I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees

Arbor Day and Kids

My 4-H club celebrated Arbor Day Tuesday night. One of our parents owns a tree farm and had donated a tree for us to plant. Unfortunately, it was raining and very cold, so that will have to wait till next time. I did, however, use my new Project Learning Tree curriculum. We read Dr. Suess' The Lorax and watched a short cartoon on planting trees. My 5-7 year old members soaked up both activities. And, during question and answer time they were able to give the important points back - roots need air, trees shouldn't be pruned to have "lion's tails", and trees should only have one trunk. After reading The Lorax, they also told me that no trees means no air. Good points all around. I made sure to remind them that no trees means no tree climbing either. So, remember, when you cut a tree down, plant another in its place!


PS - Just found a great site to go along with The Lorax! I'll be sending it to my 4-H kids today.

Urban CSAs

This is a really interesting take on CSAs (community supported agriculture). Normally, CSAs allow a person to invest in a farming operation and reap the benefits. This company has started retrofitting people's backyards into vegetable gardens and then the CSA operates on a very local level.

Read more about this in The New York Times.

As someone who grew up on an orange grove, but now mainly works with urban gardening, I love this concept. I really think people should be growing more of their own food anyways. It may not be as efficient or economical, but there's something very satisfying (and educational!) in saying I grew this whole salad in my backyard.

Over the years, I've volunteered quite a bit with Ag in the Classroom. The purpose of the organization is to educate youth about where their food comes from and help create well-rounded, critically thinking consumers. Many of the third graders that we would work with often said their food came from grocery stores. If you asked what they had for breakfast (usually orange juice or milk and cereal), and asked where the orange juice came from, it was always grocery stores. Sometimes they could make the connection back to the orange, but almost never could they make the connection back to the tree.

I know most people are now two to five generations removed from a farm, but this is still really sad. I want my kids to be very concerned with where their food comes from and how it's produced. I want them to think critically about production, processing, and marketing of food and make their own decisions. I think it helps when we are able to grow even a little bit in our backyards.

So, I guess what I'm saying is these urban CSA programs are great. If the vegetable garden is right in your neighborhood, you can visit it, ask questions of the homeowner (and the farmer who's helping), and still reap the benefits. It may even inspire you to try a tomato plant or two in your own yard!

So to inspire you, here's a picture that Kim took at the Garden Writers conference in Oklahoma this year. It's okra that was grown locally in a home vegetable garden. And, it's a great picture.

Chicken Tractors, Boys, and Pests!

Will and his friend, Jack, have been asking for chickens for a new 4-H project this fall. A friend of ours gave us two - a Rhode Island red bantam and a barred rock cockerel. The cockerel is a little deformed in the legs, so he needed to come to a home with less chickens to pick on him.

John and a friend built a great chicken tractor. If you've never heard of a chicken tractor, they're pretty cool. It's a contained area that we can move around the yard, so that the chickens keep getting fresh grass and they don't tear up the yard as much. Our house has a lot of coyotes, hawks, and other predators, so we need something pretty secure for them. John built a chicken tractor big enough for probably 6-7 chickens. It's got three hen nests off the ground and it's covered in wire all the way around. The nests have a door that opens in the back to let you get eggs out pretty easily (although the chickens haven't figured out how to get into the nests - dumb birds).

Will is admiring the new chickens and chicken tractor here. The chickens have been a great project for him. He goes out and feeds them every morning and is checking on them in the afternoon also.


Will and Rocky are "bonding."


I love Henrietta. She's a beautiful banty hen, but, boy, is she noisy. She can out cluck Tebow when he starts barking at her. She's also really, really fast. I haven't let her out to roam the yard yet, until she figures out where her home really is. We're not letting them out when we're not there - just too many predators around (including the yellow lab puppy).



I also got the chickens as another method of pest control. They love bugs and will eat just about any that they're fed. Once we finish the garden, I may put their tractor on top of the raised beds to help scratch it up some.

Chasing Dragonflies

When we got home tonight, the kids spent the first few minutes checking on the bunnies. Kaity soon spotted a dragonfly and went and got her butterfly net she got for her birthday. She spent quite a few minutes chasing the dragonfly, but "it's too fast, mommy."


"I don't know where it went."


