Fighting Obesity Starts in the Vegetable Garden

There is no question obesity is a rising problem for many here in the United States. The United States Center for Disease Control rates obesity as a person having a body mass index of 30 or greater. The body mass index, or BMI for short, is calculated based on the person’s height and weight and provides a reasonable indication of body fat, which could lead to further health issues.

You can simply calculate your own BMI right where you are sitting or standing. Take your weight in pounds and divide it by your height in inches, squared, multiplied by 703. The formula would look like this:
BMI = Weight(pounds) / (Height(inches) x Height(inches)) x 703.

To put in perspective just how great the problem is, in 2009 Colorado was the lowest BMI at 18.6% while Mississippi topped the list at 34.4%. Obesity has become such a big issue in this country, especially childhood obesity that it has become a topic to tackle by first lady Michelle Obama. Without getting into much politics, obesity of all age categories is definitely something we should and can easily tackle.

I recently posted this very question on our vegetable gardening Facebook page to see what kind of ideas the good folks came up with. Specifically the question that I raised was how we can tackle obesity in our children by incorporating vegetable gardening. The answers were many…too many to list here so I am going to mention the most popular ones.

Start Early
Many agreed that starting children early in teaching them vegetable gardening will go a long way for them to learn healthy eating habits. As one person wrote, “When they see that they can eat what they are growing, virtually anything they consume from their gardens will be healthy.”

Make It Fun
I see this in my own children if you do not keep it fun and light you will lose their attention and quickly. So those studies about the length of time and the amount attention span and a child has, are very accurate. We all agreed that making vegetable gardening fun is a great way to keep kids involved in vegetable gardening. One of the things I did personally for my son was buy him his own garden tool set. Sure they are toys, but he has the same tools as “dad” and when dad gets the shovel, so does he. It makes him feel involved.

When it comes time to harvest the fruits, herbs and vegetables I make sure that I get my son involved. For smaller items such as radishes and cherry tomatoes I let him do the picking. For larger items such as butternut squash, I will pick them and let him carry it to our patio table. I can see the excitement in his eyes every time we go out to pick new things.

Give Them Their Own
A popular post, especially for the older kids (7 and over), is to let them have their own 4’x4’ plot in your yard where they can plant whatever they want. This is a great method because you can teach them how to plan out the garden so they can maximize the space and grow things they like. My son loves broccoli. Yeah I know I got lucky, and every year we plant two Waltham Broccoli plants just for him. I make sure I tell him that those plants are his and when they are ready he can eat them. He gets pretty excited about it. It is a lot of fun to watch!

Finally, and just as important as the healthy eating of the fruits, vegetables and herbs that you grow is the exercise factor you get from home vegetable gardening. If you do a lot of the gardening tasks manually as I do, then you already know that it can be a good vigorous exercise routine. It is not always this way, everyday, but at least you are moving around, doing somewhat physical labor as opposed to sitting and watching TV, playing video games and so on. The same holds true for kids.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, who operates the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook and the widely popular Seeds of the Month Club.

3 Tips to Controlling Asparagus Beetles

I love asparagus. You can steam it, grill it, deep fry it, you name it. Most importantly, beyond all my favorite recipes, I am fortunate enough to live in a climate suitable to growing it. It is not a hard vegetable to grow, but unfortunately for asparagus they have a natural predator called the asparagus beetle.

As their name would imply, they attack asparagus. As soon as the spears of the asparagus pop through the soil, these beetles will begin to feed on them. If that wasn’t bad enough, they will also lay their eggs on the spears from which the larvae will appear and grow into mature adult beetles that will wreak more havoc on your plants.

Asparagus beetles are about the size of a ladybug and they come in many colors, most notably brown. Although, they can be seen as commonly in blue, black and other darker shades.

They are harmless to humans so the first line of defense is simply handpicking. This is best done when there are not too many to handle. Simply pick the beetles and larvae off of the asparagus and put them in a coffee can filled with syrup, molasses or some other sticky substance so that when you put them in there they can’t get away. Once you are done picking them off the plants, seal the can with a lid, tape it shut, and throw it away.

A second way to naturally get rid of asparagus beetles is to attract other insects that are harmless to humans and your garden, but deadly to the beetle. One such insect is the ladybug. Ladybugs will feed on the larvae of the asparagus beetles which will control the beetle population making it possible for you to get rid of the adults via the means mentioned in the previous tip. Plant plenty of cilantro, dill or fennel and you are sure to attract all the ladybugs you will ever need.

A third approach and a faster way to control asparagus beetles is to us a botanical spray like neem oil. It is available at any garden center for less than ten dollars and works extremely fast.

Combine all three of these tips above and you are sure to keep your asparagus plants, beetle free, healthy and safe.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, who operates the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook and the widely popular Seeds of the Month Club.

Is Hydroponic Gardening for you?

