If you love to garden, chances are you might want to pass that love on to your kids. There are few things more gratifying than planting, tending and harvesting a garden with your children, and then enjoying the fruits of your labor around the family table.

But how, exactly, do you get kids interested in being outside, playing in the earth beside you? By making it fun! Here are few easy and affordable ways to turn your garden into a toddler garden:

Sweet pea teepee – The perfect place for a tiny child to hide and play. Use bamboo and sturdy twine to build a teepee shape, planting peas at the base. Allow scarlet runner beans to climb with them to attract hummingbirds to your hideout.

Sandbox and rock pile – Speaks for itself, don’t you think?

Plant flowers along with your vegetables – Some, like marigolds, deter pests, and many attract butterflies and pollinators, which could help prevent a fear of bees! It always nice to have pretty flowers to pick for mama, too!

Turn your rain barrels into fishbowls – For mere pocket change, you can buy a few goldfish for your rain barrels and they will teach your child about natural pest control by eating all of your mosquitoes! (It goes without saying, but make sure children are always supervised around standing water.)

Grow a cucumber in a bottle! – When your cukes begin to bud, attach a bottle to one with twine so the cucumber will grow inside. What fun for a little one!

Invite some friends -  Plant tall sunflowers and allow them to dry in the sun so the birds will visit and take care of some of your garden pests. Build a few simple bluebird boxes so your child can watch for the babies later in the season. Cosmos or geraniums will attract ladybugs who will, in turn, feed on your unwelcome aphids. And don’t forget a toad house! What a surprise it is when a toad moves in!

Bring some action to the garden area – Instead of hiding the garden in the corner or back of your yard, make it the center of your outdoor activity. Camp out by the garden when the weather is nice, or take your little ones out for a picnic. Make sure to have some shade and a comfortable place to sit so you’ll be more likely to spend more time there. Plant some night-blooming flowers or those with silver foliage, and visit them at night while the fireflies are out.

How do you make gardening fun for your kids?

One of my earliest food memories takes me back to my family’s backyard garden on Long Island in the 80s. I’m not sure how big that garden was, but to me it was enormous. We grew so many things, and I even got to choose some of them (I always liked to try the new ones I had never heard of.) Alongside my parents, I planted and tended and picked and prepared, taking pride in every ripe tomato and Brussels sprout. My favorite was kohlrabi, but I ate them all, and I have ever since.

To this day, I credit my parents with cultivating my love of vegetables. It led to a love of adventurous eating, and a willingness to try just about anything, which, as an adult, I recognize as an invaluable gift, and one I plan to pass on to my children.

During last year’s planting season, we were knee deep in infancy and all its sleepless glory. While I was busy getting into the groove of motherhood, my husband put his efforts into a heartwarming baby food garden, and its peas, beets and butternuts saw us through the pureed stage nicely. But this year, we have a toddler. So, naturally, we’ll need a toddler garden! These days, there’s no doubt that our son notices what we’re doing. He watches intently, figuring things out as he studies us. The wheels inside that tiny head are always turning, and he amazes us with how quickly he picks things up. That’s why this year’s garden will be a splendid toddler-sized lesson in planting and playing.

My husband and I have it all planned out…

We’ll start inside, with a few small seedlings. It might take our boy a little while to catch on to the whole seed+dirt=grow idea, but I have a hunch he’ll be intrigued. With a little luck I might be pregnant again by then, and Daddy will have to do most of the outside planting, but either way I can tend the plants once they begin to grow.

In order to draw and keep the interest of our little one, color will be key. Rows of red, green, yellow and purple peppers will lead to a patch of rainbow chard.  Dainty rows of red and yellow pear tomatoes will dangle on the vine next to a trellis of purple yard long beans (notably, the spot where my husband proposed!) The colors of a well-rounded garden are beautiful, and if we want our little man to eat a rainbow, we have to plant one, right?

There’s got to be a place to play, so a sweet pea teepee will take shape in the early spring, right next to a sprawling strawberry patch dotted with red berries. A small bench will sit beside it, along with a watering can and trowel perfectly sized for little helping hands. Tall sunflowers will sway overhead, and we’ll use them to entice our bird friends later in the year.

The season will end with the excavation of our sweet potatoes from the compost bin we use to house them, along with a crop of squash – so beautiful in their bumpy, irregular, multi-hued way – and Mommy’s favorite, fairy tale pumpkins. Some will be made into muffins and pies while the others will be decorated to help us welcome the fall once again, when we will busily preserve and freeze what we can, and begin to watch the mailbox for the next batch of seed catalogs.

