Heart Felt Gardening

FEED YOUR BODY
Heart Felt Gardening

After the article a few weeks ago about ways to eat local, my friend and author Jill Russo Foster told me about her life-long love with home gardening. For her it is really heart felt.

Living in the woods, I’ve never been able to have a garden. After Jill shared her experience, I was inspired to start growing heirloom herbs from seeds in peat pots.

There’s a small bright, sunny patch waiting outside for the tender plants to season our summer meals.

Read Jill’s thoughts on gardening and how you can grow food and memories for your family as well.
Gardening Thoughts and Memories by Jill Russo Foster

I think it’s so interesting that Michelle Obama is showing us the benefits of having a garden. It’s like second nature to me.

No matter where I have lived, even in an apartment, I have always had a least tomatoes on the balcony.

My earliest memories of my grandmother Nanna (my father’s mother) was of her working in the garden which was half of her backyard. She was always tending to the plants with her kerchief on top of her head to keep the heat off.

When I was at her home, she would be out in the garden from early May to late September. I would be able to get the greatest tomatoes fresh picked off the vine and eaten within minutes. She tended to her garden until the age of 93 doing all the work herself. Now I have my own garden, smaller in size than hers but manageable for me.

I started my garden a few weeks ago as seeds this year – something I usually don’t do. In my windows right now I have about 100 plants growing – everything from lettuces – mixed greens, arugula, spinach, iceberg, beans – green, wax, peas, green and yellow squash, cucumbers, and herbs – basil and parsley. Tomatoes don’t start well for me in seed form, so I buy them as plants.

From my experience there is nothing better than walking into my backyard and making a decision about what I want to eat. It’s like having a supermarket with all my favorite choices. I can’t grow all my favorites so I make trips to the local farmers market on Saturday mornings. There’s a farmer who has exotics like dandelion greens (not the yellow ones from the backyard, but blue dandelion) and squash blossoms. He is always there from mid May to late October, so it’s a regular part of my Saturday morning routine.

My Nanna passed down to me the love of working in the garden and being rewarded with eating – and enjoying – the “fruits” of my labors.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Click here to check out Jill’s website and book Cash, Credit and Your Finances: The Teen Years. She shares her years of expertise to help our kids learn about and how to handle money. Thanks Jill!

 

Living Green at Home

GREEN YOUR LIFE
Living Green at Home

 

 

I recently was asked about what I did to live “green” at home. After I thought about it, I realized that over the last 10 years by taking small steps, we have really changed what we do and use.

We changed light bulbs, cut back on individual plastic water bottles, took our own bags to the store, started recycling, and got a sweeper with no bags.

The changes we made to live green at home also helped me feel better by being exposed to fewer chemicals and fragances. Here are a few of the things that worked for us.

Experiment to see what works for you, your family and home.
Please NOTE: consider your surfaces before using these ideas.
Vinegar is NOT a good choice for granite and marble!

For Cleaning:
My two most favorite things to use are white vinegar and baking soda.

You can buy huge jugs of white vinegar and large bags of baking soda at warehouse club stores. It makes it easy to always have them on hand and is so inexpensive compared to all the different products for different purposes you buy.

Dilute vinegar and water (1 to 5) in a spray bottle to clean everything in the kitchen. Countertops, quick floor cleanup, refrigerator etc. And any odor from the vinegar goes away very quickly.

Also use this in the bathrooms for sinks and countertops. You can also use the spray to clean glass and mirrors – including windows.

To remove odors (even doggie smells!) from carpets, sprinkle baking soda before sweeping. This works without covering up with fragrance.

In the Laundry:
Add baking soda to the washing machine with detergent (fragrance free) because it makes the soap work better and you can use less. I’m also starting to experiment with soap nuts to replace the detergent. Still too early to decide if that’s next. If you have experience with them let me know what you think!

Try permanent dryer sheets made out of fabric to eliminate buying throw away dryer sheets and fabric softener.

Outdoors:
We live in the woods with no grass where we raise a hardy crop of poison ivy, dandelions and weeds! I use vinegar full strength to kill these as they start to come up. My experience is that vinegar will kill anything. So use care around grass, flowers and anything you want to keep.

For Cooking/Food Prep/Storage:
~Unbleached paper towels if using with food prep (like draining or drying)
~Unbleached natural waxed paper if covering will touch the food
~Unbleached parchment paper under everything that goes in the oven or tabletop grill – this really cuts down on cleanup!
~Replace plastic containers with glass jars for food storage. Try inexpensive canning jars in different sizes with plastic lids for refrigerator/pantry storage and regular metal lids for the freezer

Recycling:
Many of us have been recycling for years. As you eat less processed foods, you’ll find you have less to recycle.

Try taking one small step at a time!

It won’t take you long to live greener at home!