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A sunflower room provides a living outdoor playroom for kids in the summer which can be expanded and moved each summer. Plant the sunflower room as soon as the danger of frost has passed in your area (consult your local cooperative extension for safe planting dates) and the kids can enjoy their own private outdoor enclave all summer. As a bonus, the best variety of sunflowers to use for a sunflower room, Mammoth Russian, also produce some of the most delicious sunflower seeds for snacking.

You can plant a sunflower room straight in the lawn without suffocating the grass or using weed killer. You can either carefully cut the grass around and between the sunflowers with a string trimmer or weedwhacker, or just let it grow longer for the summer on that patch. If you do decide to kill off the grass inside the sunflower room, we suggest distilled white vinegar, which kills the vegetation but is safe for use around children’s and pets’ play areas. (continue reading…)

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Leafy greens are a nutritional powerhouse, and an essential element of green smoothies and blended salads. Leafy greens are also a rising source of foodborne illness, particularly since they are often consumed raw. To get the most nutrition with the least worry, consider planting some of these easy leafy greens in your garden. Some are even pretty enough for a spot in the front yard. Most greens are cold tolerant, so you can plant the seeds directly in the ground as soon as you can work the soil in spring.

Leafy greens tolerate more shade than many garden vegetables, though they still need at least 4-6 hours of good direct sunlight a day for optimal growth. Though the plants are grown for their leaves, they will produce flowers and seeds, in an effort to propagate the species. Once a plant sends up a flower stalk, a process called bolting and easily recognizable by a rounder stem growing from the middle of the plant, the leaves become bitter and aren’t much use as a table vegetable anymore. Because leafy greens bolt but are more cold-tolerant than other vegetables like squash and tomatoes, they are usually grown as both spring and fall crops, with one planting as soon as the soil thaws in early spring and another in mid to late summer for a fall harvest as the days cool again. Here are six healthy, pretty and easy-to-grow greens to grow in your home garden or tuck in the flower beds to fill out the spring foliage. (continue reading…)

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Whether the groundhog predicts six more weeks of winter or an early start to spring, this is the time of year when I grow weary of the cold and snow and yearn for the green shoots of the coming spring. A windowsill herb garden is a fun project that even younger kids can get involved with, and scratches that itch to finally see something growing again.

Some gardeners insist on gloves when working with their plants. I like to go bare-handed and really get in touch with the seeds and the soil. There is some evidence that soil microbes can even help elevate your mood, though the beneficial microbes might not be present in the commercial potting mix used in most container gardens. (continue reading…)

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November is the season of giving thanks.  We celebrate the bounty of our harvest and decorate our homes and yards with straw bales, corn stalks and jack-o-lanterns.  There is of course, the piles of leaves signaling the season as well.  How better to give thanks to Mother Nature than to return our harvest decorations to the earth for use next spring?  Common harvest decorations provide a perfect source for mulching soil or compost additives.  Recycling these resources into the soil builds it up for spring plantings, creating healthier soil cycling to a healthier harvest next fall.

Composting

With the exception of corn stalks, common decorations can simply be added to your composting location.  Corn stalks are very fiberous and break down very slowly.  Therefore, they should be clipped into short sections with pruning shears or shredded in a limb chipper.  Corn cobs can be handedled in the same way and both are excellent sources for adding fiberous structure to the soil, loosening it up for healthier root systems.  Straw and shredded leaves break down much more quickly.  To shred leaves, run them over with your mower.  If you have a bagging attachment, even less work.  If you have chickens or livestock, they will be grateful for the meat of the jack-o-lantern or toss it in the compost area as well. (continue reading…)

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Nothing can beat fresh eggs, especially eggs fresh from your own backyard flock. With your own chickens, you can control what they’re fed and how long the eggs stay in your refrigerator. It can be quite a shock for new chicken owners, however, when the eggs just don’t look like what you get at the store. Store-bought eggs are all the same shape and color, and either perfectly white or perfectly brown. Backyard chicken eggs can be all sorts of colors depending on what hens you have, and vary in size. “Real” eggs aren’t always clean; sometimes they have hay stuck to them. Sometimes even chicken poop.

Dirty eggs can be a problem and a health hazard if you handle them improperly. You can’t sell them dirty, and you’re likely to find yourself not wanting to eat some of the worst ones either. So if you raise chickens, you’ll find yourself needing to know how to clean them properly. (continue reading…)

ⓒ iStockPhoto - difydave

Love beautiful flowers but don’t have a green thumb? Is the soil where you live rocky and poor for growing plants? Consider African violets, which can be grown indoors or outdoors. They add a pop of color and accent to any room, flower bed or window box. Violets don’t require a great deal of complicated care or expertise. No wonder “African violets are the most popular houseplant in America,” according to Sara Elliott for Suite 101 (1).

Characteristics of Violets

Sure, we all know that violets are violet-colored. But in addition to the standard, well-known purple hues, violet flowers can also come in various shades of pink, blue, white, yellow or multi-colored. Sometimes, it’s difficult to determine the exact shade of the flower: for example, is it purple or blue? Is it a bluish-purple? Violets have fuzz-like or hair-like leaves and grow to a height of about three to seven inches (1, 2). (continue reading…)

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With the incidence of Lyme disease on the rise, it’s hard to get excited about taking the kids for a hike, especially if you’re aware of how to prevent tick bites to begin with. Getting all your kids to wear long pants, tuck their pants into their socks (never mind *find* their socks), and submit to thorough bug-spraying is enough to make any mom give up and opt for a margarita on the patio instead of much needed family nature awareness.

One thing you can do to get your children outside and learning about nature without full-body protection is to create a family roadside herbarium. A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens, either bound together in a scrapbook or mounted on the wall in display frames. You can find a huge variety of plants to clip and preserve just by walking along well-paved roadsides with a plastic bag and a plant identification guide. You don’t need to go hiking through the woods to start out a magnificent collection. (continue reading…)