See tomorrow’s post for some easy tips on creating a toddler garden!

I’m starting to wonder if I should become a comedian. Every time I mention that I don’t plan to introduce my child to fast food and the plastic toys and germy playgrounds that come with it, I am met with laughter and that “Oh, what a silly new parent you are” look.

“Oh sure, you just wait. When he asks for it, you’ll give in…”

They paint pictures for me of a screaming child, throwing tantrums when they don’t get those nuggets and fries.

It’s kind of infuriating.

But I let it roll off my back. Why? Because the incredulous looks I get are the same ones I got when I said, “Yes, I am going to breastfeed” or “We are using cloth diapers,” or countless other things.  (Funny, we seem to make it through our commitments quite well, thankyouverymuch.)

But those naysayers do raise a good question: How do you tell your child “No”? My answer? Say “yes” enough times, and you won’t have to say “no” very often. Let me explain…

Why not try approaching a child’s eating habits and subsequent  lifelong nutrition from a perspective of inclusion rather than exclusion? It’s worked wonders throughout my life. My New Year’s resolution to eat less? A failure. My resolution to eat more organic fruit? A success!

Allowing myself more of something that I enjoy and know is good for me doesn’t make me feel deprived like my old resolutions did. It makes me feel healthy, happy and nourished. And when my afternoon snack is a bowl of fresh strawberries, you know what it’s not? Cookies from the vending machine.  (WIN!) And so it goes with most of the positive habits I want to adopt. Eliminate a bad habit by bringing in a better one…works like a charm.

So, how do you put it into practice? Here are a few ideas:

Focus on variety. Healthy foods come in all shapes, sizes and forms. Quick meals, snacks and even desserts provide an opportunity to say “Yes!”

Fill their days and tummies up with all the things they need. Protein? Check! Potassium? Check! Iron? Check! Once you’re done getting everything in, there won’t be room for junk!

Find “Yes” versions of common “No” foods. Are they looking for fries? Bake some organic potato, yam and parsnip sticks in the oven with a little olive oil and sea salt.

Expand your own horizons, too. If your child shows an interest, let them try something (even if you’ve never had it!) Many grocery stores are carrying wider varieties of fruits, vegetables and grains since demand is rising.

Tell your kids why. Tell them the effects of both healthy and unhealthy choices. You might be surprised at the choices they make when they have reasons.

Walk the walk. Your child wants to emulate you, so model a healthy relationship with food. Don’t talk about bad foods, deprivation, or what you “shouldn’t” have. Instead, focus on how much you enjoy the things that you should eat and how they benefit your body.

Find local cafes or non-chain restaurants that are dedicated to bringing you better options. When you feel the urge for a restaurant visit, you’ll know just where to go.

Offer kids what you want them to eat. They will take some and leave some, but allow them lots of variety. Encourage them to try new things often, and establish special favorites from the list of healthy foods you deem acceptable.

Some things will be seasonal and some might be a bit pricey, so save those for special occasions – the all-important “treat.” Right now, fresh organic asparagus is a special treat in our home. My son will bite the tips off a whole pound of it if I let him, and he’ll dance around while doing it. Who needs candy?!

I dream of the day when my son is old enough to really talk and asks me to take him to the Saturday farmer’s market so we can sample sweet melons and tomatoes warm from the sun, instead of asking for lunch that comes from a drive-thru window. To those who scoff at my dream, I say go ahead and laugh. It’ll happen.

Motherhood brings with it lots of questions. Breast or bottle? Cloth or disposable? Vaccinate or not? As I eased into motherhood, I answered these questions, one at a time,  in the best way I knew how, and with the well being of my family in mind. One that didn’t require much thought was the question of baby food: Homemade or store-bought jars? From day one, I fully planned to make my own baby food from scratch. I strive to eat homemade foods myself, so it only seemed natural that I would feed my baby that way, too.

But I have to be realistic. I work just shy of 45 hours a week, I do freelance work, I blog, I have a house to take care of, a husband I like spending time with, and I like to shower once in a while. It keeps me hopping, to say the least.  So, while I do advocate for feeding babies real, whole, natural foods, I also think that sometimes, those foods can come, premade, from a store. Here’s why:

There are lots of variables with home gardens. The weather ruins some crops, some don’t produce much, and some things have a short season. Pick what you can, puree it up, and freeze it, but you may end up with a very limited variety. Storebought baby foods can make up the difference so your baby can develop a more varied palate.