I sat on the porch steps watching her and thinking how free and innocent she is. It's been a long time since I felt that way. But, I do remember being her age (or maybe a little older) and chasing dragonflies also. But, eventually we all have to grow up.

We finally went inside when the mosquitos got too bad.

tadpoles, 5 year olds, and Friday mornings

Last night, Will was so excited about something outside. I was in the middle of putting groceries away, so I couldn't go see. He finally got Uncle Scot outside to look. Apparently, the pond outside was full of tadpoles. Will had the "perfect" bucket to collect them in, so they spent the next hour collecting tadpoles.

This morning, we're rushing around to get out the door by 8:45 (I overslept and Will has to be at school by 9) and the bucket of tadpoles is on the porch. Of course, being the good mom I am, last night I had told him he could take some to pre-K for show and tell. So, I hurried to find a jar, wax paper, and the fish net thingy. I spent the next 10 minutes scooping tadpoles, poking holes in the wax paper and making sure Will didn't spill any water. Kaity, of course, threw a huge tantrum that she wasn't getting to take any to school.

The tadpoles finally made it to school (without spilling any yucky pond water in the truck!) and Ms. Jann loved them. I doubt they'll survive, but it'll be interesting for the kids to see. Will was all into showing them off for his friends. And, we were only 10 minutes late!

Getting Kids Outdoors - Create an Outdoor Play Area!

My kids love to play outside. But, even more so since we've put a couple of swings up. Kids naturally want something to climb up and over and explore when they're outside. Providing safe areas to do that is our responsibility. You can either buy or make a play area. We have both. My kids got a small play structure - the "fort" - a couple years ago. It's got a slide and a climbing part. But, they seem to like the stuff we've made or the natural objects even more.

We put up a traditional swing and a twirly swing a couple of weeks ago. They love the traditional swing, but they may still be a little small for the twirly swing. Here they are sharing a ride while I try to get a picture of them together.


A couple months ago, we also cut down a pine tree that could have the potential of falling on our house. The tree was about 60 feet tall and we now have big 6 foot sections around the yard. My kids love these. It's like climbing a tree - only horizontally instead of vertically. It makes me nervous, but I know other than some probable scraped knees, they're pretty safe. Eventually, I want to roll these sections into a circle around the fort and swing area to kind of contain the play area.

Veggie Gardening

We put in raised beds this weekend. It was so much fun and they look great! My sister and I went and bought materials on Friday. We also rented a HUGE rototiller. When we went to pick it up, the guys at the rental place kept asking if we'd have men there to help unload it. We figured it was because we were female and on the smaller side. When they went to load it, two of them couldn't do it. It took a third guy to help. They weren't kidding - we were going to need several guys to unload it.

On Saturday, I got John to till for me. This is the finished tilled area.


John then measured out the boards (with his helper). Our beds our 8 feet by 4 feet, so we used 8 foot 2x6s. He also anchored them on the corners about 8 inches into the ground.


Here, John cut the boards. He wants me to mention not to use him as an example for safety.


Putting them together - again with help.


Popsicle Break!!


Beds set in the garden.


Me actually working. We got bulk potting soil(actually borrowed it from my mother-in-law) and composted horse manure to fill the beds in with.


The finished product!!




We planted mums in the front of the bed to add a little color. We also planted the seedlings I had started - tomatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, beets, lettuce, and collards. We planted seeds of (more) pumpkin, three squash varieties, two pea varieties, turnips, rutabagas, mustard, carrots, and radishes. I started some cabbages in seedling trays. We have tomatoes in the earth box and we still have more tomatoes to plant.

As you can see, we have two beds and then rows in the ground in back. We decided to start small with the beds to see if they work for us. I put the vining vegetables (squash, pumpkin, peas) in the rows in back to give them more room.

We also mulched with some of our yard trash (FYN principle #4). We had a pine tree come down recently and we still had a bunch of pine bark and yard trash on the ground. I used that and oak leaves to start filling in around the beds and in between the rows. I'm going to get some old hay from the barn to fill in the rest.

Check out our Raised Bed Gardening in a Minute show. It's got a lot more links and info about gardening with raised beds. Which by the way, I already love! It looks great and I'm hoping it keeps the weeds down.