Make Gardening a Family Affair - Part 1: Why Gardening Is Good for the Whole Family!

Gardening offers so many benefits for those who make it a part of their lives! It can put some extra food on the table, offer nutritious foods for your family’s good health, and it can be a fun hobby, too. However, not only can it be a great activity for one person, but it can also be a bonding experience for the whole family to do together.

When you involve your loved ones in gardening, it also lightens the workload of one person having to prepare and care for a garden, and it will give your family time to support each other, offer praise, and share excitement – all in a peaceful setting without the intrusion of electronics.

It’s easy to get your whole family involved in creating and maintaining a sustainable garden. Your spouse and children can help take care of the garden as a whole - with everyone working side by side, or you can split up portions of the garden into different sections and rotate it among family members so that each person spends time helping another person in your family.

Why Gardening Is Good for the Family

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gardening isn’t just a good hobby. You can learn a lot of different things through gardening, including self-sufficiency. When you involve your family in the process of growing their own fruits and vegetables, you’ll be helping them learn many useful things that can benefit them now as well as later on in life.

When your family gardens, everyone will have to learn which fruits and vegetables are best grown in the spring and summer, and which ones are best grown in the fall. You can give everyone a lesson on planting zones and how to choose which produce grows best in your area.

You will also learn how weather can affect plants, how water and sunshine help the plant to grow, and what bugs are attracted to certain plants. These facts will interest teens as well as younger kids.

You can learn more than just the facts and benefits of plants for food. When you garden with your family, you can learn other uses for a plant. For instance, some of them have been used throughout human history to treat certain health issues.

Teach them that the basil they’re growing can possibly help treat headaches. Let them know that the lavender they see sprouting up is something that can help calm and soothe them after a stressful day, even helping them sleep better at night!

As you work with your family to plant and care for a garden, let them learn which fruits and vegetables work best with certain dishes and which ones they like most. You don’t want to plant something no one likes and that you’ll never eat!

Gardening is also a great way to explore and learn brand new foods to try. If you’re first starting out, use fruits and vegetables that are easy to grow, such as beets, carrots, cucumbers, snap peas, and blackberries.

Once you’ve been gardening for awhile, don’t be afraid to experiment with different fruits and vegetables. Mix up your garden to create some color and variety. Have fun letting others in your family choose what to plant in the garden! Teens and younger kids will especially enjoy having this choice.

Another benefit of gardening is getting to watch your kids become self-confident when they learn to grow a vegetable or fruit on their own.

You’ll also get to see your child become more responsible as they take care to water the plants and pull weeds to help the garden grow.

Let your family members each be responsible for their own fruits and vegetables. Allow them to learn and to research the care that different types of plants need.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gardening can also help open up communication. If you have older kids and teenagers, many parents find it hard to communicate with them. But if you can have them help you in the garden, it creates time you can spend with them one on one – without friends texting them or the TV blaring in the background. Sometimes, all it takes is doing an activity together to help strengthen family bonds!

Not only does gardening help with communication, but it also opens your family up to having something they all share. It helps bring the family together and adds closeness.

This works the same with your spouse.

If you both work, time with each other can be limited. But having something that you both take care of together can offer a time for communication as well as a fun hobby.

Just keep in mind that different family members will enjoy certain tasks more than others. While you might enjoy pulling weeds, another family member might not be so thrilled with it. Make sure to split up the tasks so no one gets stuck doing something he or she hates.

As you can see, gardening together as a family has many benefits for everyone, and can help bring your family closer together doing something productive that you all can enjoy!

Be sure to check back next week for some more helpful tips on getting your kids involved in the garden....

14 Organic Vegetable Gardening Tips

Gardening is one of those pastimes that is more than a hobby - it's personal! And to complicate it, Mother Nature doesn't always help you out. How, then, do you succeed with your vegetable garden? It's never a sure thing, but these gardening tips and bits of advice might help.

