The Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler: a Book Review

It's winter, and I'm already planning my spring planting. Aren't you?

This year I've decided that I want to go predominantly edible with my plantings, because not only can they be beautiful, they're functional. Let's face it, anything is more functional than grass. Sure, grass is great if you need something for your sheep or goats to munch on, but we don't have sheep and goats at my house (at this point in time) and I'm so tired of wasting time and money on the gas powered goat, I mean, lawn mower. It's silly. Water the grass (okay, I admit I'm not a grass waterer, but my neighbors are), mow the grass, water the grass, mow the grass. We want it to grow, we don't want it to grow. As a nation, we have an identity crisis going on in our own front yards.
No more, I say.

So, I've been spending the long nights reading up on some alternatives, and I want to share them with you, then maybe as planting time approaches we can share some of our plans with each other and check back in throughout the growing season. It will be good old fashioned hard work with delicious rewards.

You with me?

The Edible Front Yard: The Mow-Less, Grow-More Plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden by Ivette Soler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler is a good jumping off point for a person who is ready to start making the transition from growing a great big lawn of useless and resource wasting grass to having a functional garden space planted with the things one loves to eat while still maintaining the all important curb appeal. Her descriptions of various ornamental edibles that one might not consider growing, hello nasturtiums and orach, are truly useful in planning a garden. I appreciate that she includes a description of color, height, habit, days to maturity, drainage requirements, hardiness zones, and even what to do with the various edibles. That said, I wish she had included light requirements. It is not safe to assume that all plants need the same light, and while on a rare few Mediterranean herbs she says they require a lot of heat and sun, I know that my plant wish list, if drawn from this book, is going to require a substantial amount of light checking while in the planning phase. It just seems silly that with all of the details provided, that this one was omitted.
Still, it's a good book to have on hand when you're planning and drawing a blank outside the go-to garden veggies and looking for something both yummy and pretty.



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Pink Saturday:Breakfast

Mongoosine hates eating breakfast.
Don't let her sitting near food confuse you, she's rather stare at a newspaper than eat. Most mornings, she's got one thing on her mind, and that's "how long can I lay in bed before I absolutely have to get up" and breakfast comes between her and that plan.

What do you do to encourage your kids to eat before they leave for school in the morning?
For more Pink Saturday, check out How Sweet the Sound.

Sippy Sip

If you are a parent, you know how hard it can be to placate a toddler. If you're a nursing mom, you may have experienced how hard it is to convince a toddler that sometimes, when he thinks he wants nursing, what he really wants is a cup of something else.  Something that doesn't involve mommy's chest.
Let's face it, sometimes there is something trying in being the solitary provider for all comfort, as well as the preferred provider of warm liquid nourishment.
As the JabberWalky approaches two, more and more often I find myself asking him if he wants a Sippy when he says he wants "boo boo boo BEE."
Sadly, more often than not, unless I'm seducing him with juice, he will just crinkle his nose and demand "BOOBEE!" even more loudly.
Perhaps it is my own fault in that his cup usually only has boring water in it.
We haven't started doing milk in a cup yet, mostly because I'm paranoid that the cup will roll under the chair and be disgusting when I finally find it to wash it.  As a result, it's water or juice, and watered down juice at that.
It's not a perfect plan, but I've decided I'm going to offer him a cup with all his meals so that he gets used to drinking like a big boy at the table, instead of demanding nursing while I'm trying to eat.
I'm not sure if this is in line with baby led weaning, because I'm offering with the hopes of finishing a meal with both breasts safely in my shirt, but I am sure that it's an important step in eating in a calm manner.
That said, I'm not handing him a sippy at bed or naptime, those are still stricktly mommy cuddles times. Besides, it's way easier to appease a tired toddler with exactly what has always done the trick.

Any advice for convincing a toddler that drinking from a cup at mealtime is a great idea?

Warning Update

So it seems that despite my loudest warnings, my own son is deciding not to heed them, and is eating off the motel floor.

What is this food of which you speak?

Snapdragon is 24 weeks old today. If we used a lunar calendar, tha'd be six months.
But we don't, and it isn't.

In case you missed it, the current reccomendation is to wait until at least six months before introducing solids. There are a lot of good reasons. The two that stay foremost in my mind are 1. To prevent/reduce likelyhood of developing allergies. 2. To wait til the baby is developmentally ready for foods.
Well, Snapdragon *wants* food. He strains against his highchair strap, stretching his neck and arms, trying to get our food. He mimics our behavior at dinner time. He wants the food. He very nearly got ahold of Spouse's banana this morning.
But I'm supposed to put it off for another 16 days, by the calendar.
16 days.
What difference can this two weeks and two days possibly make?
The paranoid part of me that won't eat peanut butter because dr.s in some countries say the protien to which people are allergic passes directly into breastmilk, that part saus "but what if I expose him to foods 16 days too early and he develops an allergy?
Then part of me sees his frustration at not being able to eat with the rest of us, and I feel like he's developmentally begging for a chance to taste something other than mama-milk.
So frustrating.

Am I nuts here? Is it too soon?
When did you start solids with your little one? Any regrets?