Eco warrior

I’ve always liked gardening.  Maybe it’s because we didn’t have much money when I was little.  Fancy toys were out of the question, but outside of our mobile home/trailer, we had a large yard and  a horse pasture, so when it wasn’t pouring down rain, I spent most of my time outside.  Even though I refused to eat vegetables when I was little because I was the most annoying, fussiest eater on the planet, watching them grow was amazing.  Once I spent an entire day pulling all the long grass out of the ground in front of the barn and then planted flower seeds.  I was only about 7 or 8 at the time, and it was the very first garden that was all my own.

Down the road there was a big wooden windmill next to a house.  Even though I knew nothing about sustainability or eco-friendly practices back then, I always thought it was really neat that  the family living there used wind to get electricity.

Fast forward many years,  go half way around the world, and now I’m very passionate about sustainability and being eco-friendly.  I am doing a degree in sustainable agriculture and food security, after all.  But it didn’t happen all at once.  I’m not even sure when it started happening.  Maybe when I lived on my own for the very first time at the age of 19 or 20.  I rented the 2 bedroom granny flat across the street from where Aaron and Jess lived with their Mum and Grandma.  The lovely family I rented from said I could do whatever I wanted with the little garden next to the house.  I planted tomato plants that ended up being taller than me, lemongrass, cucumber, and I can’t remember what else.

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I started cleaning the little house with vinegar, baking soda, and eucalyptus oil.  Not because I knew it was eco-friendly, but because I lived on my own, only made $400 a week, and was saving for my wedding and honeymoon.  Cleaning with such things was way cheaper than using nose curling store bought sprays, but they work just as well.  I still clean that way, but now I do it for the environment and my family’s health.

Now that we have our own house, I would love to plant every square inch of the front lawn (if you can call it that, it’s more like the front bindii infestation) with vegetables, fruit, herbs, and all things edible, but Aaron is not so down with the edible landscaping movement.  Instead, I have an edible garden around the perimeter of the back yard (leaving enough room for the kids to play), which, at the moment, is growing peas, beans, grapefruit, purple broccoli, cauliflower, four kinds of lettuce, two kinds of spinach, kale, asian greens, spring onions, basil, perennial basil, sage, thyme, blue borage, nasturtium, and marigolds. I’ve also started to infiltrate some edibles amongst the decorative plants in the garden under our front window, including a dwarf red banana plant, a red chilli plant, chocolate mint, peanuts, strawberries, chives, oregano, coriander, native finger lime (in a pot), rosemary, and a macadamia tree (in a pot).  It’s amazing how many things you can plant in a small space.

Growing some of your own food not only teaches your kids about where food comes from (some kids these days don’t realise that milk comes from cows!), but it also saves money (which is a huge plus if you’re a cash strapped parent.  Kids are expensive…), and encourages kids to eat more healthily.  Hannah and Daniel love eating veggies from the garden.  Before we started growing our own, Hannah wouldn’t touch veggies.  Plus, if you grow your own, you know exactly what they’ve been fertilised with, and what hasn’t been sprayed on them. You know your food won’t be laced with synthetic, bad for the environment, eco unfriendly herbicides, pesticides, and fertilisers, or genetically modified material.

Instead,  I have a worm farm. The kids love looking at the wiggly worms, and they eat all my veggie scraps.  Then I use their castings and diluted pee (worm “tea” if you want to be polite about it) to fertilise the garden.

I also have a bokashi bucket, which is an anaerobic digester that can take any kind of food, even stuff like chicken carcasses, and all the other food that the worms can’t have, and the compost heap won’t like.  My local council is very into sustainability as well and has a special bin for food scraps and yard waste.  When my bokashi bucket is full, I can put all the scraps in my green bin and they will be taken away to be made into compost in a giant anaerobic digester.

One of the best things the eco and budget conscious Australians can do is take advantage of the sun and get solar panels and/or a solar hot water system.  The sun shines a lot down under (according to the world wide web, Sydney has around 236 days of sun or partial sun per year, way more than my hometown, near Seattle, which gets around 201 cloudy days per year), so we live in the perfect place to harness it’s green, non-polluting power that has the added benefit of slashing electricity bills.  Yes, there is the initial outlay, but the panels will pay for themselves after a while. How many panels do you need? How much does it cost? How does it work?  Australian solar quotes can answer all these questions and more.