1. Keep a journal. Record when you plant, how much you planted, how much you harvested, any bug or disease issues and what you think you might do differently next year. Then next year, refer back to what you wrote. You'll be surprised by how much you can forget in a year if you don't write it down.

Raised bed of lettuce, tomatoes, 6 different types of basil, marigolds, zinnias, garlic chives, zucchini. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2. Keep a positive attitude. That total fail with your tomatoes this year? It will make a good discussion piece with other gardeners. And next year can only be better. Hopefully.

3. Tis better to cover your tender plants before the heavy rain and hail starts, not during. Keep your eye to the sky and take weather forecasts seriously.

4. Every year is different. Don't ever think you've got this thing in the bag, because if you do, you're jinxing your next crop.

5. Plan for moderation. When planning out your garden during the winter, reduce the size and number of plantings you think you want. Looking at those seed catalogs makes you go overboard - I know from experience!

6. It starts and ends with your soil. (I would double-bold that if I could.) The health of your soil is more important than you might realize. Healthy soil makes healthy disease-resistant plants that give a good yield.

Also, it's soil, not dirt.  :-)

7. Kitchen gardens are placed near the kitchen for a reason. Gardeners who break their backs digging, hoeing and weeding, don't want to walk too far to pick a few things to go in the dinner.

8. When seed packs say not to plant outside before the first frost date, they mean it.  But sometimes you can get away with starting before the approved planting date by using row covers, cold frames, or Wall O' Waters. It's up to you if you want to take your chances.

9. If you're planting a seedling, peat pot and all, tear off the bottom of the pot. The pots are supposed to decompose but that can take a while and you don't want your seedlings to become root-bound.

10. Pole beans aren't the only thing that can climb a trellis; so can cucumbers, melons and squash. Think vertical - especially when you're space-challenged.

11. If you have raised beds, you can use an old window or door screen to cover small seedlings so they're protected from birds, bunnies and bugs.

Powdery Mildew on a tomato plant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

12. Worms in your garden are a good sign. Slugs are not.

13. Your tomatoes will never taste exactly the same from year to year; it's going to depend on the weather and water conditions.

14. Water your vegetables in the early mornings. Midday watering can mean evaporation in the hot sun, and can sometimes burn the leaves if they get wet, and nighttime watering might give your plants powdery mildew problems from being moist all night.

These vegetable gardening tips should give you a leg up, but they're only the beginning. For more, get yourself a gardening app for your phone or iPad, read gardening books and magazines, talk to experienced old-timers, and get out there and experience it firsthand. There's nothing more rewarding than growing a successful garden!

Must-Have Gardening Tools & Accessories for Small Gardens

You wouldn’t try to carve a roast chicken with a spoon, would you?

Of course not!

This same philosophy applies to gardening, as well. Having the right equipment to do the job at hand will save you countless hours and tons of frustration in the long run. Any experienced gardener will tell you how much easier it is to grow your own fruits and vegetables if you have the right tools and accessories in your arsenal. 

The gardening tools and accessories you need will depend on the type and scale of gardening you plan to do. If you have a large garden with lots of ground-level beds, you will need an assortment of shovels for digging, edging and moving piles of material. You’ll also need a good hoe to keep weeds at bay and maybe a pick ax to break up tough soil. A durable wheelbarrow to haul mulch and other materials in and around your garden area is also important. Over time, this limited collection of tools and accessories will undoubtedly grow to suit your individual gardening style.

However, if you only have a small area to plant or prefer to limit your gardening to containers, you will need a slightly different set of gardening tools. The following items are ideal for small space gardening.

A Good Collection of Gardening Hand-Tools

Short-handled, ergonomically designed gardening tools are great for hand planting and small digging jobs. There are a number of hand-held gardening tools on the market. Here are three you’ll want to consider:

Radius Ergonomic 4-Piece Hand Tool Set

1. Short-Handled Trowel A good trowel is an indispensible tool for any garden, regardless of its size. Look for one with a pointy tip, which makes it useful for planting seeds, digging out stubborn weeds and loosening planting soil.