The concept of hydroponic gardening seems to go completely against everything we have been taught and are familiar with, in gardening. How can it be? How can it work? How can you grow plants without soil, indoors?

Hydroponic gardening in fact, has been around since the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The term hydroponic , comes from the Greek word “hydro” which means water, and “ponic” which means labor. It hasn’t been until recent years though that the popularity of hydroponics in the marketplace has increased rapidly. More and more people are trying this system and learning that hydroponics is one of the best ways to grow heartier, healthier fruits, herbs and vegetables, right in their own homes.

The concept seems difficult, but it is really rather simple. By using a controlled environment, controlling the air temperature, the water and nutrient inputs, and not having to worry about pests, you can grow bigger, healthier plants, in a shorter amount of time and increase your yield by 3 to 10% depending on your system.

Relying on Mother Nature to provide the perfect scenario to garden outdoors can be risky, as we have seen most recently with the freeze down in Florida. Commercial farmers down south are struggling to save their crops from this latest event.

Getting started with a hydroponic system is very easy, and once set up, your hydroponic system is extremely low maintenance. Believe me I was a skeptic until I tried it. Seeing is believing. A seed really can grow in a container full of pellets or wool, placed in a stream of cycling water.

About the Author
Michele Daniels of Grow Home Organics, LLC is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC. Grow Home Organics is the maker of Quantum Growth, a consortium of over 20 strains of beneficial bacteria that help boost major plant health functions.

Make a Home Vegetable Garden Part of your New Year’s Resolutions

The start of a new year always spurs thoughts of hope, dreams to be achieved and desires to be fulfilled. Whether it is being successful at those new resolutions you just set for yourself or just trying to make the New Year a little better than the previous year for your family, there are items on your to-do list that you need to tackle every day. Here is one resolution to add to your list if you have not done so already, home vegetable gardening.

It does not matter if you are new to the hobby or have been growing your own food for decades, set some time aside to plan out a successful vegetable garden this year. Set up your list and make another resolution which I will talk about at in a moment.

Maybe I am a bit biased because I love vegetable gardening and growing my own fruits, vegetables and herbs at home, but I cannot think of too many other tasks that have such a wonderful return where you truly get to eat the fruits of your labor. I like woodworking also, but I wouldn’t eat that new gazebo I just built.

The best part…You get to decide what to grow, when to grow it, how to grow it and how much of it you want to grow…In other words, a sense of freedom like no other.

First and foremost when you are planning out the New Year’s home vegetable garden, start with writing a list of the vegetables, fruits and herbs you want to grow. Do not think about the size available to grow it in right now, this step is to simply put on paper your garden “wants” so to speak.

Now that you have your list, organize the list arranging them in the order of the fruits, vegetables and herbs you know you and your family will most likely eat to items you would like to grow if time and space allow. With your new organized list in hand, mark next to each item how much of each you would like to grow. For me, as for my wife and kids, I love tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. I mark down the number of plants I believe I would need to grow in order to have more than enough for everybody.

With your list and quantities complete, mark out what you actually can grow based on the size of the land you have available. Don’t forget about container gardening that can increase your growing space and potential yields.

Obviously this is just a quick starter for your New Year’s home vegetable garden resolution but it will get you going in the right direction.

As for the second home vegetable gardening resolution I mentioned earlier…put down on your to-do list to complete by the end of the year one new item in gardening you have never tried before. For example, maybe you want to start collecting rain water, or have a compost pile, or grow a row of veggies for your church or local food shelter. You get the idea.

So as we embark on a New Year with uncertainty before us, we can make the future whatever we want it to be. Make vegetable gardening part of that future; put some fresh food on the table. You won’t be disappointed.

About the Author
Michael C. Podlesny is the administrator for the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook.

Vegetable Seeds for your School Garden

If your school has a gardening program or is thinking about starting one, then you are in luck. Mike the Gardener Enterprises, has announced they are going to award ten schools with three year subscriptions to their Seeds of the Month Club (averagepersongardening.com/seedsclub). “We want to give back to communities and being able to offer up our vegetable seeds to help enhance and grow school vegetable gardens, is a great way to do just that,” said Mike the Gardener owner Michael C. Podlesny.

Ten different schools will be chosen to each receive a three year subscription to Mike the Gardener’s Seeds of the Month Club. Schools that are awarded, will receive 8 packs of vegetable, fruit and/or herb seeds their first month and then 4 packs every month thereafter for three years.

To enter your school for a chance to obtain one of the ten, 3 year subscriptions, visit averagepersongardening.com/schoolapplication and fill out the online application form. The deadline to submit your application is January 31st, 2012. Winners will be notified on or about February 17th, 2012 and schools will start receiving seeds in March of 2012. Just in time for spring.

“There are so many possibilities for tying in vegetable gardening with learning, that it comes as no surprise that we see school gardens are on the rise,” continued Podlesny. “Once kids learn how easy and fun it is to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs from seeds, they will want to carry this beneficial skill with them for the rest of their lives.”