One day we also want to install a rainwater tank.  Fresh water is a precious resource, especially as the population increases and ground water can be contaminated with herbicides, pesticides, agricultural runoff, landfills leaching toxic chemicals into aquifers, etc.

Maybe my sustainable/eco friendly ways started because I’m cheap, but it’s so much more than that now. For the sake of our kids and our kids’ kids, we all need to at least start thinking about sustainability and being eco-friendly so that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch doesn’t keep increasing in size.  So that our fresh water supplies stop getting contaminated.  So that we lower our greenhouse gas emissions and stop global warming.

*This post was in partnership with Australian Solar Quotes.

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

Something I’m passionate about

We’re back!!!  The cruise was fun, but it will take me a while to go through all the photos and pick out all the ones I want to post with our cruising story.

In the meantime, I’ve submitted two images to Canon’s Shine competition.  This isn’t a normal photo competition with cash or stuff prizes.  This competition is about subject matter: shining a light on what is important.  The winner gets a national advertising campaign about their image and why it’s important, a display in the NSW state library, and best of all, a documentary about the image and the issue.

My images are about sustainable agriculture.  And by sustainable, I’m not talking about GM and seed company giants.  If we want our future generations to have plenty of healthy, natural food to eat, we need to do something now.

Please click here to be directed to my images (the first one will show up and if you click the white arrow in the right hand side of the page, it will take you to my second image).  The first one is of Hannah holding a giant zucchini.  She’s so cute.  You can only vote once per image, but you do need to sign up to Canon’s website to do so.  Just don’t tick the newsletter box and they won’t spam your inbox.  You don’t have to live in Aus to vote.  So please, PLEASE vote.  Voting numbers are low for all images, so even one vote makes a huge difference. This isn’t about winning, it’s about the future of our children and grandchildren.

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

The suicidal cockroach

Hannah selflessly decided that she wants her whole class to see the caterpillar in her little bug cage turn into a moth, so we gave the cage and all of it’s inhabitants to her teachers and got ourselves an upgrade.  The new cage is about twice the size of the old one.  We’ll call it bug cage 2.0.

The new bug cage, with a standard 600mL water bottle for size reference

We immediately filled the bottom of the cage with crappy clay soil from the backyard and then found some sticks to prop up for makeshift trees as well.

Since Hannah loves watching caterpillars make cocoons and then emerge as moths, I was really hoping to find another caterpillar, despite the fact that finding one means my beans and leaves are being nibbled on.  I don’t know how I spotted it, but we found a looper caterpillar just like the last one, but way smaller. We are excited that we will be able to watch it grow a lot before metamorphosis.

We also found a weird black and yellow bug.  A few minutes later, we found another one.

The black and yellow (it’s whole underside is yellow. Some of them are more orange, some are more yellow) bug eating an apple next to a beetle. One of the sexes abdomens sticks out past it’s wings, and the other does not.  I don’t know which is which though.

We then found two brownish beetles and a small jumping spider to add to bug cage 2.0. A katydid was hiding in some long grass in our yard, so it too has been sentenced to captivity.  The next day we found another one at the park. It’s like an insect Noah’s ark in our bug cage!

Both the black and yellow bugs, and the beetles were seen engaging in coitus, so I’m not quite sure if the ball of eggs that appeared in the cage are beetle eggs, or weird bug eggs.  I guess we’ll find out later.

The ball of eggs, hidden under a dirt ledge

That night, Rosie (our beaglier x mini foxy puppy) cornered something in the kitchen, alternately trapping it with her paws and putting it in her mouth to throw around in amusement. Uncaged bugs never last long in our house.  Rosie doesn’t eat them, she just likes to torture them until death.

I disregarded my squeamish, want-to scream-like-a-girl reaction to cockroaches and stole it from Rosie for the bug cage.  A cockroach would make an interesting spectacle in there.  Or not.  It just hid under a lettuce leaf.

I also found a big ugly moth on my beans (either laying eggs or eating them, neither of which I condone), so he too went in the bug cage.

We found 3 more weird black and yellow bugs in the garden, so they went in too, brining their number up to 5.  Those little brats can be hard to catch because of their ability to fly.  Or at least glide.  I’m not exactly sure which, but they do have wings.  They just don’t use them much.