2. A Three-Pronged Cultivator This tool features 3 individual rake-like prongs designed to loosen soil and create uniform burrows for planting. It can also be used to pull up shallow-rooted weeds.

3. A Transplanter This tool is designed to make transplanting smaller plants easier. Some styles feature gradation marks to ensure you are planting each plant at the appropriate depth.

To save time, you can look for a high quality and affordable pre-packaged hand tool set. For example, you can pick up the highly rated Fiskars 7067 3-Piece Softouch Garden Tool Set for approximately $18 or the Radius Ergonomic 4-Piece Garden Set for $32.

When evaluating hand-held gardening tools, look for those that offer ergonomic design features, such as soft contoured handles designed to hold your wrist in a neutral position. This will reduce unnecessary strain on your hands and wrists while you are gardening.

Proper Gardening Attire

Although it is fun and relaxing, gardening is still “dirty” work. As a result, gardeners are prone to insect bites, cuts, scrapes and randomly stepping on sharp objects. So no matter how big (or small) your garden may be, you need to have the proper attire.

Sloggers Women's Premium Garden Clog

For starters, you’ll need a good set of gloves and protective footwear. When looking for gardening gloves, look for a pair that fits properly and offers some protection from sharp thorns and prickly shrubs. Fabric gloves with a protective rubberized coating along your palms and fingertips are a great option because they dry easily and fit well enough to maintain finger dexterity. My dad gave me a pair for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I'm pretty much never in the garden without them! They are waterproof, and very thin and flexible, so they're great for weeding, planting, mulching, or getting muddy. The only drawback is they will make your hands sweaty if it's hot outside.

If you are doing a lot of heavy digging, a good pair of durable boots will make your job much easier and safer. As you stomp down on the shovel for a little extra leverage, you’ll be glad for that added layer of protection. Otherwise, a good pair of rubber gardening clogs are wonderful to have. They keep your feet dry and are easy to hose off when you are done digging in the dirt - plus they are pretty stiff and heavy duty so they protect your feet from just about everything. I absolutely love mine! I have worn them for years and they never seem to wear out. If they're caked with mud, they're easy to kick off outside the door, and I can leave them out in the rain to rinse off.

Finally, every gardener needs a good hat. Look for one with a wide brim to protect your face and ears from too much sun exposure as you work outside. Beyond that, have fun and let your personal style shine through!

Visit our Sustainable Gardening page for some more great gardening tools & accessories.

How to Plant a Vegetable Garden in Four Easy Steps

If you love to cook, growing your own vegetable garden is one of the most rewarding things you can do. When you grow your own garden, you can harvest fresh seasonal fruits, veggies and herbs as you need them instead of having to drive miles to the nearest grocery store. It just doesn't get any fresher - or healthier - than that!

Here's How to Plant a Vegetable Garden in 4 Easy Steps:

Step #1. Decide What You Want to Plant.

Cover of a Burpee Seed-Sense catalog (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is the fun part. Start by making a list of all the recipes you frequently make. Note which vegetables and herbs you use over and over again, because this will tell you not only what you should plant, but also in what quantity. 

Don’t forget to jot down other items your family enjoys, even if you aren't using them in your cooking currently. Growing your own vegetable garden is a great way to expand your culinary horizons.

This planning phase is a great time to get your children interested in gardening, too. Ask what they might like to grow or make fun suggestions if they are too young to come up with ideas on their own. Pumpkins, ornamental gourds and sunflowers (for their beauty and seeds) are popular choices with kids of all ages. Fast growing plants, such as lettuce and beans, are also great choices for children because they produce noticeable results quickly.

Once you've made a list of plants you want to grow, collect mail order catalogs, search online or stop by your favorite garden center to find seeds and transplants. You can learn a lot about what grows well in your area by tapping into these resources, as well. This is a really fun way to pass the time in late winter before it's warm enough to get outside and start planting!

