If you like a manicured yard, that’s fine, but if you leave one small corner a little wild, it’ll attract cool creatures like worms, snails, and pillbugs that kids will like to see. Creatures like these enjoy a little cover – so a pile of leaves, a few more weeds than normal, and so fourth encourages visits.

Make sure to go native to attract the wild. If you grow only non-native plants, fewer animals like birds and insects will visit. Native is not only a sustainable way to grow but it’s attractive to local wildlife.

Hang up a DIY recycled tire swing or make a recycled tire sandbox so that kids can get wild and active with play.

Create the sort of garden that actually attracts the wild to your yard. For example, a butterfly garden or place a birdbath and birdhouses around for flying friends.

Make it utterly fun with a wild sunflower playhouse, a pizza garden, bean teepees and more. Kids love an adventure and if you give this to them in your yard, they’ll be more inclined to go outside. See 10 Fun Organic Gardening Projects for Kids for ideas.

[image via stock.xchang]

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“Eat the View” is coordinated by Kitchen Gardeners International, a Maine-based 501c3 nonprofit network of 10,000 gardeners from 100 countries who are inspiring and teaching more people to grow some of their own food.”

If you want to get involved, you can sign the White House Victory Garden Petition. The petition will be delivered with a collection of heirloom seed packets to the Obamas.)

Visit Eat the View to learn about how you can plant smart, sustainable gardens in your home and community.

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Using mulch helps plants retain water, which helps you conserve water. Plants that do well with pine straw mulch are plants that love acid. These include azaleas, blueberries, rhododendrons and hollies, among others. It’s best to leave a free area around the plant stems to avoid mold.

Pine needles provide good insulation, water retention and weed control. They also look natural and last longer than many alternative mulches. Best of all, no tree deaths are involved.

Have you tried pine needles as mulch? What did you think?

Image via flickr.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

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Placing seeds: Put a few seeds at a time in a medicine cup so they don’t go nuts.

Pulling deadheads: I remember popping off my mom’s deadhead flowers as a kid; and it was pretty fun. You can let little ones pull off dead flower heads, dingy leaves, or even have them pull up dead plant. Give them a pair of kid friendly gloves.

Worm hunting: Worms help your garden and many kids are ready to help (not my son – squeamish) but most. Let them bring the worms to you.

Rock collecting: When I’m outside and Cedar doesn’t want to be, I tell him to collect rocks. Now in his case, he’s always liked collecting rocks. He has books about it, and a pretty big collection by now. If your child is not interested in rocks have them collect sticks, ladybug (carefully), or any other outside object.

Watering: Give kids a little can that pours slowly, so you don’t end up with poor drowned plants.

Busy work: There’s tons of busy (non-essential) tasks a child can do in a garden with a tiny hand shovel. Any kid will shovel dirt back and fourth between a pot and the ground, kids like to pretend to plant things (sticks, a single flower) in a pot, or allow them to be a little more useful and loosen dirt in an area for you.

What do you let your little one help with in the garden?

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

[Image via stock.xchng]

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• Water at night. Or you could water in the early morning, but usually nighttime (devoid of sun) gives you less evaporation time, which means your water goes further.
• Lose some grass: Reduce your lawn size by a decent amount when possible. Rocks, a patio, or drought resistant flowers use less water than your thirsty lawn.
• Be extra careful when positioning your sprinklers. The sidewalk doesn’t need watering.
• Mulch to prevent some evaporation – mulch holds water, sort of like a sponge.
• Use a water saving hose head and hose timer.
• Use rainwater you collect to water instead of new hose water. Seriously, anyone can collect and use rainwater. It’s really simple, and easy to use if you build a rain barrel with a decent spout.
• If you live on a hill, use a water efficient spray nozzle on your hose, and water upwards from the bottom of the hill. Lawns that tilt make it easy to have run-off water waste.
• Plant like with like – for example in the veggie and flower garden, it’s not smart planning to plant a bunch of drought resistant anything around a plant that needs more water to thrive. Plant thirsty plants together.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

[photo via stock.xchng]

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School grounds are really important, and a tough green issue. Many schools have a large amount of ground space and want it to look good. However, this doesn’t mean your school needs to use harmful chemicals and pesticides. A big yard can be just as pretty when treated organically.

