Time to Grow!

Not too far around the corner spring time sleepily awaits its turn to change the weather into warm breezes, sunny showers and growing, growing, growing. The month of March was in like a lamb and out like a lamb in the Midwest this year, so to say fair well, it’s time to initiate the family into growing and eating their own produce!

This is a great time of year to decide what you will grow and how you will grow it. Encourage your family members to help you decide if you will have container gardens in the window sill and planters on the patio or if you will need a tiller for raised beds in the backyard. Each member of the family will enjoy choosing seeds, plants and watering cans and watching food that they have grown themselves work its way into lunch boxes and onto dinner plates.

Gardening is also a great way to encourage physical activity and enjoy trustworthy produce you’ve labored so lovingly over. Gardening not only grows carrots, tomatoes and lettuce, but strong muscles, sturdy bones and healthy appetites.

If you are planting the seeds your self or walking through the nursery, you are spending time away from the computer and T.V. Spending time digging in the soil and sun helps bodies gathers vitamin D and deposit it in bones, pulling weeds helps young muscles grow in functional strength and coordination and it is hard to find a cuter picture than a little person taking a bite out of garden fresh produce held by dirty hands and enjoyed by a smudged face.

Grow your garden, strengthen your body and invest in your family; there is no better way to celebrate say good bye to winter then planning how you will nourish your family and your self with food you have grown together. Happy Growing!