Rosie found some more of the same kind of little brown beetles at our front door.  Turns out they  made some sort of nest in a crack between the bricks and the door frame.  I don’t really want a million beetles at my front door, especially since I think this particular kind eats plants, not pests of plants, so about 10 more were added to the bug cage.

Sounds pretty good, right?  I the kids enjoy watching the bugs and drawing them in their science journals (yes, they have science journals, at their request).  The bug cage makes learning about bugs fun.  Every day, we look for new egg piles, holes in leaves, bug hiding places, etc.

a page from Hannah’s science journal. She drew the picture and we talked about snail facts which I then wrote down for her.  The old bug cage had a snail.

But then there’s the cockroach.  After hiding under the lettuce all day, it seems to have decided that escape is impossible, therefore suicide is the best option.  It dug it’s way to the bottom of the cage and wedged itself between the dirt and the wall.  It’s been like that for days, stuck there, it’s only movement an occasional twitching leg.  I could free it, but that means touching it, and I’d really rather not.

Suicide, or accident?

One of the katydids is missing a leg.  Not one of the little legs, but one of the big, long, bent, jumping hind legs.  There is no sign of it in the cage.  I’m pretty sure all the things in there are herbivores, except the spider, but surely the tiny garden spider couldn’t consume an entire katydid leg in one night?  Plus how did it come off?  How does a katydid lose a whole leg?  I’m thinking it’s either a case of mating gone wrong, or the leg got stuck in one of the slits at the top of the cage.  Neither scenario explains where the leg went though.

The one hind legged katydid

The black and yellow bugs are constantly trying to escape.  They can fit their creepy little heads through the slits in the top of the cage, but their bodies are slightly too big. We often see them with their heads sticking out desperately trying to get to the other side.  Three of them did though.  One of the escapees I found in the dining room and killed, the other two remain missing.  One died in the cage and is still in there, stiff and unmoving.  I left him there in case any of the other bugs are actually carnivores or omnivores.  I’m thinking not, since it’s still there.

The spider finally figured out it was small enough to fit through the slits and lived on the outside of the lid for a while before disappearing all together.

The moth also kicked the bucket after only a few days of captivity.  It’s still in there too, standing at the bottom of the cage with it’s wings up, like it’s had an unfortunate appointment with a taxidermist.

There is nothing alive about this moth

Rosie found a cricket in the house (an alarmingly frequent event), so I stole it before she commenced torture.  After a couple of days though, it too went the way of the cockroach.

suicidal cricket, or accidentally stuck?

And the caterpillar?  After one day, it climbed a little branch, and looked like it was slipping out of it’s green skin in favour of white skin.  The green skin clumped together on it’s back which looked like little tiny grapes, revealing white underneath.  Shortly after, a silk like web appeared around the now white, still tiny caterpillar, and then what looks like a layer of black armour appeared over the white skin.  It’s been like that for days, unmoving.  Surely it’s too early for the caterpillar to turn into a moth?  It’s still so tiny!

It’s so small, you can hardly see it, but it’s there on the little stick

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do when the eggs hatch, since the resulting bugs or larvae or whatever emerges will be small enough to fit through the slits.  I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.  In the mean time, we’re still enjoying bug cage 2.0.  It’s better then TV.

See, it really is better then tv

UPDATE:

Today I found out that the black and yellow bugs are soldier beetles.  They are beneficial insects, so I let all of them go in my bean patch.  The brown striped bugs are actually whitefringed weevils.  As larvae, they eat taproots of legumes as well as underground peanut pods, causing much damage and or plant death.  As adults, they chew on leaves.  At least I caught them all (near my peanut plant), but I certainly hope they don’t procreate.  Hopefully all those eggs are soldier beetle eggs…..

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

The cage of doom

Remember that caterpillar we caught eating one of my heirloom organic Australian butter beans?

The bean eating caterpillar

Yes, that one. I’m pretty sure it’s a looper caterpillar. Well, he/she has made a silky cocoon and is pupating.

Yeah, I know, it’s very hard to see

The caterpillar tried to hide the cocoon, so it’s quite hard to see.  It’s the green thing inside the furry looking thing under the stick about mid photo on the right.  I couldn’t open the cage to get a photo or the vegetable grasshopper probably would have escaped.  As you can see, taking one through the plastic didn’t work out so well, but you get the idea.

