent weeds. Applying corn gluten (available at nurseries) in the spring and fall keeps weeds from growing, though it does nothing to the weeds already in existence. I’ve never used anything to kill weeds–I simply pick them myself with my handy weed-picking tool.

Use organic fertilizer. Instead of buying chemical fertilizers, buy organic ones.

Believe me, I am no gardening guru, but I’ve managed to maintain a pretty decent patch of grass without resorting to chemicals or power tools.

Are there any organic lawn tricks I’m missing? Let us know!

If you haven’t joined the grassroots home garden movement, it’s nice to know you still can–and without spending a load of cash.  Last week’s post featured several ways to get your hands on free materials. Today we interview a family who has managed to set up six raised beds while parenting two children under three years old.  Whew!

Instead of letting a pile of old cedar fence boards go to waste,  JD and Kara used them to fashion a garden in their front yard.  The results are pretty impressive and extremely cheap.  They also used other recycled materials to keep their beds safe from birds, animals.. and pesky toddlers!

GBG: How have you child-proofed/bird-proofed your beds?

JD made a “cage” for one bed that we’d planted with seeds instead of starts – the cage is made out of some weld wire fencing we had left over from our fence.  He made a sort of box shape out of the wire, about 6 inches tall to keep little hands from easliy reaching the dirt… this may have also helped for the birds… but did not help with slugs, as they ate our first round of beans entirely.

We are trying various ideas to keep the slugs away, including beer to attract them elsewhere, coffee grounds to hop them up on caffeine and keep them busy and crushed egg shells, which are supposed to be unpleasant for slugs to crawl along.

 We had birds eat our first batch of baby pumpkin buds as they emerged from the soil before we knew what was happening, so we replanted after planting sunflowers all around our fence – giving the birds something they’ll enjoy WAY more than baby pumpkin leaves, hopefully. Oh – and we have a giant bamboo teepee to help support some tomato plants.  It also seems to help deter the toddler people some. Mostly… we just have to talk a LOT about plants and how the dirt is their home and we need to be gentle and careful and soon we can eat yummy things.

GBG: What would you tell people about your experience of raising plants from seeds? 

This year we tried to start a few things from seed in the house… the only things that have made it through so far are the spring mix. 

 I think with more experience and time and space we could do more from seed – it’s definitely a LOT cheaper… but with our lifestyle and inquisitive kids, etc. I would highly recommend buying starts.

 We might be brave next year again and try a few things… but starts have a huge advantage because they’re already so much bigger and more likely to thrive AND they take less time and energy (which we obviously don’t have an excess of).  I would recommend seeds to people who are more patient and have the space to get it done.

GBG: What did you use to fasten the recycled fence boards for your raised beds?

The fence boards are old cedar 1X8’s (which are actually 1″X8″ as opposed to modern boards which are only 3/4″X7 1/4″). The corners are just butt joints with 3 evenly spaced 2 1/2″ #8 deck screws.  I may need to eventually repair or reinforce the corners with pipe strap. 

The beds are 6′ by 3′ and the center brace is to keep the soil from bowing out the sides (which usually isn’t an issue on a bed this size if you are using 2X8 lumber). 

Thanks for adding your Thrifty Green Thursday links below so that all of our readers can learn from your simple tips on how to save a bit of money and the planet.  Everyone’s welcome, but if you don’t know where to start, click here for directions.  Thanks for joining us this week!

Imagine creating a kitchen garden that yields heaps of produce all summer long—for free!  Thanks to our recent family budget cutbacks and some wise neighbors, we’ve suddenly found that free gardening is quite possible.  Here are the latest tips we’ve discovered:

1. Find free wood, recycle what you have, or just dump dirt:  When our friends replaced their cedar fencing, they saved the old boards and used them to build raised beds.  Since the boards were just one inch thick, they cross braced them so that the wood wouldn’t bulge.  On Craigslist or through your friends you can usually find people who are looking to unload wood.  If you can’t find wood, just dump dirt on cardboard in your yard and make a bed without the border.  It will work fine and still grow some lovely veggies.
2. Ask for composted dirt: The soil generated by a home compost system is lush and loaded with nutrients.  You may have neighbors or friends who will be happy to donate a bit of their stash for your garden.  If their compost bin hasn’t reached the proper heat, there may be seeds in the soil that “volunteer” over the summer, but that can be an added bonus to a free garden! 
3. Search for free plants.  Since home gardening is all the rage this year, many families have extra garden starts that won’t fit into their beds.  Check Craigslist and ask neighbors to find if you can score a few free plants.
4. Use cardboard instead of weed mats/landscaping fabric.  Instead of weird polyester fabric, cardboard is completely made of paper—and it’s free!  We just cut large boxes open laid them down between the plants.  They block weeds from growing up to the surface and finding light without any harmful pesticides or chemicals.  People also use layered newspaper but I have found that cardboard lasts longer and is a more formidable barrier.   Then we layered on our next free item…. 
5. Use leaves as mulch. Here is our son Roscoe perched upon a mountain of free leaves the city provides to its residents for mulching. The spot is close to our house and we’ve gotten a few carloads already.  The leaves work great to enrich the soil and we’ve just heaped them on top of the cardboard.  They’re attractive, eco-friendly, and, again, free!
6. Make friends with arborists. We asked another neighbor if the giant pile of mulch her driveway had been bought and delivered.  She quickly told me that she’s in the habit of searching out arborists and asking if they will unload their chipped wood at her house.  They’re happy to do it rather than hauling it across town to the dump site.  She also checks with city workers and if she sees that they have extra bark dust after they’re filling a park or public space, she asks if they’ll leave it at her house.  It saves them money, and always provides her with free mulch!  I haven’t mastered this skill yet, but I’m on the lookout for a chipper/shredder to visit our neighborhood sometime soon!

If you use even a few of these tips you’ll save hundreds of dollars and create a food generating system that you’ll enjoy all summer long.  Happy hunting!

For more eco-friendly, budget friendly tips, check below.  We love hearing from our contributors and seeing how our community comments on one another’s sites.  Feel free to join the carnival today just by reading the directions here.  Thanks for visiting us!

For those with newborns and young toddlers, we apologize.  It’s tough to involve tiny ones without having them consume handfuls of dirt or pull new plants out of the ground.  But they can be plunked into a sling or onto a blanket and admire your handiwork as you cultivate a table garden.  And your older children will benefit from all the ideas in today’s post.

Caitlin Blethlen, works with the Youth Gardening division of Growing Gardens, an innovative non-profit that supports urban gardening for low income families.  She has all sorts of tricks and tips for involving children in your backyard farming efforts.  

GBG: Do you have any tips on how to get children involved in the gardening process?

Caitlin: Get your child(ren) involved in dreaming and planning the garden too. One fun activity is to look through a seed catalog together and cut out pictures of what you would like to grow. Consider growing both what you and your child like to eat, and what you haven’t tried yet. Sometimes it is fun to plan a themed garden such as a pizza, salsa or salad garden by growing the main ingredients. Draw an outline of your garden space and glue the photos or draw pictures of where your plants will grow. Remember children are more likely to eat vegetables they participate in growing!

For a quick and exciting project, have your child(ren) plant radish seeds in the garden beginning in early March through June. Radishes grow quickly and are very satisfying. Also, if you have very young children larger seeds such as peas, cucumbers, beans, sunflowers and nasturtiums will be easier for them to handle than the smaller seeds like lettuce or carrots.

Another exciting project is to use a plastic bottle (such as a soda bottle) to grow a micro-garden. Cut off the neck of the bottle and fill it with planting compost. Then have your child plant several different types of seeds in the soil, making sure to plant some near the outside of the bottle. Next water the soil and set in a sunny window sill.  Watch the roots begin to form and seeds to unfurl.

Bean teepees and sunflower arches are a fun way to make inviting living forts for your children. These structures can be constructed out of bamboo poles, sticks or PVC pipe. Have your child plant climbing pole beans like scarlet runners and/or tall sunflowers at the base of the trellis.

Most children LOVE worms, consider creating a worm bin to turn your kitchen scraps into wonderful compost for your garden.  If you live in the Portland, Oregon, area, attend a Growing Garden’s Parent/Child workshop for more ideas.