Too busy to water your garden?

Do you live in a place where your plants arenโ€™t getting enough rain water? Or maybe you just donโ€™t have the time to spend watering by hand.

Good news! With an investment of around $100 USD and a time commitment of only a couple of hours, you can put in a drip irrigation system to solve your and your plants problems! ๐Ÿ˜…

Watch this video to learn the ins and outs of putting in a drip irrigation system, then sit back and enjoy your freedom from watering!ย 

Share YOUR tips for watering!

Spark Garden Excitement in Kids with Reading

All you need to explore gardening with children is a garden. Right? Generally, this is true. However, if we want children to develop sustained curiosity about the natural world, we need to present them with digestible, age-appropriate topics. Our course, Sprouts: A Childโ€™s Garden Adventure, will do just that. You can explore outside and inspire curiosity with the resources listed below.ย 

Books are an excellent way to set a purpose or entice a child to look closer at the world around them. I especially love the book Up and Down in the Garden by Kate Messner. She explores the many things happening above and inside the soil. Her story highlights the different animals, insects, and plants just outside your door all season long. She also has a companion book entitled Over and Under the Snow that explores the hidden animal world during a snow-covered winter. I recommend reading these two books together.

For the youngest gardeners, Lois Ehlertโ€™s books are bright with simple illustrations and quickly become favorites. Her books contain a lot of labeling, which can help deepen your conversations about gardening. Growing Vegetable Soup illustrates the progression from growing food to eating it. It would be a fantastic read for any child unfamiliar with where food comes from or who is interested in cooking. There is also a recipe at the end of the book. Lois Ehlert has written another book called Planting a Rainbow about different kinds of flowers and how they grow. If your child enjoys Growing Vegetable Soup, they are sure to love this book as well.
A Seed is Sleepy, A Nest is Noisy Book CoversDianna Hutts Aston creates wonderful books about the natural world. I suggest A Seed is Sleepy, and follow it up with A Nest in Noisy. The main text will engage your child, but she also includes more in-depth information in asides on each page. She describes and labels different kinds of seeds and plants. The illustrations are captivating and reminiscent of traditional botanical drawings. This book will reach readers on many levels.
A Seed is Sleepy, A Nest is Noisy Book Covers
A Seed is Sleepy, A Nest is Noisy Book Covers
The next two books take you on the journey of a plantโ€™s life cycle. Eric Carleโ€™s The Tiny Seed is enlivened by his acclaimed illustrations and tells the story of how one very tiny seed becomes a very big flower. This engaging fiction tale has many realistic elements that will reinforce the readerโ€™s understanding of a plantโ€™s life cycle. Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell is a great book for October or November, when you may have your own pumpkin lying around the house. This book follows the journey of jack-o-lanterns through decomposition into sprouting new pumpkins. It is an excellent book to set the scene for your own pumpkin rotting experiment.
Check out Kellyโ€™s Classroom Online blog for more information. I have conducted this experiment a few times in my classroom, and itโ€™s fascinating to watch the pumpkin decompose up close.
This battery-operated microscope is one of my favorite classroom purchases. You can take it on nature walks and immediately look at plants up close. It has a 60-120x magnification, and it is incredibly easy to use. It has also proven to be quite hardy.

Choosing one aspect of the natural world to focus on at a time is a great place to start. These books can help focus your intentions and engage the children in your life. Thank you for taking the time to inspire the young learners in your life. Happy Learning!

This post contains links to a product that we are a referral partner for. If you click and take action, Grow Your Own Vegetables LLC may be compensated. We only recommend products that we love and that we know can be helpful to you as a gardener.

The course instructor, Meg Groves, is a former classroom teacher, reading specialist, gardener, beekeeper, & mom to two young children. She has experience engaging even the youngest learners with online lessons. The lessons inside Sprouts: A Childโ€™s Garden Adventure are tailored to meet kidsโ€™ needs and help them remember what theyโ€™ve learned (something we could all use!)