I thought Hannah’s class might like to see a weird looking grasshopper and a cocoon, so I asked one of her teachers if they’d like me to bring it in.  I don’t think most kids around here have seen such bugs up close before.  They probably don’t have weird parents who stick bugs in cages when they try to eat their vegetables.

The teacher was very excited and said she’d love me to bring it in.  It’s been raining the last few days, so on the way out this morning, we saw an obnoxious snail about to munch on my strawberry plants (they are in big pots at the front door), so I stuck him in the cage of doom with the grasshopper and caterpillar cocoon.  At least there is a live snail in the cage now, rather than only empty shells.  Never again will any of them taste freedom.  But at least they have shelter and food. And won’t be eating my crops.

Speaking of my strawberries, they are making runners like mad, and have already infiltrated the garden bed next to their pot.  I also have a native finger lime tree in a very deep pot at the front of my house.  When I got it, it was so small that it looked ridiculous in it’s pot.  I left a couple of inches between the soil and the top of the pot, and the tree didn’t go past the top of the pot. That was less than a year ago.  And if anything is crazy enough to brave the long thorns and attempt to eat my finger lime tree, it too will go in the cage of doom.

In the top left is my peanut plant that is in the garden under our front window. Below are my strawberries, and to the right is my finger lime tree which has grown by leaps and bounds since I got it.

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The bug cage

I seem to have accidentally killed all of the snails that were occupying Hannah’s bug cage
by not feeding and watering them, and leaving the cage in the sun.  Oops.  I guess that whole hibernation thing is negated when it’s 40 degrees (104 f) out.  

The snails ended up in there because they were eating my lettuce and I don’t particularly enjoy the crunching noise their shells make when killing them.  The kids liked looking at them in the cage anyway. “Can I see the snails?” Daniel asked me every day.  You’d think that would remind me to feed and water them, but what can I say, I still have baby brain.  I don’t think it ever goes away.

About a week ago, while I was watering my beans and corn, I found a weird looking bright green grasshopper trying to eat my crops.  I chased him all around the yard, jumping on the ground with my hands cupped, hoping the little brat would be under there until I finally caught him and shoved him in the bug cage with all of the now empty snail shells.  Turns out he is a vegetable grasshopper.  Good thing I captured him.

vegetable grasshopper. Image courtesy of Queensland Museum.

 He probably would have made an awful crunching noise if I tried to kill him, so a life in captivity is much better (for me at least…).  

Our heirloom beans (climbing blue lake which have a green pod and white beans inside, and Australian butter beans which have a white pod and purple beans inside) are actually growing beans now, as opposed to leaves only, and then leaves plus flowers, so I check them every day for pests.  My garden is organic; I don’t blanket spray with insecticides, and if I do need to spray anything, it’s home made white oil with an earth friendly brand of biodegradable dish soap, and vegetable oil.  I’ve only had to use that on the grapefruit tree though.

Yesterday, we found a cheeky caterpillar on one of the immature beans.  Nearly the whole bean had been devoured! He/she went straight in the cage with the grasshopper.  Hopefully grasshoppers don’t eat caterpillars.  We did put a very small baby grasshopper (regular grasshopper, not a vegetable one) in the cage with the vegetable grasshopper, but it disappeared after only a couple of hours.  It was a bit too big to get through the air slots, which can only mean that we are in possession of a cannibal grasshopper.

The bean eating caterpillar on some lettuce we gave it.

A year ago, Hannah found a caterpillar on her pillow, and we put it in the bug cage.  A couple days later, she turned into a moth and we let her go.  Needless to say, Hannah is crazy excited for our new caterpillar to turn into a moth, only this time “we have to keep it in the bug cage or I will miss it too much,” Hannah told me.  That’s even better, then he/she can’t proliferate with other moths and lay eggs all over my vegetables (which hatch into caterpillars and eat whatever they are on after emerging from their eggs).  

Now that we have vegetables growing, I think we need a bigger bug cage.  Captivity is the price they have to pay if they eat my vegetables (or even go near them). *insert evil laugh here*

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

Veggie garden

Aaron has been busy making me a garden in the backyard.  We don’t have a big yard, but I still want to be able to plant vegetables/fruit/herbs.  We also want to have room for the kids to run around and play.  So Aaron made me a garden bed that takes minimal space, but is still enough for me to plant a few things:

The garden bed is almost finished. A shed will eventually go on top of the cement tiles in the top left corner.  There is a water access point that can’t be covered or blocked, between the future shed and edge of the garden, otherwise we had planned to have the garden go all the way to the fence. A potted plant will go between the shed and the garden so there isn’t a bare patch.

