Welcome to this week’s Weekend Wellness edition. Grab your smoothie or a cup of tea and dig in!

Happy May. I don’t know about you, but I am just so excited for the new month and warmer days ahead. Fresh air and sunshine make staying at home a whole lot easier. 

Garden planning

Last week we spent time in the garden before all the rain arrived. We have the following in the ground so far. 

-lettuce greens, spinach, kale, bok choy (from seed)

-seedings of more kale, swiss chard, and spinach 

Today we are planting our cabbage, cilantro, beetroot and lavender. And I have to order my breakfast radish seeds. I’ve been finding them sold out in a lot of places that we typically get seeds from. The kids will help us pick out some spots for our wild flower seeds to help attract all the bees to the garden. 

And we had our first asparagus pop up this week. Celebrating the small wins everyday.


​Weekend Wellness

Here’s my wrap up of worthwhile things to read and events ahead. I may catch the pilates celebration later as I plan to be outside ALL DAY.

Today is International Pilates Day. Join my favorite instructor Robin from The Balanced Life at 11:30 EST for a free class. Grab all the details here to access the class.​

Milk Street is offering their online cooking classes free thru May 31. What a fun way to get inspired in the kitchen!

Did you know garden focaccia bread is a thing?

Garden Focaccia bread

NY Times Garden Focaccia bread via Hannah Page

I signed up today for the Academy of Culinary Nutrition Masterclass, and you can too. This was an in-person event I was planning to attend in Toronto to visit my friends in the Great North. Now the conference is going virtual and the topic is Resilience. Could it have been any more timely? Sign up for the live call, or the live call with recordings. (my pick) There is an incredible line up of speakers and I’m excited to get some new info to help us maintain our good health in the season ahead.

Don’t know what to cook for dinner? Try this fun pantry recipe finder tool with Epicurious!

Can we say it’s officially rosé season? I’m hoping you all join me and say YES! Grab one of our two new rosé vintages, though my pick is the French L’Original from Provence of course.🇫🇷 Did you notice we share the Residual Sugar for each bottle? That refers to how much juice sugar is left in the wine after the fermentation is complete. You might understand why I recommend L’Original so much.


​Enjoy your weekend ahead. Join me over on Instagram and I’ll share some planting and baking pics over the weekend. I’ll be making caramelized onions in the slow cooker to pair with burgers on the grill tonight! Thanks for reading this week’s Weekend Wellness!

It’s never too early to inspire children to love gardening. 

5 Ways to Get Kids to Love Gardening

As the seasons shift into spring, now is a great time to start planning your summer garden. There is no better way to teach children the connection between us and nature than gardening. Plant it, grow it, eat it. It’s so simple and easy to understand in a child’s eye. So how do we inspire a love of gardening in them at an early age?

1. Include Children in Choosing the Plants to Grow

The first step is to give the kids some control. All kids love to “own” things and you can start by letting them choose seed packets, or a special container to plant in. At our home, we have always limited our gardens to vegetables and herbs. This year I am choosing to follow this guideline and let our daughter plant flowers. I was impressed that she knew exactly what she wanted when we went to pick out some seeds. “White daisies.” So simple and so sweet.

white daisy flower

Kids can choose their own seeds and plant them in “cow pots!” Have fun explaining to them what they are made of. (wink, wink) Just know you are being a little greener by skipping the plastic starting pots.

Strawberry kids garden.

She is tending her strawberry garden.

2. Choose Fast Growing Plants

Radishes may not be every child’s favorite vegetable, but they will love to grow them. They have a seed to table time of about 22 days which is amazing. Cherry Bomb is a common spring variety and the key is to grow them before it gets too hot outside. The fresher they are, the less spicy they taste! Serve them with some ranch dressing to cool down any heat and you may have a new veggie to stash in the kids lunch box.

Radish seeds can be tucked in among other early spring plants like broccoli and spinach. The radishes will already be ready to harvest when the other plants need a little more growing space. Staggering the harvest time is more exciting for kids as there will always be something new to look forward to.

Alternatively, skip the seeds and go straight for the seedlings. It’s almost foolproof to just plop a seedling in the ground, water it, then watch it grow. There are often too many of one kind of plant in the seedling trays so partner up with some neighbors and make a trade or two.

3. Create a Growing Chart

Kids love to track things on a chart. Let’s move beyond potty training stickers and get out a ruler and measure some of the fun plants you choose to grow. You can also print out a calendar page and have kids draw out when each new action occurs. One day will be planting seeds, another the first seedlings, then the flowers and so on. Create a competition among siblings or neighbors and see which plants are growing the fastest!

4. Start Seeds Inside to Extend the Growing Season

With winter lingering here around Boston, and our raised beds covered in snow, we are starting seeds inside this year. Either go with the cow pots or a seed starting kit. This Indoor Garden kit is kid-friendly and includes 3 different seeds to grow: teddy bear sunflower, basil and zinnia. We already started seeds inside and the kids love to see how much higher they are every morning!

