Growing Food and Kids

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died,” said General George S. Patton. “Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”

Today, I am thankful for the lives of those who made our freedoms possible.

On Fridays during the WordCount Blogathon, I’m republishing popular posts from the past. This one originally appeared in August 2009.
Gardening is a lot like parenting; they both involve guilt. It happens every summer: I leave a couple of tomatoes or cucumbers on the windowsill above my kitchen sink to ripen, and before I know [...]

On the remaining Fridays of the WordCount Blogathon, I’m republishing popular posts from the past. This one originally appeared in October 2009.
We parents knew that spending time outside did something positive for our kids (besides making them take a better nap). And now a new study shows that people who spend more time in [...]

The second gardening project to be featured in my occasional series, “Gardens Doing Good,” is more high-profile than the first, mainly because some recognizable celebrity names are attached to it. And that’s fabulous.
Led by environmental activist Kelly Meyer with big-name partners such as Gabrielle Reece and Tobey Maguire, the Teaching Garden project launched last [...]

For the remaining Fridays in the WordCount Blogathon, I’m republishing some popular posts from the past. This one originally appeared in September 2009.
Our Big Boy was sent home early from preschool one day last week. He wasn’t sick. He wasn’t biting other kids. He just couldn’t stop scratching. He’d clawed his arms and legs to [...]

Starting today, “the Wednesday List” will appear here on Wednesdays. Each week, watch for a different list of helpful tips or ideas related to gardening, cooking fresh food, or enjoying nature with kids.
This week, it’s five foods that grow great in container gardens: 
1. Herbs. Almost any type of herb will grow well in a [...]

When I was a kid, every year on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, my maternal grandmother would drop in with a pail of fresh roses she’d picked from the rosebushes in  her yard. She’d leave a red rose for each of us to wear on our lapels at church on Mother’s Day, and she always [...]

Last weekend, one of my favorite cities, Nashville, Tenn., experienced an unprecedented flood due to record rainfall and the rising of the Cumberland River, which flows through downtown Nashville. The famous Gaylord Opryland Hotel, known for its acres of indoor gardens, was filled with more than 10 feet of water and may be closed for [...]