Aaron has been building the garden bed in stages since it took a whole lot of digging, followed by bricking.  There will be one more row of bricks on top of the ones that are sunken in the ground, and then it will be all finished.  Oh, and I’m going to nail boards across the beams that hold up the clothesline so that heavy things like pumpkins can grow up instead of out.

This is the first section of garden that Aaron made.  I planted two types of heirloom beans, heirloom corn, and a marigold (helps keep pests away).  In the corner in the pot is a grapefruit tree, surrounded by thyme, oregano, and mizuna.  In the next pot is a macadamia tree (which needs a bigger pot and will be moved to the front since one macadamia can kill a 10kg dog) surrounded by rosemary, and next to that is my stevia plant, which also won’t actually stay there.

My heirloom beans are thriving. Behind them is a row of corn, which is also thriving, and there is a marigold in front of them, and it’s mulched with sugarcane.

I love growing my own food.  I know what has been put on it (nothing), that it’s not GMO, it’s fun, and best of all, the kids love helping in the garden and eating straight from the plants.  It’s good for kids to know how plants grow and see it happen right in front of them.

Vegetable gardening isn’t as easy as popping some seeds in the ground and then reaping the rewards though.  Different plants like different conditions, different soils etc. Some fix nitrogen, some don’t.  Some plants don’t prosper when planted near other kinds of plants.  Some plants make other plants taste better and/or grow better.  Some plants attract beneficial insects, others repel bad insects.  They have to be planted at different depths and with different spacings. You could spend a whole lifetime learning about gardening.

But to make it easy, there’s the UrbMat.  The UrbMat has holes the correct distance from each other, close enough to maximise space, but far enough apart so that the 10 different edible plants grow properly.  Weeds are suppressed under the mat.  The types of plants have been carefully chosen and placed for compatibility and even pest control plants are included.   So you don’t have to stand outside for ages watering everything, there is even an inbuilt irrigation system.  The UrbMat shows you what to plant where, making it great for beginning gardeners and kids.  Best of all though, for every UrbMat sold, two meals are donated to kids in need.

The UrbMat. Making gardening easy.

As a Mommy Adventures reader, you get 15% off by entering the code MOMMYADVENTURE at checkout.  To buy your very own UrbMat, click here.

More about the UrbMat

The UrbMat in action

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Copyright 2014 Sheri Thomson

5 Backyard activities for kids

During the long summer holidays, none of our regular activities (play group, kindygym, bible study) are on, so we are left with warm sunny days and nothing to do.  Luckily, today’s guest post is here to give us some ideas:

Kids need to get outdoors and play. It’s great for their health and their creativity and imagination. You don’t need to go to any expense; kids have the charming ability to make their own fun. Many children can entertain themselves, whilst others will want the company of friends or siblings. Make sure there is a shady spot if the kids are spending a long time in the backyard. If not, make sure they have hats and sunscreen on. Also make sure they keep well hydrated, as having fun can be exhausting!

Outdoor games

The ever reliable backyard games of cricket, tag and brandy are great fun. You can add some new additions to outdoor fun by organising a scavenger hunt. Hide items around the yard and see who finds the most. Put up a list of items you have hidden. Older kids might enjoy something more challenging like an obstacle course where you paddle the length of the pool, commando crawl under a table, skip several times and throw balls into a bucket.

A backyard camp out

Let the kids help you pitch a tent. Supply them with bedding and torches. You could even toast some marshmallows on skewers over a tea light candle. Make sure to always supervise this activity. Don’t be surprised if, as the dark night closes in, they decide to jump into their bed inside! They may prefer to use the tent to play in during the daytime.

Hannah and Daniel love it when I set the tent up in the backyard. And sometimes when we’re bored and it’s rainy, we set it up in the living room.

Gardening

If you have kids who are curious about veges and fruits, why not get them started on a small raised garden bed or growing in a pot? Put gloves on and let them fill the pot with soil. You can purchase seeds or punnets of young shoots. This is an ongoing activity where they can water, weed and tend to the plants until they bear fruit. They will have great delight in picking and eating fresh produce.

Our kids are helping me with my new veggie garden. They can’t wait for our two kinds of heirloom beans to be ready for eating.