5. Give Kids Their Own Garden (or Container)

Our little girl has already placed a claim on her own raised bed this year to be used for flowers only. I think it’s adorable and love how excited she is to plan it. When the weather is warmer and we get the seeds in the ground, we can use the time to make our own labels for the flowers, and reread Miss Rumphius (or The Lupine Lady), one of our family favorites. If space doesn’t allow for a garden, see if there is a home for the kids to put their own large pot on a front step. Let them decorate it and make it their own.

Make a dinosaur garden for the kids!

There is also a fun trend of creating a themed pot. I love how entertaining the Fairy Gardens can be as it’s open-ended with what you can include. I also came across this idea for a Dino Pot and thought it was awesome! I’m so curious to try out this “Garden Pirate” idea from Climate Store as well. You get to create seed bombs and then then tuck them into fun spots around the yard.

As your child gets more connected with nature, it becomes even easier to teach concepts like Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. With Earth Day this month, now is a great time to kick off these discussions if they haven’t been happening in your home. While you are outside, talk about other ways to preserve natural resources. You can set up a rain barrel near a garden to help water the growing plants. Got a place for a compost bin? They are so sophisticated these days, and discreet, that most people can find a tidy home for a compost bin to create their own rich soil.

How else can you encourage your kids to enjoy gardening this season? Happy planting.

Climate-Store-LogoDisclosure: I am a partner with ClimateStore.com and compensated for my time. I only suggest products I believe in. All opinions are my own.  If you want to learn more about climate change and what it means to your family, I suggest you start here and learn about the first steps you can take. As we celebrate Earth Month, now is a great time to have conversations about climate change with your family. Please share in the comments any questions you have about taking first steps to reduce your carbon footprint.

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As our stash of preserved produce, applesauce and herbs starts to dwindle a bit, I’m starting to look forward to next summer’s garden. Here is a cheat sheet of some of the better seed catalog sites. You can do your homework online or pick a favorite and order a paper catalog. It’s nice to think spring and flip through page after page of heirloom tomatoes.

The Cook’s Garden– Seeds and plants for the gourmet gardeners. Beautiful website to inspire some creative choices.

Seeds of Change– 100% Organic Seeds. Free shipping on seeds with code: FSMAY13 until May 15, 2013

White Flower Farm– more than 90 varieties of tomatoes.

Burpee– growing assortment of organic seeds

Botanical Interests– for creating a unique and beautiful garden. No GMO’s.

When do you start planning your garden for next year?

Homemade Basil Pesto Recipe

The basil in the garden is growing like crazy.  Combined with the rain and the heat everything exploded over the past week.  Finally I could make some pesto.

I generally don’t measure anything when I am making it but I’ll assign some easy measurements as a guideline.  Usually it’s more like I harvest as much basil that is ready and go from there.

I tend to serve the pesto with fresh bread as an appetizer.  Even the kids love it.  Once our spinach is in, we can switch out the basil for spinach to encourage more healthy green eating.

Basil Pesto and Garlic Scapes

Homemade Basil Pesto Recipe

Homemade Basil Pesto

Course: Sauce
Keyword: pesto

Ingredients

  • 2 cups basil leaves packed. remove any hard stems
  • 1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts, which I never have on hand
  • 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese not the Kraft powdery stuff
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons of chopped garlic
  • 2 garlic scapes chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Pulse the walnuts in the food processor first to a finely chopped consistency.
  • Add basil, cheese, garlic and scapes to processor and blend well.
  • While machine is running, pour olive oil in slowly.
  • Add salt and pepper to taste and pulse well after each addition.
Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

Garlic Scape and Pesto

The garlic scape was a new addition this week.  They come in lots of different varieties and the spiciness varies greatly.  Adjust the amount of garlic you add to the pesto if you have very spicy garlic scapes.  I used the Keith garlic scape this week and it wasn’t super spicy so I still used about 3 tablespoons of garlic.

Enjoy!

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Keep Pests Out of Your Garden Naturally

There is nothing worse than spending loads of time and money on your vegetable garden, only to have it decimated by natural predators.  This is our first year doing square foot gardening in our raised beds.  I’ve had to do some research into how to keep our neighborhood bunnies, foxes and friends away from my young vegetables.  We have had containers on our farmers porch the past few years and didn’t have to deal with any pests, aside from the curious toddler. Here are a few things we plan to try out in the garden, plus some that my Dad has done for years.

Source

~Dried blood keeps the bunnies at bay.  Rabbits don’t like the smell of dried blood, or hair from it’s predators (coyotes and foxes). Get these items at your local garden store and sprinkle them around the perimeter of your garden.  Too gross?  Build a 3 foot high fence instead.