Please Note: this course is designed for kids approximately 4-7 yrs old but could be enjoyed by many!

What’s eating my garden greens? (5 common garden pests)

An ounce of prevention is worth dozens of pounds of fresh herbs and vegetables.

You’re planting lots of food in your garden, specifically greens… and all of a sudden there’s someone else eating all your food before you have a chance to harvest it… ARG!

Everyone has some pests that show up in the garden. But before you can kick them out of your garden, you need to figure out WHO has invaded! Typically, there are 5 (actually 6!) common pests that give gardeners the most trouble. Watch this video to help identify these unwelcome guests:

Once you identify which pests, diseases, or weeds have come into your garden, you can start showing them the door!ย 

What are favorite, or not so favorite, visitors to your garden?

Gardening Moms Get Kids to Love Eating Vegetables

One mother and student in our garden membership, Harvest Club, shared a story with us. Itโ€™s one that holds a clear message of why growing your own food is just, wellโ€ฆ superior.

As a mother and wife she struggled to get her kids and partner interested in vegetables. They simply didnโ€™t like them. And she wouldnโ€™t be the first. Parents all over the globe struggle to get their kids to eat fresh food. Itโ€™s so common that kids donโ€™t want to eat fresh vegetables and fruits. And really, who can blame them?

The moment a food is picked from the earth itโ€™s connected to, it begins to die. It starts to lose nutrients and begins to decompose. That means that by the time it travels who knows how far and sits in storage and on shelves for who knows how long, it has lost so much vitality and flavor, no wonder kids donโ€™t like it!ย 

But when this mother started growing her own, the kids and her partner began eating vegetables in just a single growing season! It seemed like a miracle!

Really, itโ€™s the power of fresh, nutrient-dense food. And itโ€™s the power of variety. Large farm producers choose plant varieties most often by how much it can produce and traits like how long it can live on the shelf. Some even choose variety based on how uniformly it will grow in the field. But large scale growers arenโ€™t choosing their varieties based on nutrition.ย 

Garlic is a great example of this: Hardneck garlic doesnโ€™t store nearly as long as softneck. So most of the garlic you see in the store is softneck. But hardnecks have more allicin in it. If youโ€™ve never heard of allicin before, itโ€™s the principal bioactive compound present in garlic and is in study for a variety of health benefits.ย 

Back to the story of mom โ€ฆ all was going well during the growing season for mom until one unfortunate week, she ran out of fresh greens. She decided to pick some up from the store. When the daughter began eating the greens at dinner that evening, her mouth twisted.ย 

โ€œEwww! These taste really bad!โ€ her daughter exclaimed, removing them from her mouth.ย 

The mother felt she had spoiled her family and worried that her daughter may never be able to eat greens from the store ever again!ย 

Our first thought? Thatโ€™s wonderful! Because homegrown food simply tastes better. And science is now discovering that there is a link between flavor and nutrients. So the more flavor your food has, the more nutrients it contains.

And this isnโ€™t just importantย  for us. By growing a variety at home, we are sharing that nutrient density with our loved ones and preserving the best varieties, for our children and future generations to come.

Momโ€™s goal when she joined Harvest Club was to grow a garden and get her family to eat fresh greens. Mom, you nailed it! Thank you so much for sharing your story and for being a fresh food revolutionary! And a huge thank you to all the mothers out there growing fresh, homegrown, nutrient-dense food.

Have a story about your kids eating fresh?

Share below!

Soil Blocks: Considerations and Benefits of Soil Blocking for Your Seed Starting

Wondering if soil blocking is for you? Some people love them, some people think they are a pain in the flower pot. For the latter group of people, they typically feel that way because they donโ€™t realize you need to create a special mixture and often need to add more water so that the media holds together without a container. So getting the mix correct can take a little bit of experimenting, but once you get the hang of it, there are quite a few benefits to soil blocking. But before you jump on the soil blocking bandwagon, there are several factors youโ€™ll want to consider before you decide whether or not itโ€™s right for you.