Set up a craft table

Give children the largest cardboard box you can find and be assured that their imagination will soon have it made into a cubby, a fort or a pirate ship! Set up a table with a plastic cover and have a supply of paper, paints, and coloured markers for children to create with. Brave parents may let their kids make coloured footprints or handprints!

Water play

If you have a pool, the children will find ways to entertain themselves. If you don’t have a pool, an inflatable pool will give just as much fun. Provide some funnels, plastic bottles, scoops, in fact, anything that will hold water, and watch how much fun they will have pouring and splashing about. Always make sure the pool is kept in crystal clear condition. Alliance Pool Stores can help with any pool requirements you may have.

It is easier than you think to keep kids entertained in a backyard. Younger ones can often get overexcited and tired, so make sure to give them snack breaks where they can have a bit of a rest. Keep backyard play going for as long as you can. It’s a great memorable experience for them and one day they will grow out of it.

*This post was brought to you by Alliance Pool Stores.

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Copyright 2013 Sheri Thomson

5 tips to help you maintain your lawn in dry months

Yesterday Aaron, the kids and I went to Bunnings in search of something to help our lawn.  We spent ages each week out the back before spring manually pulling up all the bindii plants so the kids would be able to run around outside sans shoes, without getting bindiis embedded in their feet.  We could have used herbicides, but I don’t like them, so we went the manual route.

But it’s still hard to run around out the back without shoes because the lawn is so dry that it pokes our feet.

This is our front lawn, very brown except for the very edge, but at least we have a family of ducks that likes to visit.  I will definitely be using the tips in this post!

Needless to say, I was a little excited when I was asked to put up this guest post about maintaining dry lawns.  If only I’d read it yesterday before our trip to Bunnings:
During the summer, most of us wouldn’t even try to maintain our dry, colourless lawn. You may think what’s the point? Well, you’d be surprised to hear that you don’t have to slave over your lawn during the dry months to make it healthy. Here’s some easy tips to make your lawn postcard picture perfect.

Weeding

As pretty as dandelions are, they are still a pest that will quickly chew through your grass. Before you think why bother? Know this; a single weed will produce as many as 250,000 seeds. The best way to combat the enemy? Grow yourself a thick and vigorous lawn. That’s easier said than done, of course. So where to start? First thing you need to decipher is what kind of weed you are actually dealing with. There are generally two types; ones that are deep rooted perennials and the others are shallow rooted. The deep rooted weeds are harder to combat as you don’t know how far they have spread. A good rule of thumb is to dowse the weed in water or wait for a downpour. The wetter the soil is, the easier it will be to pull the root out intact. For younger weeds, drier months are the perfect time to take care of them as they would have started to die off.

Mowing

You may have thought your neighbour was crazy to be out every Sunday morning mowing the lawns. The funny thing is, he was actually onto something. If green grass is what you are after, the key to this is frequent cutting. It forces it to grow thick and keep out the weeds. Keep your mower blades sharpened if you intend on doing this as blunt blades will damage the grass and make it vulnerable to disease. Tip: Don’t mow the lawn when it is wet as it will not allow the roots to breathe. The lawn will eventually die off and you’ll be left with bald spots. Visit http://www.stihl.com.au/ for more ideas on how to effectively mow your lawn.

Watering

Before you think about investing in a high tech water sprinkler, think again. The most common way homeowners spoil their lawns is if they overwater. When you water every day, you encourage shallow roots and your monthly water bill skyrockets. Instead, water deeply and infrequently.

Fertilising

During the summer months, your lawn still needs a food source to maintain healthy levels of growth. It is also that time of the year when insects and lawn disease become present, so it is more important than ever to fertilise during the dry season. Apply a slow releasing and eco-friendly fertiliser to give the grass a constant nutrient source while safeguarding against the hot glare of the sun.

Traffic

No one wants to be that person that yells at everyone to get off the lawn. However wear and tear from animals, workers, kids, and vehicles can damage the structure, turning it brown and eventually wearing to dirt. While a mud puddle may be fun for some, it starts to become an inviting place to spend your time. Be aware of where the frequent areas of traffic are and give that space some extra attention. Tip: over-seeding at the beginning of autumn is an effective way to toughen up your lawn for the next year and will be easier to repair during summer.

Have any more tips on how to maintain your lawn? Tell us in the comments below.

