A few days ago we asked on Facebook, how many of you grow your own fruits, veggies or spices. Although you don’t have to be into gardening to be a subscriber of The Fresh 20, we are always promoting ways to improve your family food culture. Gardening can be a great family activity, and an excellent teaching tool for kiddos. So, we rounded-up some of our favorite gardening resources.
- BHG has great resources on planning your first vegetable garden.
- How to start a vegetable garden by Yard & Garden Guru
- Apartment Therapy has 10 ideas for gardening on your patio or balcony.
- Hello Giggles has several project ideas for kids and adults for starter seeds. Recycled bottles and empty toilet paper rolls would probably be the easiest to start with.
- If you’re curious what nutrients your soil needs, Renae gives you tips on garden soil testing.
- Regrowing from food scraps is a great way to start small. Huffington Post has information on 10 fruits and veggies you can grow from scraps.
- Buzzfeed has a similar list, 13 Vegetables That Magically Regrow Themselves, but they separate them by effort level. For example, scallions are much easier to regrow than ginger root.
- Kara from Allternative Learning has gardening ideas for kids ranging from preschool to teens.
- If you plan to start with herbs, AngEngland of the Untrained Housewife has a list of 20+ must-grow garden herbs.
- Another idea is to start with a salad garden. Ellen made hers in a moveable container, so that she could change the location in the Summer.
- If you’re limited on space, Birds & Blooms suggests creating a vertical herb garden in a fabric shoe organizer.
- If you don’t have room for a garden, or you want to start small here are 66 things you can grow in containers.
- Another container gardening tip: This Old House suggests “sandwiching” bulbs for six-weeks of blooms.
- Pink and Green Mama created an adorable backyard fairy garden with her daughters.
- Mess For Less suggests letting young kids play in the mud as a great sensory experience.
- Simple Homemade has suggestions on what to plant near each other, in their post on Companion Planting. For example: “Cucumbers like to be near beans, peas and radishes, but far from potatoes.”
- There are companion planting tips for each plant, here’s a guide specific to companion planting strawberries.
- Light is probably the most important variable when choosing plants for your location. Ellen Z. from Garden Bytes has suggestions on which plants can be planted in shaded areas.
- If you want to make your own rain barrel, Kathy from Lovelace Files has step-by-step instructions. The purpose of a rain barrel is to collect rain water in a green effort to conserve water consumption. The rain water is then used to water the lawn and garden.
- Are you thinking about composting? University of Illinois has recommendations on what to compost, what materials to avoid, as well as overall benefits and uses of composting. Also, checkout their infographic with special handling instructions.
- For long-term planning, here’s a list of how much to plant to feed a family for a year.
For those of you who with gardening experience, what tips would you add?