When I first started out making purees, I made peaches, peas, and a few others, but I really had trouble finding some of the items I wanted in an organic option. And sometimes, when I did, the prices were sky high. This is where the jarred baby food comes in handy. Depending on the season, you may find the organic jars at a cheaper price per ounce than the fresh versions.

As for grains, I like to buy these in bulk. Brown rice, oats, millet and quinoa are favorites. They can add fiber and nutrients, along with bulk, to stretch out your more pricey fruits and veggies (don’t stretch too much, of course.)

It’s all about using what you have, adding what’s in season and what you can afford, and planning your meals and your baby’s meals so that they synch up.

And when the day gets away from you, as it inevitably will on occasion, you will always have a few jars of organic baby food on hand, and maybe a few servings of one of your recipes in the freezer, so you’ll never have to say, “Oh, I’m too busy, I’ll just give him ________.” and feel badly about it later.

And, as anyone who eats local, seasonal foods will tell you, you do sacrifice variety when you choose to eat this way. When a certain fruit or veggie is in season, you eat it–lots of it–until it’s gone, and then you move on to the next. So, actually, keeping in mind my quest to provide my son with as much colorful, flavorful variety as possible, I could actually be doing him a disservice by relying solely on whatever happens to be plentiful in my local area. By incorporating some organic jarred foods, I can round out his diet in a way that would otherwise be nearly impossible, or at the very least, quite expensive.

I find making baby food to be just as rewarding as breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and all the other things that I feel are best, even though they consume a little more time. But I allow myself to bend a little, without ever having to bend so far as to give my precious boy anything processed or full of pesticides and who knows what else. I can say with certainty that I feel good about every bite that goes into that happy little mouth!

Among the gifts I received at my baby shower was a big box of flaky, snow white rice cereal. The gift-giver shall remain nameless, but she gave it to me with the best of intentions.

“Just use it to thicken up your baby’s bottle, and he’ll sleep all night. You’ll need it.”

At the time, I was still over a month away from even giving birth, so I nodded, said thank you, and put the box aside for later.

(Little did I know at the time that nearly 16 months later, my breastfed, bedsharing baby still wouldn’t be sleeping through the night. But you know what? It may be tiring, but it’s totally normal.)

Fast forward to spring. My son was turning 6 months old, and we were getting ready to start solids. One day, when the time felt right, I mixed up a bit of that dusty white powder and gave him a small taste. He showed zero interest, and the little flicker in the back of my head turned into a full-blown lightbulb. I don’t eat white rice, so why would I feed it to my son? Isn’t it just a super-refined carbohydrate with no flavor? I guess I knew it, but I’m a little ashamed to say that I was just following the lead of so many mothers around me. I’m still annoyed at myself for that.

In the meantime, my husband had been working diligently on a garden specifically designed for our son. The Baby Food Garden, he called it. I still remember the pencil drawings that littered our living room table while I was pregnant. Sweet potatoes here, beets over there. See, my husband knew I was going to breastfeed and he wanted his own special way to be involved. The garden was the perfect way to have a hand in providing for our son, and he put his whole heart into it. He’s a good daddy.

It just so happened that our boy turned 6 months old at the very same time our first crop of sweet peas were ready to harvest. One day, when I was still working part-time and had the day off, I grabbed a basket and my baby and headed out into the day’s sunshine. I spent a while picking pea pods from the vines while he played on a blanket in the shade. It was a no-clock kind of day, so I don’t know how long it took, but I sat and removed each little pea from its pod while my sidekick watched and giggled, as usual.

During naptime, I steamed the bright green peas that my husband put so much care into. I pureed them, mixed them with breastmilk until the texture was just right, and waited for my husband to come home. When the time came, our hungry boy happily devoured several spoonfuls of peas, adopting the “mmm…” sound that he still makes when eating something he likes.

There’s a certain feeling that comes from feeding your child good food. For me, it’s multiplied ten times over when that food is planted and nurtured by the hands of one parent and prepared with care by the hands of the other. The rest of our box of rice ended up in the compost. That bland sticky cereal might be food for the stomach, but we’re choosing to stick with food that’s rich in nutrients for the soul, too.

What was your child’s first food?

How do you handle it when you’re given poor parenting advice, like I was given at my shower?