*This post was brought to you by Stihl.

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Jumping up and down in muddy puddles

“FLOWER!” Daniel exclaimed as we entered the nursery (the flower kind, not the baby kind.)  He loves flowers. But I’m sure I’ve mentioned that before. We walked along, both kids pointed and poking all the flowers as we went.

“Puddles!!!!!” Hannah yelled excitedly as we walked through the outdoor paths. They ran to big puddle, giggling as they went.

Jump, jump jump. Giggle giggle.  Hannah was jumping as high as she could, splashing water everywhere, her feet covered in water and splotches of dirt.  Daniel picked up one foot, then the other, back and forth, back and forth. He can’t quite jump yet, but stomping with one foot at a time, at a very rapid rate creates the desired splash effect.  Everyone who walked past either looked at us like we’d gone mad, or smiled at the delight on the kids’ faces. We don’t mind them jumping in puddles, they love it. I er…may have jumped a little bit myself. Maybe.

They both played in the puddle, giggling and shrieking in delight for quite a while, a la Peppa Pig.

It was hard dragging them away from the puddle, but we had a rose to buy. We had to stop at about  more puddles before we finally got to the roses.

Both Hannah and Daniel love going to the nursery, and they both love helping me garden.

Heirloom purple peas from our vegetable garden

Gardening is actually very good for kids. They learn about where food comes from, the environment, they love digging and pulling up weeds, teaches them responsibility, and best of all, they are far more likely to eat their vegetables if they grow them themselves. Every time we go to Grandma’s house, both Hannah and Daniel run to our vegetable patch to see what is ripe for them to eat. When we had broccoli, Hannah used to walk up to the plant and eat it without even picking it first. At home, she won’t even let broccoli onto her plate, and if I do put it there, she takes it straight off as if it’s some radioactive contaminant that is going to spoil the rest of her food.

Heirloom carrots from our vegetable garden. The purple ones are the most delicious.

Unfortunately, our local nursery doesn’t have any sort of kids activities, but if you live in the UK, Hayes Garden World has a Budding Young Gardeners Club.  They have planned activities, downloads, and a free membership pack.

Hayes Garden World sells plants, outdoor furniture, garden tools, and even pond accessories.

*This post was brought to you by Hayes Garden World.

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

Backyard heirloom vegetable garden

I’ve wanted to grow my own vegetable garden for a while.  I used to have one when we lived across the road (yeah, we used to live across the road from where we live now because we are just awesome like that.  When we lived in the city, the apartment we were living in was being sold so we moved just one floor down.  In the same building.), but we moved just as all the vegetables were ripening.  I never actually got to eat any of them.  Humph.

My friend has a giant vegetable garden and is forever telling me about the Diggers Club and heirloom vegetables.  That same friend and her soon to be husband, helped Aaron make two raised vegetable beds. I ordered a load of garden soil, and then Aaron and Hannah put all the dirt in the garden.  Why didn’t I help, you ask?  Heavy lifting/shovelling, and such things are not exactly good for a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy to be doing.

Hannah and the dirt pile

Hannah LOVED digging in the giant dirt mound, helping Daddy move dirt from the mound to the wheelbarrow, and then putting dirt on top of all the seeds that I planted in styrofoam cups with holes in the bottom (we had some lying around, so why not use them?).

oh so helpful

Aaron and Hannah set up a worm farm to give us wonderful “worm tea” to help the plants grow.  Every time we go outside now, Hannah wants to see the worms.  I did take photos of the making of the worm farm, but I can’t find them.  Humph.

In one of the beds, I planted all the things that needed to be sown directly into the ground (colourful heirloom carrots, purple garlic, 5 colour silverbeet, perpetual spinach, long red onions, stuff like that).  The other, was awaiting transplant from the seedling cups (crispmint lettuce, red lettuce, endive, broccoli, purple broccoli).

the straight in the ground garden bed

the seedling garden bed

When the sprouts from the cups were big enough, I transplanted them.  Sounds easy enough, but at 31 weeks pregnant, was actually quite a difficult job.  Lots of bending and getting up and down frequently.  Sigh.

Flame lettuce

I was pretty buggered by the end.  But, it’s all done now and soon we will have a nice variety of healthy, back to the way they are supposed to be vegetables, rather than flavorless, not very nutritious supermarket varieties.

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