Garden Book Reviews

Every year, gardeners are faced with one of two situations. One is seen every year when zucchinis are planted and if you are a parent you have heard too often this statement from your children. “Zucchini again?” The other situation is when the garden does not produce enough produce to get one through the season. In the past, knowing how much to plant was simply a guess but today we have tools that can guide us to a more appropriate educated deduction.

To utilize this garden tool to its fullest, one must first understand human nature. First, adults tend to enjoy vegetables more than kids. While there are exceptions to this rule, it is a general premise of this tool and contrary to what kids may say French fries are not a healthy alternative to fresh vegetables.

The second premise that this tool uses is the amount of space that is need for an adult compared to a child. Adults need 4 square feet of garden space per meal being served per day. Children, on average, need only 4 square feet per meal per day. What this means is that if you are only going to harvest for a dinner salad, then you only need one 4 square foot garden.

To aid in this understanding lets create a chart. The far left column will be the names of the people you plan to serve. In my example, I am going to use a family of three. The next columns represent individual 4 by 4-garden spaces or 3 by 3-garden spaces for the child.

In this example, mom is going to eat a salad for lunch and dinner. This means that she will have two columns that are checked. The father is only going to eat a salad at dinner so he only needs one column checked. The child is only 5 years old and in doing so only needs one 3 square foot garden space checked.

This family has also decided to try urban homesteading and in doing so needs vegetables to preserve for the upcoming year. Since each family will benefit from these vegetables, an additional column needs to be checked.

This family wants to donate some fresh produce to a local food bank. In doing so, they decide to grow an additional 4 by 4 garden space for their food donation.

Once the family’s needs have been checked on the chart, it is a simple process by which the checks are added. The number of checks is then taken times the size of the garden space. This number is the number of square feet you will need to meet this family’s needs

If you are using the square foot garden method, simply take the number that you came up with and times itself. This will give you the total number of plants one needs for the season, which includes cool or Cole crops and warm season.

In the “olden days”, as my children so lovingly refer to the time when I was younger than they are, I had the privilege and good fortune to be in one of my high school’s first woodworking classes that allowed girls. The one other female and I were accepted by our male counterparts with more ease than the teacher. However, it was soon realized that our attention to detail, ability to read patterns and compile material lists overshadowed other areas. My final project, an oak coffee table of my own design received an A+ and is still very much in use.

I look back at that class as a stepping stone that encouraged me to pursue other areas of creativity. Occasionally, I will still doodle the design for a project, spend a day or so at the local hardware store with my list, dust off the saw horses and create!

Finding patterns for quick and easy projects to the hard and time-consuming ones can be a challenge in itself. It was with some excitement and trepidation that I opened the pages of not one, but two books that have been written by Stevie Henderson and Mark Baldwin.

For starters, one does not conjure up images of sleek furniture and accessories when one sees a heading that contains 2 X 4′s. Intrigued and fascinated with the thought that a wall stud could actually become something that was useful and ecstatically pleasing, I did a preliminary peruse. By the time I had glanced through both books, I was convinced that they needed to come home with me!

2 x 4 Projects for the Outdoors and Great 2 x 4 Accessories for Your Home both offer straight forward, easy instructions combined with diagrams, material and tool lists and patterns to complete the projects offered. You will be impressed with the ease of which you can make a wall ledge to show off your collectibles or an ottoman to rest your feet on. You can add hurricane lamps, a barbecue table or a porch swing to your outdoor living space.

There are enough accessory projects here to allow the gung-ho woodworkers to put finished projects throughout the entire house. Henderson begins her books with a chapter on basic tools, techniques, materials, and safety. The projects shown are in color and have the step-by-step instructions, clear illustrations, and excellent line drawings that even the newest woodworker could want.

Garden games such as twister giant chess and many others give a fun source of entertainment for the children, you are able to choose games for a small number of children or others having a far greater quantity of participants based on the needs you have.

No parent if given the choice may wish to hold a child’s party indoors when they are a bomb proof garden outside where your child’s friends can run riot.

Purchasing some outdoor garden games will not only keep your children entertained during a birthday party but will even last for years to follow. Good quality well manufactured garden games purchased from an established provider lasts an incredibly very long time.

You will find that there is a wide range of outdoor games available on the market which vary greatly in price, this allows there to be something to suit all parents s pocket. Most of the traditional games played inside happen to be transformed into far larger versions of their former selves for outdoor usage. These larger versions appear to capture everyone’s imagination regardless of age. Your garden game you purchase need not be limited to only your child’s use if you are planning and think wisely you can purchase an outdoor game that adults will also enjoy in order that it can be used during outdoor adult parties too.

Outdoor garden games available:

Beginning with probably the most expensive;

Giant Chess
The common game in giant format! This is a fantastic family game which is more suitable for older children and adults. This is probably the most expensive outdoor games I’ve discovered, however you will find different sizes available and if you are pleased to compromise slightly on size you’ll benefit pricewise.

Draughts
The product is very much like giant chess and it is ideal for everything can play or have a yearning to understand. If you have young children it might be superior to chess as the rules are less complicated. This product again can vary in dimensions as well as price to suit all budgets.

Connect Four (or words similar to this affect:) )
This product will suit any age and is suitable for two players at a time. This may not necessarily be best suited for a children’s party unless a tournament is arranged as the quantity of players participating at one time is fixed. The game is made either of wood or plastic (based on supplier) and stands roughly at 1.2 metres tall x 1.2 metres wide. Farmville requires skill and strategy to get to be the first player for connecting four plastic playing counters into a row to win!

Giant Tumbling Towers
Multi player game which causes tension to heighten because the tower does. Who will be the first one to result in the tower tumble? The product is currently available in beautifully crafted wooden blocks and is suitable for any age. Please be aware that the step ladder are usually necesary to include blocks at some stage during this game. Small children should also be supervised when ever the tower does tumble!

Giant Dominoes
Fun for all ages with the idea to have fun with or to create patterns or to play numerous games with.

Giant Get Sticks
Suitable for just those using the steadiest of hands. This multiplayer game is suitable for all ages and is available in either wooden or plastic format.