Questions to consider that are related to your school grounds include:

1. What products are used on the actual grounds – chemical or organic?
2. Do you have a school flower, fruit, or veggie garden? Are you growing these items organically?
3. Do more trees need to be planted for shade, windbreakers, or to prevent water erosion?
4. How much water is the school using? Can you build rainwater barrels, or cut out some grass and have a big sandbox instead? Is there vegetation that can thrive with less water use at your school?
5. Does your school encourage natural wildlife specific to the area, such as bees, birds, and butterflies? If you don’t see any of these native creatures around your school yard, odds are, your school has the wrong sort of plants growing.

More on healthy, green school grounds.

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Part of greening your yard is choosing the correct plants. By choosing varied plants that are well adapted to your specific eco-system for where you live you can accomplish a few things:

• You create an environment that’s more likely to thrive on its own; thus requiring less evasive care and nurturing.
• You can reduce water, fertilizer, and pesticide use.
• Area specific plants do a better job of attracting the good bugs, birds, and butterflies you want in the garden, while eliminating the pests you don’t want around.

How to find the right plants for your environment:

Good places to start, as I noted before, are your local nursery, home and garden show, or talk to growing experts at a local college. Most upper level schools have some sort of information center about growing in your area. There are also some great area specific resources you can use. All of the following cover issues like choosing good regional plants and much more.

One of my favorite books is Heat-Zone Gardening: How to Choose Plants That Thrive in Your Region’s Warmest Weather. I got it when I thought I was moving to Arizona, but it came in handy in New Mexico too. Actually it came in handy in Humboldt as well. It’s a great book. It’s easy to find plant zones for the coldest weather but this book talks about the hottest weather. It’s got lovely pictures, and a focus on water conservation. It’s probably one of my most used gardening books.

My favorite organic gardening book is Gardening Naturally: Getting the Most from Your Organic Garden; which I think is out of print but you can find it. I like this book, because while I can garden ok, it’s not my special talent and this book spells everything out very easily yet is comprehensive. Beautiful photos, plus it has an excellent compost section, including great ideas for building your own bins.

Better Homes & Gardens online has an extensive regional gardening section, as does the National Gardening Association, and Gardenplace.com. You can also use basic Plant Hardiness Maps.

What region do you live in? Does it affect your ability to garden green?

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Today let’s look at your actual lawn. Following are some tips I picked up from a local Oregon green resource newsletter and my collection of organic gardening books.

While not all the tips are specific to my region, a good tip is to check with your local natural gardening specialists for your city or state. Some regions will have very specific issues related to organic yard care and gardening. For instance, in New Mexico we were focused on water conservation, but in Humboldt the tips you got pertained more often to keeping plants from getting too soggy – what with the ocean and fog.

To locate local resources go to the National Gardening Association and visit their regional site which will hook you up with a regional newsletter and regional blogs. Another cool way to find resources is to visit your local home and garden shows – most cities have them and local cooperative growing teams are always there.

Tips for greening your lawn without the use of pesticides or other harmful chemicals:

Sun is good: What grows in a shady lawn naturally is moss, not grass. If you have too much shade you might want to consider a different landscaping approach, such as shade loving flowers.

Grasscycle: Mow your grass 2 – 2 1/2 high and let the clipping stay. This is almost like adding compost to your yard. It improves the soil with nutrients and organic matter.

Water sparingly: You only need to water so that your lawn receives about one inch of water a week. If you live in a rainy area, this means you really don’t need to water at all during the rainy season. One of the best ways to water is with collected rainwater.

Aerate: Use a core aerator, overseed with grass seed, and top dress with a small layer (1/2 inch) of fine compost. You should do this every year.