Step #2:  Pick a Location for Your Vegetable Garden

Just like in real estate, planting a successful vegetable garden is all about location, location, location. If you want your plants to thrive, there are a few non-negotiable items you will need to provide:

1. Sunshine. Pick a sunny location with at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day.

2. Water.  Make sure the location you choose has easy access to water. You will need to water your plants whenever Mother Nature refuses to cooperate, so make sure you have a convenient source of water nearby.

3. Accessibility. Gardens need care, so position your vegetable garden in an area that is convenient to get to with the tools you need to work in it. If you place it too far from the house or garden shed where you keep your tools or in an area difficult to reach with a wheelbarrow, you may find yourself tempted to neglect it.

Make your life easier and plant your garden in the most convenient sunny location you can find.

4. Good Drainage. You may have to do some work for this one, especially if you live in an area with heavy clay or compacted soil. If you find the area you want to plant tends to collect standing water, you will want to build your beds up to protect your plants from overly wet feet.

Step #3: Create Your Garden Beds

Once you’ve identified where you want your garden, you will need to decide where you want the individual beds within it. As you are doing so, keep in mind the orientation of the sun throughout the day because taller plants or those growing on trellises can cast shadows and stunt the growth of nearby plants if they aren’t positioned correctly.

To create the individual beds, many old school gardeners swear by the traditional practice of removing heavy layers of sod, then tilling and amending the soil beneath it before planting your vegetable plants. 

Although this method will certainly work, you simply don’t have to work that hard.   Instead, you can use one of my favorite methods - the Lasagna Gardening method - of building your beds UP instead of digging down to create them. This methods works equally well with raised garden beds or directly on the ground.

To get started, add flattened cardboard or a thick stack of newspapers on top of the ground and then add alternate layers of peat, topsoil, aged manure or barn litter, organic mulch, yard clippings and/or compost. 

You can either prepare these beds months in advance or right before you plant. Either way, the layers will meld together into a beautiful, rich soil for your plants.

For more details on this no-dig gardening method, check out Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens.

Step #4: Start Planting!

Once your beds are ready, it’s time to start planting!

Before you start digging, you have some choices to make: you can sow seeds directly into the soil, start seeds indoors then harden them off outdoors before adding them to your garden, or plant established transplants you’ve purchased directly into your prepared beds.

Some plants require direct sowing, while others need to be started indoors several weeks before the frost-free date in your area in order to perform well. While you are creating your list of plants you want to grow, make a note of the growing requirements for each so you can give your plants the best chance of survival. 

If you decide to follow these four easy steps to planting a vegetable garden, you will be rewarded all season long with an abundant supply of fresh and healthy produce. Plus, you’ll have the added satisfaction of knowing you did it with your own two hands!

Also Check Out These Helpful Resources for Planting a Vegetable Garden:
   

5 Advantages of Raised Vegetable Garden Beds

Raised vegetable garden beds are an excellent choice for many people with a small backyard or garden. In this article we will look at the advantages of setting up raised vegetable beds as well as some of the materials that you can use to establish this style of gardening in your yard.

1. The biggest advantage of raised bed gardening for most people is that it is so much easier to maintain. Your beds are closer to eye level so you can see and eliminate weeds and pests so much more easily.  Because of this, you are likely to spot them and deal with them before they become a serious threat to your vegetables.

Raised vegetable beds for disabled access from wheelchairs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2. The greater accessibility of the beds means less bending, so you can escape a lot of the physical discomfort of gardening. This is especially important for people with back problems or other physical difficulties but it makes gardening easier for everybody. You can even take a chair or stool to sit on while you garden. If the height of the beds and the pathways between them are designed correctly, it can also make the garden wheelchair-accessible both for visiting and for carrying out gardening tasks from a wheelchair.

3. Some pests are less likely to invade your beds if they are raised up from the ground, simply because it is harder for them to crawl up. This is especially true of slugs if you have brick-built beds, but you can also restrict access by putting deterrents for particular pests such as ants around the base of your beds. Vinegar can be a great deterrent for ants, but it could burn the leaves and roots of your plants if you didn't have raised beds.

