Healthy eating is easy when you grow it yourself!

As part of our overall plan to prevent childhood obesity, we’re going to recommend that people get more involved in gardening – whether it’s through a community garden, a CSA, a school garden or your own backyard garden – healthy foods are home grown!

As with my Friday “Take a hike” blog posting, I thought I’d do a Tuesday healthy foods blog posting starting with getting your garden ready now that it’s spring. My thanks to Stephanie Foster who runs a blog called http://vegetable-gardening-basics.blogspot.com for this info!

What to do now that Spring is in the air: Clean up your tools. Sharpen blades if they need it. Clean off old dirt and wipe with an oiled cloth to help prevent rusting.

At this time you can also start planning your next garden. You can figure out what you want to grow and how you're going to lay that garden out. Planning ahead can help you make the most of your garden. Getting things started at the right time for each type of plant will help your garden succeed.If you want an early start, get some planters and sun lamps and start your seeds indoors. If you get sufficient sunlight, placing the boxes in windows can help you get that early start too.

This is a great time for looking back at how your garden did last year and your goals for this year. Obviously, factors that are out of your control you can't do anything about. Heat waves cannot be avoided and neighbors can be unpredictable (for example, when they cut down that tree you were counting on for shade). Some years insects are more problematic than others.

In those cases you need to have plans for how to handle it. Keep an eye on what the sun is doing to your plants during a heat wave and ensure they have enough water. Know what pest control steps you are willing to take.

Planning and preparing to plant your garden before you can actually start planting gives you a lot of advantages when it's time to really work your garden. It gets some of the chores out of the way and leaves you prepared for a great start to your vegetable garden.

Take it from me - home gardening is a labor of love but when you bite into your first home grown vegetable or herb - you'll be rewarded for sure!