My kids tend to like their veggies uncooked, so that is the way I serve them most of the time.  I also add a fruit to their lunch bags and to the dinner table.  I am lucky that my kids do like many fruits and veggies.  But, not every child is so accepting.

I recently came across this great article about hiding veggies in your kids’ meals.  I LOVE it.  I’ve done it a few times, but love the great ideas at ParentDish.com.  To think that adding just a few pureed veggies to your typical meal could lower their calorie intake and almost doubled their total vegetable intake!  That is fantastic!

I have added fruits to various things as well, such as mashed banana to boxed muffin mix.  Simple things like this can make your kids’ eating habits a little healthier.  What are some things that you do to add veggies and fruits to your child’s diet?  I’d love to hear your stories and perhaps other parents can get a great tip from you too.

You’ll find some tips about composting, growing tomatoes and ways to involve your children on a previous post titled “Summer Gardening with Your Kids”.

Gardening Resources

This topic is almost endless when looking online, but I’ll mention the resources that I enjoy.  Some are related to organic gardening, including sites where you can order organic plants online.

• Burpee.com is a wonderful resource for almost every aspect of gardening…buying plants, seeds, gardening tips & tools, advice and videos.  This includes both veggie and flower gardening, organic and not.  I LOVE this site.
• The Natural Gardening Company is the oldest certified organic nursery in the USA.  You can purchase your seeds and plants online for shipping at the appropriate planting time for your zone.
• Ed Hume Seeds has a great resource for what to grow for a family of four.  They offer a seed planting chart.  This has been a great help to me.
• If space is an issue, check out How to Grow a Vertical Garden in Raised beds.
• If you live in an area like me, you’ll need to consider a fence to keep the critters out.  I found some great tips at OrganicGardening.com.  They offer tips for do-it-yourself fencing.

I’ve also found a fantastic blog called “5 Minutes for Mom” and they are giving away Love Your Veggies Books & Garden Supplies.  All you need to do is go to the blog and make a comment.  How easy is that.

I hope I’ve helped you a bit.  It is so important to make gardening a family oriented tradition.  We have a great time with it and my boys really love getting dirty.

Let me know if you have any great tips, ideas or other input….even if you  have a question, I’d love to hear from you and find you the answer you are looking for.

Thanks and happy gardening!

Rae Lynn @ Kidz Comfort

Composting

Firstly, I’d like to let you know how easy it is to compost.  There are many products out there that you can purchase to help the process along, but I am somewhat frugal, so I improvised a bit.  I went to a Bargain Outlet and spent maybe $5.00 on a black trash barrel.  I took scissors and poked lots of holes in it, all the way around.  I dug a small divot in the dirt where I wanted to place it so that the barrel is tipped at a 45 degree angle.  That’s it!  The boys and I throw all our veggie and fruit scraps, egg shells, grass clippings, leaves and some dirt with worms into it.  Every now and then, just rotate it so that it mixes a bit.  Next Spring, you have yourself some “Black Gold”…perfect natural fertilizer for your garden!  Here are some further tips:  U.S. EPA Website

Tomato Ideas

Now, to the garden…My 5-year old is a big tomato fan, so this year, he chose many different types of tomatoes.  There are big ones, small ones, yellow ones, red ones and golden ones.  We enjoyed the planting of these as well.  This led to a great question…what the heck am I going to do with all of these tomatoes?!  I came across a great blog posting at Dr. Mommy Health Tips called “5 Ways to Enjoy Tomatoes” so I thought I would share it with you.  Some great tips to preserve them all year long.  I would love to hear what else we can do with the thousands of tomatoes that we are expecting.

Size Doesn’t Matter

You don’t need much room for a few veggies that your family may love to eat.  Ours is somewhat small and includes the things that we buy weekly during the winter months.  It is a fun and educational experience for kids and they absolutely LOVE to eat what they are growing.  Classic choices are cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes (of course), perhaps some broccoli and cauliflower.  There are lots of options for you.

Fun with the Kids

The key is to involve the kids and to make it fun for all.  My kids LOVE playing in the dirt, so asking them to dig holes was no chore to them.  They love playing in the water and spraying the hose, so watering the garden becomes fun for them too.  And there is nothing like picking their own veggies and eating them right off the plant.  My kids cannot wait to pick all the ripe veggies.  If you have too much to possibly eat, what a great way to share home-grown garden-fresh produce….bring some to your friends and family!  They’ll love ya.

Weeds & Maintenance

If you are not a lover of gardening because of the maintenance involved, there are natural ways to help.  If you absolutely hate pulling weeds, you can help prevent them by putting your grass clippings all around your vegetable plants and cover the dirt completely between them.  Keep layering it.  It serves a couple purposes, often preventing weeds and also keeping the moisture and nutrients in the dirt for the veggies to feed off of.

If you are or are not much of a garden-lover, I have one final interesting blog reference.  You can actually eat your yard-weeds away!  Did you know that dandelion greens were VERY nutritious?  I didn’t, until I read this post… Eat Your Weeds Away: Dandelion Greens.  A must read!

Send Us Your Tips

I hope you find some of these tips inspiring and helpful.  I am always looking for more tips and hints, so if you have any to share, please post them here.

Happy gardening!

raelynn @ Kidz Comfort

Read the full article HERE.

A simple breakfast of one scrambled egg, slice of wheat toast and perhaps some fruit and greens thrown into a juicer and your child will be breezing through their day.  I can’t wait to give it a shot!

raelynn @ Kidz Comfort