4. When your garden is raised off the ground it is more visible from windows. The beds themselves can be attractive features and the plants are closer to eye level, so your garden can be even more pleasing to the eye.

5. Raised vegetable beds provide a more substantial and permanent alternative to container gardening for those who do not have bare earth in their yard. You can establish raised beds and fill them with earth to a greater depth than some containers will allow.

Raised bed garden with wood frames. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You may even be able to establish a raised bed garden on a roof or large balcony, but be very careful not to overload it. Raised beds can be much heavier than containers and you would not want your roof or balcony to collapse under the weight!

Materials for raised beds include brick, wood or plastic. Plastic doesn't decompose as quickly as wood, but it can warp and crack over time, or bow outwards. Wood can look very attractive at first but it is not so long lasting. If you use treated wood that lasts longer, a small amount of chemicals may seep into your soil and possibly eventually into your vegetable crops, so it's really not a good idea for growing vegetables.  Even if you have a lining, which is recommended if you must use treated wood, this can tear or be damaged by pests over the years. If you use wood for edging your beds, be prepared to replace them every few years.

Brick is heavy, but is often a good solution because of its strength and relative permanence. Brick raised vegetable beds look very good and keep their attractive appearance for a long time.

Raised Bed Gardening Kits:
     

What’s the Difference Between a Kitchen Garden and a Regular Vegetable Garden?

Have you ever wondered exactly what a “kitchen garden” is or how it differs from a regular vegetable garden?

For starters, a kitchen garden or potager (pronounced puh-ta-zhay), is a special kind of edible garden with a rich history tracing back to old English and French culinary gardens. 

Much like a traditional vegetable garden, a kitchen garden is a chef’s delight filled with delicious fruits, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. In short, a kitchen garden is a celebration of fresh ingredients and delicious home cooked meals.

Both kitchen and traditional gardens offer a sense of satisfaction coupled with tangible rewards for a job well done. Beyond these similarities, there are some distinct differences between the two, however.

A Kitchen Garden Has Three Main Characteristics:

Kitchen Garden: Herbs in pots. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Convenience. One of the main characteristics of a kitchen garden is accessibility. It should be easy to grab the items you need to your prepare your daily meals. Therefore, a potager should be located as close to your food preparation area as possible.

Imagine you are in the middle of preparing dinner when you suddenly realize “this marinade could use a little more rosemary.” Rather than trek out to your main vegetable garden while you have pots simmering on the stove, wouldn’t you rather be able to reach right outside your door to snip a couple sprigs?

With a kitchen garden, the easier it is to grab what you need while you are cooking, the better.

2. Size. Kitchen gardens are usually smaller than traditional gardens because they are situated so close to the house. This isn’t always the case, of course, but having a culinary garden close enough to offer easy access while you are cooking may limit the amount of space available.

If you only have limited space available to plant a kitchen garden, here is a good rule of thumb to consider: A regular vegetable garden is about planning for the future, while a kitchen garden is about enjoying today. Therefore, the fruits and vegetables you plan to preserve for future use - or crops, such as corn, that take up a lot of space - are good choices for a traditional vegetable garden where space is at less of a premium. 

Instead, kitchen gardens are normally filled with the items you prepare and eat while fresh. Therefore, containers of fresh herbs, compact cherry tomato plants, or an assortment of leaf lettuce varieties all make great additions to a potager.  If you lack the space for a traditional garden, a small kitchen garden can keep you in fresh, delicious produce all season long.

Kitchen Garden, Attadale Gardens. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

3. Beauty. While a standard vegetable garden is all about utility and production, part of the charm of a kitchen garden comes from its ornamental aspect. Due to its proximity to the house, a kitchen garden is harder to tuck out of sight than a traditional garden. Therefore, they are often designed to add a sense of beauty to your home, as well.

Some herbs, such as lemon thyme, can be used to create a beautiful and fragrant border around plants and containers. Edible flowers, such as violas and daylilies, can be incorporated to add a splash of color. Compact blueberry shrubs are also highly ornamental and make a wonderful, yet functional border. 

