Growing Kitchen Herbs With Your Kid

If you want a fun project to do with your kids try planting herbs. Not only does a herb garden connect kids with nature it gives them an education in the culinary arts (if you explain what the various herbs are good for.)

Best of all, an herb garden requires little investment in time or money. You can grow herbs from seed with your kids, or purchase 'plugs' which are small bedding plants. The miracle of watching a seed turn into a plant is very exciting for kids.

Keeping the garden organic is ecologically good for kids as well. Don't use fertilizers, sprays or chemicals. Little ones can pick and much on herbs as they like.

A great kid-friendly herb is basil. Look for seeds that are guaranteed to be fusarium free. You can make pesto all summer out of the basil. All you have to do is mulch the herb into a paste in your food processor.

Chives are also a wonderful herb to plant. Plant them once and they will grow back year after year. Chives are great in tuna sandwiches and omelets.

Mint grows fast and like a weed. It is a great choice for a window box. You can make tea out of it. Keep in mind that once you start growing mint it is going to grow in your yard forever. The same goes for lemon balm.

Oregano is another invasive herb that is easy to grow. It is great in spaghetti and other sauces. It also has a lovely scent.

Thyme is also a great herb to grow because it is so decorative. It twines around rocks and arbors easily and can actually grow quite tall.

Other great herbs for growing in a garden with your kids are –

Dill – Great in everything including eggs, dips and salads

Tarragon – Tastes like licorice and great on fish

Sage – This is nice on a pasta with cream sauce

Parsley – They can nibble on it raw and it goes great with everything including salmon, salads and pasta

Chervil – This is a lovely delicate version of parsley with lovely little white flowers

Rosemary – This goes great with lamb or sprinkled on potatoes

Coriander – This is great in salads and also on steaks

Savory – This is an acquired taste but it does go great on meat.

Putting together a herb garden is a great project that the entire family can do together!

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Ways Your Family Can Help The Enviroment

Aiding the environment should be a family endeavor that is shared between adults and kids. Saving the planet is, after all, part of ensuring that your children have a great life to look forward to in the future.

One way to help the planet is to eat more tofu. This is not a joke. Eating beef and chicken is taking a big toll on the Earth. A Cornell study showed that producing meat protein takes eight times the energy that producing vegetable protein does. Six percent of all greenhouse gases from producing this.

However there are drawbacks to this. A strict vegetarian diet requires careful planning in order to get all the iron, vitamin B12, and other nutrients your body needs. Still, even part-time vegetarianism pays off for the environment and your body. If you can explain why this is a good idea to the kids you might just get away with it – except when it is BBQ season and they start craving a hamburger.

Did you know that a single lawn mower can put out more pollution than 73 brand new hybrid cars?

If you’re already enthusiastic about better lawns and gardens, you may not mind burning calories and building up muscles in an effort to spare the air. It is time to stop using so many garden tools. Lawn mowers, weed whackers, and leaf blowers, are extremely eco-unfriendly, spewing an incredible amount of CO2 into the air. In a single day, southern California’s lawn tools do more to pollute the air than every airplane in Los Angeles.

The answer is using push mowers. You can dispense with the leaf blower by using a simple broom and rake. Or, you can ditch the power hedger and get intimate with your plants by using a pair of pruning scissors.

If you are like most people you probably feel like you cannot do without a shower. If your household is like most, heating water accounts for 20 per cent of your electric bill each month. But you don’t have to ruin your life with shorter showers or cold plunges. Below are some baby steps to curb your water heater’s appetite for electricity.

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