Pull, don’t kill weeds: You know what’s good exercise? Pulling weeds. Grab some gloves, and yank them out. You can overseed bare spots on your lawn caused by weeds.

Mow smarter: You know what else is good exercise? Push mowers! Visit Clean Air Gardening for reel mowers. You can also get an electric mower – which is more green than a gas powered mower, but has that cord (yikes) and really a push mower is healthier for you and the planet.

Reduce: Reduce your lawn’s size. Instead of all grass you could have a nice deck, some beautiful low water flowers, or yummy organic veggies. Reducing the size overall of the yard you have will reduce water consumption and your workload. Plus, trees and shrubs both grow better when the soil covering their roots is grass-free. Try a mulch instead, so that grass and your trees aren’t fighting over nutrients.

Forget the yard: How important is this yard to you? Could you toss regional wildflower seeds everywhere and enjoy flowers instead? What about a rock garden? Think about the reasons you have a lawn in the first place. If the reasons feel unnecessary consider ditching the yard all-together.

Relax: This has got to be the number one tip. Just chill about the lawn. Most of the most beautiful places on earth are wild, less tame, and never perfect. Your yard doesn’t have to be the perfect shade of green or the right height to be useful. Weeds won’t kill anything – but harmful pesticides might. You can live with a few weeds. Cookie cutter yards are unnecessary.

What else can you think of? What will improve your lawn (i.e. your grass) without chemicals and harmful toxins?

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Obviously the best way to care for your yard and garden is organically; so we’ll look at some organic yard care tips this week. Along with that we’ll talk about some soil renovations, which plants to choose, and how to get a green lawn using methods that are healthy for your family, neighbors, and pets, while conserving water, energy, and resources.

Today you can start thinking about the products you have in the garden shed. Are they full of chemicals and pesticides? If so, it’s time to get rid of them. There’s no need to have them around. First off, we’re not going to toss them in the sink, toilet, or sewer, right? Right. That’s going to send icky chemicals swirling right to our water sources. For safe disposal of harmful pesticide products the EPA recommends checking, “With your local solid waste management authority, environmental agency, or health department to find out whether your community has a household hazardous waste collection program or a similar program for getting rid of unwanted, leftover pesticides. These authorities can also inform you of any local requirements for pesticide waste disposal.”

Learn more about disposal of household-use pesticides.

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Although Cedar loves veggies and has done some gardening he lacks a real interest. Last year we were mid-relocation in the spring. For this upcoming spring I’m signing us on at the community garden which is (lucky for me) located right across the street from our new home. I’m hoping that the community garden; where he’ll have his own little areas will instill a better appreciation of gardening and where our food comes from for Cedar.

If you have enough space a garden is a great project for even very small kids. If you have little to no yard space than look into a community garden project in your area.

You can even start a container garden or series of container gardens — course you won’t be growing watermelons in small containers but there are plenty of things you can grown in even one sunny window.

Once you get your hands on a gardening area here are 10 really fun organic plant projects to grow with kids:

1. A sunflower playhouse.
2. Edible flowers like pansies, calendula, marigolds, and nasturtiums; good in salads, brown rice dishes, and more.
3. Hanging strawberries! Keep the slugs out and just plain fun to see.
4. Pumpkins — do I have to say why? They’re big, they’re orange, they roll. Go pumpkins.
5. A butterfly garden.
6. A pizza garden with tomatoes, peppers, onions, basil, oregano, and more — just look out if your little likes pineapple pizza.
7. Carrots; simple easy and even kids who don’t like veggies are impressed by pulling up carrots.
8. Add sparkle to the night with a moonlight garden.
9. Bean teepees and tunnels.
10. A sensory garden; which all gardens are but sometimes kids like things spelled out.

To add to the fun pick up some pint sized gardening tools if your little is especially small.

To learn more about starting an organic garden with your kids visit Organic Gardening.

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