Source

~Cup of beer to drown garden slugs.  There were always little cups of beer in our garden growing up.  Usually filled with slugs.  They are attracted to the yeast and barley in the beer.  I would use a little yogurt cup filled halfway with beer.  Replace as needed.
~Plant an onion border around your garden.  Bunnies don’t like onions!

Source

~Marigolds are your friend.  Plant them around tomato plants to help deter pests like tomato worm, white flies and nematodes.

Source

~Garlic Fire Spray.  Keep the bugs at bay with this homemade recipe from No-Dig Vegetable Garden. This will take care of ants, grubs, caterpillars and most small bugs.  Be nice to the ladybugs though, they are your friend. They eat aphids!
~Cats may not be nice to your garden. Discourage them by giving them a little squirt with a hose.  Don’t let them take a cat nap on your little seedlings.
~Groundhogs.  If you got them, build a fence.  A tall one.

There are loads of other natural gardening remedies online and I support giving them a shot if you end up with some pests in your garden.  Think twice about chemical pesticides that have been linked to cancer, nerve damage and birth defects.  Keep your garden and your food clean and healthy with these natural gardening tips. Good luck!

Could the weather be any better?! I love walking around the neighborhood and seeing how far along everyone is with their spring yard work and gardening plans.  The crazy warm weather makes me think I should be putting seedlings in the ground, but this is New England so patience is key.

My budding gardener got a new set of toolsfrom her Grammy for Easter. She was so excited to put them to good use and get planting. Get your kids excited about growing things and watch their eyes grow wide.

We set up a variety of containers to plant seeds, which is always a cheaper option than buying a flat of seedlings.  The herbs went in first, Basil, Dill and Oregano.  The little gardener planted her own pickling cucumbers that she picked out at the garden store.

Source: Design Sponge

When it comes to containers for seedlings, there are lots of eco friendly options.  I use leftover ones from past seasons and this year I’m trying the egg carton which can go right into the ground.  The newspaper cup above is from an old post at Design Sponge but I love how simple it is.  Plus it can go right into the ground too.  If you have yogurt containers, those will be a perfect size for seedlings but take the plastic off before putting them in the ground.

My husband had fun with the circular saw and whipped together some raised beds.  Plus we are getting one big one made from red cedar installed by Soil and Seed. When you choose wood for raised beds, skip the pressure treated ones and opt for red cedar or old wood that is still in good shape.  Avoid chemicals in the wood that will eventually seep into your soil and your food.

One of the reasons we choose to get the raised bed installed is that it will also be filled with organic soil.  Despite having our own compost, it won’t be enough to fill a 4×8′ bed.  I also had a hard time finding organic soil at the big box stores last year.  Doable, but we realize that totting little toddlers around to pick up lumber, soil and build the whole thing just doesn’t make sense.  We would rather spend the time doing the plantings.

I love the new plant-a-grams from Williams-Sonoma.  I’ll be bringing these to the local farm stand to pick out the balance of seedlings to get our garden growing. They also have one for a vegetable garden and a salad garden, yum!

Next step will be getting the raised bed installed and making a plan.  Look for that post mid-May!  In the meantime, check out Part 1: Getting Organized, and Part 2: What to Plant and When.

What are you looking forward to growing this year? Anything new?

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Tips to get your garden ready for planting season

Time to get planting!  Or at least planning.  Outside of Boston, we got a surprise hint of warm weather last month. We used the opportunity to take stock of our containers, compost inventory and get a few vegetables started.  This is Part One of a Three Part Gardening Series.

First thing was to pull every container we owned out of the garage and storage area.  We washed them out and decided if any needed to be trashed or recycled.  Many of the plastic ones are #5 plastic.  We do a lot of container gardening and have a mix of starter pots, windowsill boxes and large containers for tomatoes and peppers.

Daddy is in charge of turning over the two compost piles and getting out the good stuff.  We manage two bins, one for all the household scraps (veggies, eggshells, coffee filter and grounds, etc.)  The second large one collects mainly grass clippings and some household waste.  It’s not as organic as we would like, but it’s great to use for flowering plants in the yard.  We need to buy another compost bin and on the look out for a good deal since our DPW said the town ran out of money and won’t order any more.

Both kids loved playing with the dirt!  I think there are some studies out there that kids who play in the dirt are healthier.  Certainly happier.  We took the compost and created a container mix of one part compost to one part potting soil.  This allows for a lighter soil in the container.  Straight compost is too heavy.

My favorite part of our garden are the herbs that come back every year.  It saves money and time!  The lemon balm is already growing in the picture above.  The thyme and chives also are already in good shape, about a month ahead of schedule.

How do you get a project like this done with little kids underfoot?  Just bring out their independent play activities outside.  The easel outside was a huge hit with both of the kids.  It gave us at least 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to get things organized.

Next post will detail what we are planting when, plus our plan to get a raised bed installed!

What are you planting this year? How do you get your kids involved?


Check out Part 2: What to Plant and When?