Digging in the Earth

            It’s that time of year again—time to get my hands dirty and grow some things. It’s such a thrill to see daffodils blooming and tulips coming up. My lilacs are starting to bud! Everything’s ahead of schedule because of the mild winter, though I hope this doesn’t mean we have a scorching hot summer.

            A couple years ago we built four 4 by 8 foot raised garden beds and started a vegetable garden. This is something the kids look forward to and love. Most of us  probably live on suburban lots, so what’s great about raised beds is that they’re compact and pretty much an instant gratification thing sinceit only takes a couple of hours. Plus, it’s cool to eat food you’ve grown yourself. My kids think it tastes the best.

            I encourage anyone to try their hand at growing some of their own food, especially families with kids. Did I mention my kids LOVE it?

            Let’s start with building a raised bed. We built ours in a sunny spot in the yard with cedar boards and got some soil from GreenCycle to fill it. Building raised beds may sound like a lot of work, but I’m actually a lazy gardener and didn’t want to dig up all that grass (and then deal with where to put it). I laid down thick piles of newspaper, put the bed ‘frame’ on it, and filled it with soil. Voila! The grass dies and the newspaper composts. Raised gardens also dramatically cut down on weeds, which sounds good to the lazy gardener.

            Now, what to plant? I recommend carrots, tomatoes, peas, and/or beans. Herbs are great too. We started seeds indoors last week, so if you go that route now is the time to do that. I always buy heirloom seeds or plants, so that I’m not giving my money to companies that grow GMO crops.

            And if you buy seedlings later in the spring, also look for heirlooms. I like to buy from independent nurseries, especially Garden Thyme, who sells heirloom tomato plants in the summer.

            Since I’m a fan of keeping it simple, some of my favorite gardening books are those written for kids, like Garden Crafts for Kids and Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots, both covering ways to get started on your gardening adventure, composting, and easy projects to do with your kids. Happy Gardening!

Cut your engine in line—children breathe here (August 23)

I read an article recently that got me a bit riled up.  An Indianapolis school district now must charge for bus service because of a “budget shortfall,” when voters turned down a referendum in May.

When I read the numbers—that not even 2,000 students are signed up to ride the buses (down from 7-8,000 last year)—my heart sank thinking of the environmental impact of all of those cars idling in line and all of that concentrated pollution. Yuck.

After school began I read that parents sat in long, snaking lines of cars, probably all idling.  One parent with three school kids spent four hours driving (and sitting) in traffic on the first day. 

The environmental impact is HUGE, as is the concern I have for these kids breathing in this cloud of pollution. Is there any anti-idling ordinance at any Indiana school? I’m doubtful, and it’s endlessly frustrating.

I’m so tired of the short-sightedness (we don’t want to pay more taxes!)  vs. the long term thinking of “what’s best for the students/parents/staff/environment/health?”  I think this applies to the school too, because apparently the school has a $14 million ‘rainy day’ fund. If the school transportation issue isn’t a worthwhile cause to spend money on, I don’t know what is.

If you drive your child to school, please carpool if you can and turn off your engine anytime you’ll be waiting for more than 10 seconds in line.  Many school districts nationwide have adopted anti-idling campaigns and I would love to see this here in Indiana.  Idling is completely unnecessary and it’s SUCH an easy thing to just cut the engine.  Oh, and with our state ranking number six (yeah, in the Top Ten!) for toxic air quality, it’s the least we can all do.

Be a kid again and create with family or on your own

Children have an innate need to create and the gift of creativity. So do adults, whether we recognize it or not. My family does lots of creating—rarely is our table free of some sort of project in the works. Children are wonderful and open artists. I love watching their progression from stick figure drawings that can’t really be distinguished to more sophisticated recognizable animals, and their excitement over any new form of media they discover, whether it be different paints, watercolor crayons, making cut-out Christmas cookies, or building a fairy house out of found natural materials.

Last week I was at my parents house and my mother had a large basket full of pottery that we had made in art. I looked through it, pretty sure that there wasn’t any of mine left in there, since I’m the oldest and it was probably long gone. There was one, a little pinch pot, and it was painted greenish-gray. It was pretty homely really. But I looked at it and thought about the times my art projects were judged and how the joy of creating was taken from me. If I could talk to myself back then, I would have looked at the little girl that made that pinch pot and found something good to say about it to her. So what if it wasn’t cute, she had made it and because of that, it was special.

Do you have childhood experiences like that too? Remember that we all need to create, in whatever form it takes (there are many!), and honor that. There are a wealth of ideas out there to get you started. As a new year approaches, commit to making space in your life to create and experience the joy of making something, too, either with children or on your own.


Krista Bocko lives in ‘Old Town’ Noblesville with her husband and four children. She strives to encourage creativity and enjoys documenting their creative adventures. She can be reached via her blog at www.cachetwrites.blogspot.com.