Cost

To soil block the traditional way, you ideally want soil blockers. So there is special equipment needed for this process. And these soil blockers are an investment. Most decent soil blockers cost around $100. Thatโ€™s quite an expense for many of us home gardeners. Thatโ€™s why we were stoked to discover these 2โ€ soil blockers from Bootstrap Farmer.

At the time this blog was written, the soil blocker is going for half of what they normally go for. And often a cut in price means a cut in quality. But Bootstrap Farmer is known for only carrying supplies they use on their farm. So theyโ€™re high quality, durable supplies that hold up on a farm. This makes them even longer lasting in most home gardening environments. Bootstrap Farmer also carries a smaller ยพโ€ soil blocker. If you want to plant in the ยพโ€ and then transplant to the larger 2โ€ soil blockers later, be sure to get the inserts for that.

While there is an investment cost up front, soil blockers will last for years and years, often they can last longer than a lifetime with very small replacement costs!

Earth Saving

Not only will they save you money from disposable and plastic pots over time, they save the earth too. Who wants to keep the earth cleaner and their pocketbook more full at the same time? We sure do!

Now, if youโ€™re a first year grower, you might want to wait until you have a few years of gardening under your belt and be sure that you plan to make gardening part of your lifestyle before investing.

Time

Soil blocking can be a bit more time consuming while youโ€™re getting the hang of it. Soil block seed starting mix recipes are a bit different than other mixes because the mix has to stick together to maintain its shape. And it has to be dense enough to keep its shape, but not so dense that it suffocates seedlings.

Getting the mix just right requires patience and persistence. If youโ€™re short on time or in a hurry, this may not be the ideal seed starting method for you. Once you get your recipe down and get
accustomed to filling and emptying the block maker, making your seed blocks will go more quickly. Just be prepared to spend extra time in the beginning getting the hang of it.

Healthier Root Growth

Aside from lasting a lifetime and being a fast process once you get the hang of it, seed blocking offers healthier root growth because the block is exposed to the air on all sides (versus meeting the edge of a pot). This prevents roots from wrapping around each other the way they do in pots. Instead, the roots will grow up to the edge of the soil block and then stop growing.

While you might think that itโ€™s a โ€˜badโ€™ thing that the roots stop growing, soil blockers have noticed that while the roots stop growing, they maintain health and often show superior health compared to roots bound to a container.

Avoid Transplant Shock

Transplanting plants grown in containers means disturbing the roots. By disturbing the roots, the plants go into what growers call transplant shock. It can take them up to 3-4 weeks to recover from this shock. In some cases, the plantsโ€™ immune system is compromised and the plant doesnโ€™t make it.

With soil blocking, thereโ€™s little to no transplant shock since you donโ€™t have to pull the roots and media out of anything before planting. You simply place the whole block into the ground. Reduced stress means a shorter recovery time and an increase in your plantsโ€™ ability to maintain optimum health!

Faster Harvests

With a minimized transplant shock recovery time, your plants can resume growing sooner and that means they can mature more quickly and give you more harvests!

Easy Upgrades to Larger Blocks

Indents in blockers allows you to easily nest a smaller block into a larger one, so a baby plant thatโ€™s outgrowing its block can be placed inside a larger block easily and keep growing.

No More Sanitizing Trays!

While youโ€™ll still need to clean your soil blocker, youโ€™ll save so much time and chemicals not having to clean and sanitize transplant containers. For anyone with a substantially sized garden, this is a dream come true!

Soil blockers are for anyone who wants to get away from plastic and the constant financial and environmental stress of manufacturing disposable/biodegradable pots, has a little extra time and money, wants a high ROI (Return on Your Investment) over time, and wants healthy seedlings for your garden.ย 

So how do you soil block? Stay tuned for more blogs on soil blocking!ย 

Want to learn more about seed starting?

Check Out Our Seeds Micro Course!

Have questions about soil blocking?

Ask Your Questions Below!