As you can see, a kitchen garden offers both convenience and beauty in a compact space. The best part is it doesn’t take much to get started. All you need is a couple large pots, some fresh herbs, your favorite compact tomato plant and lettuce varieties and you’ll be on your way!

Vegetable Gardening Apps For Your Phone or iPad

Raise your hand if you love to grow vegetables! Raise your hand if you like cool apps for your phone! Why not combine the two and download a couple apps specifically geared for vegetable gardeners?  It might seem a little strange - gardening has to do with getting physical outside and getting as far from your phone as possible, right? But keep an open mind here; these apps can educate you on various aspects of planning and growing your veggies and make your gardening life a little easier.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Check these out:

Gardening Plant Care Videos. All the How To videos you could want, in your own personal phone library. There's everything from continuous lettuce harvesting tips to how to graft a fruit tree to how to grow vegetables upside down.

Garden Compass. One neat thing you can do with this app is take a picture of a plant or problem/pest you want identified, send it to their experts and you will get a response within 24 hours.

Vegetable Garden Planner. Want to know how many seeds or seedlings to plant to feed your family? This is the app for you. No more planting enough to feed an army, unless you want to feed an army.

Vegetable Gardening (Grow Planner). This app provides an all-around education - how to start, how to plant, how to harvest and what to do with your harvest (canning, cooking, freezing, drying, pickling and eating). It can even show you how to create a root cellar and how to grow herbs indoors.

Gardening Toolkit. A wealth of information here. It gives you info on vegetable plants as well as how to plant them - seed depth, days to germination, when to sow. This application will even give you info on companion planting. You can store all the material on plants and trees you're interested in in one spot for quick reference.

eWeather HD. You can see your current temperature and precise hourly forecasts.  It even has a radar screen. As a gardener, you know how quickly a hard freeze or hail can damage your tender plants.

Now obviously an app won't grow your veggies for you. There is no substitution for getting out there and getting your hands dirty; you not only grow vegetables but you grow experienced. But hey, if a cool phone app can help you in any way get in better with Mother Nature, then go for it - and have fun planning your new garden!

Growing Cacti In An Indoor Garden

The homeowner who wants to start a home garden that is light on the maintenance needed may decide to buy cacti.  This can be a good plan because while they provide a lot of visual interest to your indoor areas, they need less water than most plants and are quite hardy - although there are still care instructions that need to be followed to increase the life and longevity of a cactus.

A few types of potted cactus. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cactus plants are used to hot and dry conditions; for this reason putting them in a windowsill with full sunlight is optimal.  Depending on the cactus and the amount of heat it is getting you may not have to water it for weeks at a time (once a month is the generally recommended watering schedule).  Cacti like coarse soil; it is recommended to use a soil that is meant specifically for a cactus instead of a generic mix.  When a fertilizer is needed you should also purchase a fertilizer that is just for cacti.

When watering a cactus, you want to be careful not to over-water it.  A good tip to prevent this from happening is to place the cactus pot in a shallow dish full of water.  The plant will soak up all of the water it needs through the drainage hole in a period of 1-2 hours.  Then pour the remaining water out of the dish, and don’t worry about it again for another month unless the plant is starting to get a shriveled look.

When handling your cactus, be careful!  If the pot is not large enough to hold onto without your hands getting to close to the prickly part of the plant use a folded newspaper and place it around the plant.  This will protect both your hands and the plant when moving it.  If you do get a cactus thorn in your finger, remove gently with a pair of tweezers or a piece of strong tape.

Resources for Growing Cacti:
   

Moving Plants of All Sizes: A Winter Garden Task

Winter, when plants are dormant, is the ideal time to move plants, although they can be successfully moved at any time throughout the year provided care is taken. Smaller plants, under three feet high, are the easiest to move. Here are some tips to moving a small plant or shrub to a new location in your garden:

1. The first step is to trim the plant or shrub back by about one third.
2. The next step is to dig the plant out ensuring that the root ball is approximately the same diameter as the plant.
3. The plant can then be transplanted to the new position in the garden. (See below for details on the final steps for placing the transplant.)

