Planning a Family Garden

You’ve probably seen some seeds, bulbs, plants, and trees starting to appear in various stores.  While it is too early to plant most things, it’s not too early to get a planting plan together so you are ready when the time arrives.  There are many great books to give you the inspiration and information you need to have success.  God, the master gardener, planted the spectacular Garden of Eden and directed us to enjoy, care for, and use our world.  Surely, He would be pleased to see us gardening, especially as families.  It will get you outside and active, teach you lessons, and possibly give you a more beautiful yard and fresh food to eat.  

Books on gardening, ways to garden, and plants to grow are all as numerous as unwanted weeds in a garden!  So, I’ll just mention a few.  The Family Kitchen Garden provides general gardening information as well as breakdowns of individual plants.  It also tells you what to do on a monthly basis and how to use what you grow.  Pictures make it fun to flip through.   

Native plants usually grow best, are not invasive, and provide the most benefit to insects like bees, and to the local birds and animals.  Consider Missouri Gardener’s Guide for help on what will thrive in your backyard.  Nothing is more discouraging than watching your beautiful plants die, just because they really want to live somewhere else.  Conservation Trees and Shrubs for Missouri, from the MO Conservation Department, provides help for rural dwellers who want to create windbreaks or animal habitats, produce firewood, or control erosion.    

For an abundance of Missouri-specific reading, visit our state’s conservation department website at mdc.mo.gov.  Residents of Missouri may request 2 magazines for free home delivery.  Xplore, for kids, and Missouri Conservationist, for the rest of us, are full of articles, great nature photography, and information on programs and conservation areas to enjoy.  The website has links to all sorts of outdoor Missouri topics.  Kids and adults will enjoy and learn from these resources.  Perhaps a seed will be planted in some young mind that will grow into a future career.  

I hope you are planning to do some gardening this year.  Whatever gardening books you read, may they help turn your thumb a little greener!  I hope you also start learning about enjoying some of our state’s natural resources.  If anything, you will be able to have better conversations with the gardeners among us, help another gardener troubleshoot, or direct someone to good information.    

Reading is Rewarding!

Katie

Request the following titles from the Family Vision Library here:

The Family Kitchen Garden, by Karen Liebreich
Missouri Gardener’s Guide, by Mike Miller
Conservation Trees and Shrubs for Missouri, by Arthur Suchland

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