Gardening 101

If you peek outside your window, you may see that the sun is out and the flowers are starting to bloom. This only means one thing - Spring is finally on its way here! As we transition into the new season, you may be looking for a new outdoor activity for your little ones. One popular spring outdoor activity for the whole family is gardening! 

HealthStart is here to give you the Gardening 101 rundown to help your family in starting your garden journey:
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​Benefits of Gardening
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Eating food from your garden is ideal because a vegetable or fruit that is picked fresh from the garden has more nutrients than a veggie or fruit that was picked early to be sold at the grocery store. More nutrients means a healthier you!

Gardening is also a perfect way for your kids to develop new life skills and a sense of responsibility by taking care of a living thing! They will be able to learn more about the environment around them and gain healthy habits by learning about where their food comes from. Research has found that kids that were involved in gardening programs developed a snacking preference for fruits and vegetables because they were involved in the process of growing it from beginning to end. Many kids feel a sense of pride to be eating what they have worked hard to grow!

Additionally, gardening provides an opportunity for your little ones to engage in a physical activity. Gardening requires tasks such as digging, watering and harvesting that will help your kids in building their muscle strength and improving their fine motor skills.

The Gardening Basics

Gardening is an activity that anyone can do, not just all you green thumbs out there. It may be overwhelming trying to figure out how to start, but with these basic gardening tips, you and your little ones will be gardening experts in no time: 

• Learn About Your Region: Depending on where you live, your garden may have a unique climate, more rainfall, or varying sun exposure. By knowing these characteristics, you can gauge the limitations of your garden. The best tip is to do research on gardening in your region or talk to an expert at your local gardening center.
• Test Out Your Soil: At a hardware store or at your local garden center, you will likely be able to find a soil testing kit. With this kit, you will be able to test your soil’s pH levels and nutrient levels so that you will know how to treat your soil for a more successful garden.
• Plan out your Garden Space: If you know what plants you want to grow in your garden, you can plan out how you want to arrange your garden space. You will likely have to consider how wide and tall your plant will grow and how much sun exposure or shade your plant will need. 
• Make a Timeline: Each plant will have its own growth time until it is ready to harvest. By making a calendar or timeline, you can determine which plants will be ready when, which can help with meal planning and deciding what to plant next. 
• Be Consistent and Patient: The hardest part of gardening may just be keeping a positive mindset. You and your little ones may be discouraged from continuing if you don’t see any successful growth, but it is important to stay consistent in maintaining and watering your garden to reap the benefits. Don’t give up because your hard work will pay off! ​

The Best Gardening Seeds for Springtime
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While springtime is a popular season to garden, not all gardening seeds are well suited for the season. To optimize your spring harvest, it would be beneficial to plant seeds that are well suited for the spring environment and climate. Here are some of the best seeds to start off within the springtime:

• Lettuce: For your little ones that may want to see some quick results in their gardens, try planting lettuce seeds! Lettuce is an excellent choice to start your garden off because it grows relatively quickly in the early springtime and can be grown in partial shade and cooler temperatures. 
• Potatoes: Potatoes are a fun vegetable to harvest because your little ones get to dig in the ground to find the potatoes after they are growing. Best suited for early spring gardening, potatoes need full sun and 1-2 inches of water every two weeks. 
• Radishes: Like lettuce, radishes are another fast-growing vegetable, only taking about 25-45 days until they are ready to harvest. Radishes are another fun plant to harvest because your little ones get to use their big, strong muscles to pull the red vegetable out of the ground! Radishes are best grown when the soil is kept moist and with full sun. 
• Strawberries: To add some sweetness to your garden, consider growing some strawberries. Strawberries usually take about 30 to 55 days until you can harvest them and need at least 1-2 inches of water daily. After these juicy fruits finish growing, your little ones can grab their baskets to start picking them off!
• Carrots: For later in the springtime, closer to summer, carrots are a great vegetable to plant. Just like with radishes, your little ones will love to pull this orange root vegetable out of the ground once it’s ready to harvest! Carrots need about 50-60 days to grow until they are ready and need at least 1 inch of water per week. ​

Tips for Eating All of Your Garden
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Once your little ones get super engaged in the joys of gardening, they may never want to stop! Next thing you know, your family has a large variety of produce readily accessible to eat! Because we don’t want all of their hard work to go to waste, here are some tips that can help you and your family make good use of the fruits and vegetables in your garden:

• Grow What You Enjoy Eating: Your family may just have a favorite dish that you love to make and that you never get tired of eating! Growing the needed ingredients for that dish in your garden is a perfect way to ensure that what you grow won’t spoil. Additionally, if there is a vegetable or fruit needed for multiple dishes, this would also be a good choice to grow in your garden. 
• Plan Ahead to Get the Timing Right: Meal planning ahead of time allows you to get a feel for what produce you might need. Once you know what you might need, you can check to see how long it will take until you can harvest that fruit or vegetable. You may also want to avoid having overlapping harvests so that you won’t have more produce than your family can consume. 
• Try Out New Recipes: Inevitably, you may have an abundance of a particular fruit or vegetable. When choosing what meal to make that day, use the produce that is ripe and that you have a lot of. If you don’t know what to make with that ingredient, it is always fun to try something new! There are tons of recipes out there to help guide you. Check out HealthStart's recipe page with a variety of easy, affordable, and healthy recipes to get you started!

How Gardening Can Save you Money this Spring
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You may be thinking, as fun of an activity as gardening is to do with your kids, you may want to be practical as well. Luckily, gardening can actually save you money! Here are some ways in which gardening can save you money this spring:

• You Can Grow What You Eat the Most: Having a garden is like having your own personal grocery store. You can pick out what produce you often buy from the store and instead grow it yourself in bulk if needed. Additionally, you can also save on gas or any transportation fees you would have spent to get to the grocery store!
• You Can Save on Canned Goods: When you grow more produce than you can eat, you can instead preserve these fruits and vegetables into canned options, such as pickled vegetables, jams, pasta sauces, or vegetable stock. 
• You Can Save on Electricity Bills: Gardening provides you with a fun, time-consuming activity to get the whole family to spend time outdoors. By spending more time outdoors, the entire family will reduce their screen time use and electricity uses from hanging out indoors. ​

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References

• Daniels, E. (2018, July 3). A guide to kids gardening. Personal Creations Blog. https://www.personalcreations.com/blog/kids-gardening
• Espiritu, K. (2019, November 11). How to eat your garden. San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles. https://www.sandiegohomegarden.com/2019/11/11/how-to-eat-your-garden/
• Gardening for children. (2014, August). Better Health Channel. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/gardening-for-children
• T, C. (2017, April 3). 6 awesome ways gardening can save you money. Premeditated Leftovers™. https://premeditatedleftovers.com/naturally-frugal-living/6-awesome-ways-gardening-can-save-money/
• Yang, S. (2015, August 7). 9 gardening tips for beginners. Real Simple. https://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/gardening/outdoor/gardening-101