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The procedure with bigger plants in the 3-foot to 5-foot range is much the same but will take a little more time.

For Step 2, once you have dug around the plant to a depth of approximately 1 to 1 1/2 feet, you should leave it for a week before finishing the removal. After a week ease the plant out by digging under the roots and trim off long or damaged roots before transplanting.

For bigger plants and trees the procedure gets a little more involved.

1. The first step is to dig down deeply on two sides of the plant, through the roots at the drip line.
2. The plant should then be left for a week or two before the same procedure is repeated on the other two sides of the plant.
3. As with the smaller plants you will need to trim the plant back by about one third before starting.
4. After having dug around all sides of the plant you should wait another couple of weeks before digging under the roots.
5. Again, you will need to trim off long or damaged roots in preparation for the transplant.
6. Let another week or two pass before removing the plant and wrapping the root ball with Hessian cloth to protect the roots.

Placing & setting the transplant:
1. You should have already prepared a new hole that will be slightly bigger than the root ball of the plant you are replacing.
2. Add compost, mix and slow release fertilizer before transplanting the plant.
3. Top up the soil and water it well.

Provided you have taken good care along the way your plant should settle in to its new location without any problems.

Video - Why We Garden

In this short video, gardeners express the reasons why they garden - from exercise, to control over one's food supply, to teaching their children about responsible food choices, gardeners have dozens of reasons why they do it. But the underlying reason is joy, and this inspiring little video shows you why. It may just inspire you to get out in the garden today, and enjoy all that the fall garden has to offer!

Why We Garden 1
Bonnie customers share why they grow vegetables in their home gardens.


To get started with your own sustainable garden, be sure to check out http://www.newholisticliving.com/sustainable-gardening.html for tips, tools, and helpful resources.

Express Yourself Through Gardening

Gardens offer you one of the best opportunities to express yourself. You can often get a good idea of a person's personality just by looking at their garden. It can show you whether they are free spirited with color and plants splashed everywhere like an expressionist painting, or prefer a more organized and regimented approach to life.

Color variations in a Garden Nasturtium in a home garden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Planting your garden gives you the freedom to choose the colors that make you feel good, and the colors and plants that make you feel happy. You have the choice to add flowers that have the fragrances that you love to smell or remind you of some place that you might have once visited.

You can change with the seasons just as your garden does and add color to a gray day. Gardening gives you an excuse to get outside on a gray day and enjoy all the color that you might have missed inside avoiding the weather.

Adding colored pots and sculptures can brighten a winter garden and add more contrast to the colors of spring, summer and fall. You can change the style and look of the garden as you make changes in your life so that one year is never the same as the next or you can choose to keep everything the same if you don't like change just as an old tree stands from one year to the next.

The beauty of a garden can change your moods and make you feel good just being there. It can make you realize that the important things in life are the little things that are all around us all the time.

There is life in the garden and the garden will always welcome anyone who wants to share in the beauty of that life. It's no wonder that so many people love gardening, because there is so much to love about it. Why not get outside and into the garden today, and see what magic you can make?

Moon Gardening In Your Organic Garden

Moon gardening is a modern take on what is believed to be an ancient gardening method. There is really nothing new or different about it. You do exactly the same things that you are doing in your organic garden already - you just do them at particular times according to the phases of the moon.

It is well known that the gravitational pull of the moon has an effect on natural phenomena such as tides. Moon gardening simply takes the ancient belief that the moon also has an effect on the plants and animals living on the earth, and translates that into principles that you can apply in your garden.

The waxing gibbous Moon as observed from Earth (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The principles of moon gardening governed farming as well as hobby gardening for centuries, if not for millennia. It was only in the 20th century, when modern farming methods and chemical fertilizers were introduced to make intensive farming possible, that farmers and gardeners abandoned the old ways.

