"Getting those hands dirty" fun for the kiddos and easier on the pocket book!!!

   So growing up I lived with my grandparents for a short time..  Now when you are younger you think that things are a tad bigger of course, but I do remember that they had a barn, chicken coops, a garden area and several fruit and some nut trees...  They leased the actual land out to farmers and breeders.  But the area around where the houses stood was all ours for the taking...  Meaning I got to go pick fruit and some veggies when I wanted them..  I don't actually remember gardening with my grandparents but boy did I appreciate having unlimited access to plums, Pomegranates and apricots and several other delectable varieties of fruits and veggies..  Fast forward to when I began teaching at a school that had a garden 20 years later and I was an instant fan of gardening...  I loved taking the children out daily to sow seeds, and weed and pick veggies, water, compost or just sit around in it and read a story...and and and ;)  you catch my drift I presume...    I think during that small period of time in my life was when I figured out that growing things and me get along famously..  I had dabbled in little backyard gardens at the apartments I lived in while in college and earlier on, but working in an actual garden with great soil that actually produced was pure magic..  ....  Soon after starting at the new school I actually got pregnant and once we landed in an actual house instead of a downtown apartment I hit the ground running with the gardening... My husband built me my first raised box and he did a wonderful job, the area we lived in at the time had the oldest trees in our city so it was a surprise that we actually grew lots of veggies that year..  Our next house came equipped with a raised bed about triple the size as the one my man made me with all the sun in the world so we were stoked...  We have grown just about everything including a massive artichoke plant that I might add proudfully produced 6 large artichokes..  (Pat one the back small bow taken, Thank you thank you very much ;))...    At first this was just a housewife pass time, something that I thought was fun.  Now I must say it is a way to teach my children where food comes from, and if society were to fail us how to take care of yourself..  It is super important to me that my girls know who to sew, garden, cook, clean properly all the standard things...  I am not hoping they are housewives, I am hoping that if anything were to happen to this advanced world of ours they would be alright living off the land with their skills...  Corny I realize but important to me...  With that all that said here are the reasons that growing your own organic veggies is an amazing skill to teach your kids...  If you don't have a green thumb I promise that it is still worth giving a try even if you and your little one are learning together.... 

First lets talk the money you will save on vegetables:

The number of variables makes it difficult to generalize how much people save by growing their own vegetables. Organic or conventional? How big a garden? What did you plant, and how green is your thumb?  The gardening association estimates that gardeners produce half a pound of veggies per square foot. Most people spend about $50 per year on tools and supplies and plant 100 square feet or less, to produce about 50 pounds of produce, according to an association survey.

At the association's estimated average cost for vegetables, $2 a pound, that would be $100 worth of food, meaning that a successful garden might double your money.


 If you could at least grow a few of the dirty dozen list at home organically you will be doing great things for your family....

• celery
• peaches
• strawberries
• apples
• domestic blueberries
• nectarines
• sweet bell peppers
• spinach, kale and collard greens
• cherries
• potatoes
• imported grapes
• lettuce

There are steps you can take to reduce your garden input and maximize output:

Buy seeds, not plants. It's getting late in the season to start seeds for tomatoes this year, but you can still start fast-growing plants like beans from seed.

"Compost will save you money," said Marie Iannotti, About.com's gardening guide. "You're constantly improving your soil so you don't have to keep buying fertilizer."

Making compost out of yard waste in a pit is free, or you can pay $100 to $300 for a tumbler to speed up the process. The Frugalista family has a worm bin, which turns food scraps into compost-rich soil year-round.

Use rain barrels. Maria Onesto Moran, founder of a company that specializes in environmentally friendly building and home supplies, estimates that the $89 rain barrels she sells hold $2 worth of water at local rates, meaning she needs to drain her barrel 45 times to break even. Watering her 72-square-foot plot, Moran estimates her rain barrels pay for themselves within two seasons.

Plant expensive vegetables. Burpee claims you could get $2,000 worth of green peas from a single $5 seed packet, while a $2 packet of green beans would yield only $250 worth. These estimates seem wildly optimistic to me — they're based on 80 percent of the seeds in the packet surviving to produce.

Gardening is something that children love to do.... Period!!!  I have not met a child in my 4 years of teaching that didn't love to get in there and get dirty..  It is a year round outside activity..
In the spring you can plant 

Artichokes ,Asparagus ,Broccoli,Butter Lettuce,Chives
Collard Greens,Corn,Fava Beans,Fennel,Fiddlehead Ferns,Green Beans,Mustard Greens
Oranges ,Pea Pods,Peas,Red Leaf Lettuce
Rhubarb ,snow Peas,Spinach,Strawberries,Swiss Chard,Vidalia Onions

Summer
Bell Peppers,Butter Lettuce,Cantaloupe,Cucumbers,corn,Eggplant,Endive,Figs,Grapes
Green Beans,Honeydew Melons

 Even if you try a few items in a pot, try it....  You will be amazed at how forgiving most of the veggies are as long as you water and give a tad of TLC...

For help along the way here are some great sites with lots of great information:


http://www.veggiepatch.com

http://www.backyard-vegetable-gardening.com/

http://www.kidsgardening.org/

My amazing finds from seeds to tools!!!

Composting:
First I must say one thing that is super fun is composting, you can do it on so many different scales..  Here is the way our family gets it done.  Last year I invested in this and it was a great buy for someone like me who has 2 little ones..
I have the worm factory 360!!  Here is the site and some great information...
http://urbanwormscom.ipage.com/store/

Tools:
Pretty cool for getting your seedlings going.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HHO1RO/ref=s9_topn_se_g86_ir05?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=auto-no-results-center-1&pf_rd_r=D3ECF9757B28406788B7&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=1263465782&pf_rd_i=huluho

This set it the thing to get if you want to get all you need in one swoop...
http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Precision-DT3795P-18-Piece-Garden/dp/B000OV5SOI/ref=sr_1_4?s=garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1330378183&sr=1-4

Love this for my hose..  It makes watering a fun thing to do in my opinion
http://www.amazon.com/Orbit-18-Inch-9-Pattern-Turret-58291/dp/B000A1CEOY/ref=sr_1_17?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1330378281&sr=1-17

My fave because of its retro look
http://www.amazon.com/Gardman-8300-Red-Steel-Watering/dp/B0024E54CE/ref=sr_1_5?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1330378668&sr=1-5
This is awesome for your bulbs
http://www.amazon.com/Bond-9501-Long-Handled-Planter/dp/B000BX4R1O/ref=sr_1_10?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1330378437&sr=1-10

This is a fun find!
http://www.amazon.com/Gardman-R687-4-Tier-Mini-Greenhouse/dp/B000NCTGQE/ref=sr_1_34?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1330378512&sr=1-34

Looks creepy but super awesome
http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Weasel-90201-Long-Handled/dp/B0041YRBW6/ref=sr_1_47?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1330378557&sr=1-47

Seeds:

For grow it yourself here is the one stop seed shop!!!
http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/Organic-Vegetable-Seeds-c237.htm

For sacramento folks these are really nice people that do a great job,  they can pretty much help you design and execute an amazing garden...
http://peasandharmony.com/?page_id=62

If heirloom is your fancy this is the site for you!!  These tomatoes are beautiful and delicious!!!
http://www.tomatofest.com/

If you are ever wine tasting in Amador stop by this wonderful place and take a look you will be impressed
http://www.amadorflowerfarm.com/



This will be an updated post, when I find new ideas and stuff you will be the first to know..  Tread lightly!!!