The best known principle of moon gardening divides the moon cycle into four periods. The first and second periods are when the moon is waxing or getting bigger, with the first period ending when you can see the first quarter of the moon (a half moon shape). The third and fourth periods are when the moon is waning or getting smaller. The fourth period includes the dark day(s) until the new moon begins the cycle again. A full moon cycle is approximately 29 days, so each quarter lasts for around one week.

In the first quarter of the cycle, you can plant leafy crops. In the second period, you can plant fruit crops. In the third period, plant root crops and perennials.

In the last period, you do not plant anything. At this time, according to the principles moon gardening, the tidal pull means that the water table is receding and there is less water available for your plants. So this is not a good time for seeds to be planted or for seedlings to be planted out.

During this final period, you can do other things in the garden such as pruning. The main thrust of deadheading roses, dahlias etc should also be undertaken during the last quarter of the moon's cycle. The plant will then put out more flowers while the moon is waxing. If you deadhead earlier in the moon cycle, the flowers that grow back will be fewer and weaker.

To take moon gardening a step further, there are also guidelines on what to plant according to where the moon is in the sky. Leaf crops are best planted when the moon is in Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces; root crops when it is in Taurus, Virgo or Capricorn; flowers when it is in Gemini, Libra or Aquarius; and fruit when it is in Aries, Leo or Sagittarius.

Phases of the moon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So if you are about to plant a fruit tree, for example, according to moon gardening, you would wait until the week when the moon is in its second period (between the first quarter and the full moon). Then, during that period, choose a day when the moon is in the astrological houses of Aries, Leo or Sagittarius.

Note that this goes by where the MOON is in the sky, not the sun. It is sun signs that tell us that, for example, Aries runs from mid-March to mid-April. This has nothing to do with where the moon is. The moon moves through the houses more quickly, and only stays in each house for 1-2 days.

To find out which house the moon is in, you will need to consult a lunar calendar. You can find these online, but keep in mind that it varies in different parts of the world. Look for one that relates to your own country, state or region.

Some people are skeptical about the idea of planting and gardening according to the phases and position of the moon, but why not give it a try? You do not have anything to lose, and you may find that your organic garden thrives on moon gardening.

Video - How Gardening Makes You Healthy

This short video discusses a few of the health benefits of gardening. From stress relief to exercise to healthier food to improved sleep quality and so much more, gardening is good for your health. If you can grow a garden instead of pop a pill, all the better!

Check it out, and learn how you can benefit from growing a garden this year:

Health Benefits of Gardening
Join Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, author of Life Is Your Best Medicine, on a journey toward healing, health and wholeness as she explains the benefits of working an...

Choosing A Greenhouse for All Seasons

In many climates growing plants in the winter months can become quite frustrating, and if you are finding that you are in that situation then it might be time to consider getting or building a greenhouse.

Medium-sized greenhouse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Greenhouses are available in many different sizes and there are some very compact versions that will suit most budgets.

Having one of these greenhouses tucked away in a sunny corner of your garden will be a godsend when the weather dictates that you would normally have to stay inside rather than venture out into your garden.

And with the added benefit of being able to control damage that might have been caused by birds, insects and the weather, greenhouses can also save you a lot of money in the long term.

They are excellent for growing seedlings and also for extending the season that you will be able to grow particular plants by controlling the climate.

You should always set your greenhouse in a position that gets the maximum amount of sunlight throughout the day while allowing easy access to water and electricity. If you have a particularly windy property make sure that the door to the greenhouse is facing away from the prevailing wind.

When deciding on the size of greenhouse that you need always try to get the biggest one possible as once you see the benefits of having a greenhouse you might find that you will be wanting more and more room. Also you will be able to spread out your plants giving them more room to breathe and reducing the risk of disease.

Most good greenhouses come with in-built ventilation systems, which are essential to reduce the temperature when it begins to rise.

If you decide to build your own greenhouse, ventilation is one of the most important factors that you need to consider. Stay tuned to this blog for more tips on building a greenhouse coming soon! And if you want to purchase one that is pre-made, see below for some suggestions.

Greenhouses & Kits: