Happy Earth Day!

So today is Earth Day, 2013. I was hoping to get Sophi out in the yard and do some digging and planting and playing with earthworms, but it's raining. That's ok though, because we couldn't wait for Earth Day this year to get into the yard and get dirty! We like to plant things for Earth Day, around here. I think it's so important to teach Sophi how to give and receive from our Earth. To show her how much pride comes from planting, harvesting, and eating her own food. Or just planting a tree or a flowering plant that will make oxygen for many years to come. I love that she loves getting her hands dirty and tending the garden with me. It's pretty much the coolest thing, ever.

What's funny is that, a few years ago, I was very unaware or Earth Day. I mean, I knew about recycling because we had used the blue recycle bins since I was a kid, but I never put myself into learning about ways to make our planet more sustainable for years to come. Until I got pregnant with Sophi. It's amazing how much more aware of things I became. I wanted to make my world better so that she could have a better world. I wanted to educate her to treat our planet with kindness and respect, so that her generation and generations to come could have a better world. So, that's what I'm doing. By no means am I perfect. I still use fabric softener and I stopped cloth diapering when she was 15 months old, I don't always buy organic, I drive an SUV and Mitch drives a {very non eco-friendly} truck, but we do try to make things right, when we can.

Our Earth Day projects this year, were to plant a blueberry bush and to turn the flower bed that Mitch built last year, into a small veggie garden.





Sophi was so excited to help plant our very own blueberries in their new pot. We both found it very curious that the plant would live in orchid bark, instead of soil, like all of the other things we have planted. She helped me pile the bark up around the root ball of the plant and then helped by dumping the remaining soil from the transplant pot, into the new pot. She also took great pleasure in plucking the few ripe berries off of the plant and popping them in her mouth. They are, after all, her favorite. :)


Clearly, we were excited about finishing our new project.


Next, we sowed seed into our little garden bed. As you can see, from the pic above, we chose basil, beets, carrots, bell pepper, and spinach. I already had a sage and a rosemary plant that survived from last year. The bell pepper is kind of an experiment for me. We love them, but I have heard that they are not the easiest to grow, and I'm always up for a good challenge. The other stuff we just use a lot of. I love juicing beets, carrots, and spinach and I use the crap out of basil over the summer months. I'm especially excited to have basil again this summer to go with my tomatoes that I started from seed late last summer! Anyway, here's the bed right after we sowed the new seeds...



And I snuck out today, when we got a break in the rain, to snap a picture of what it looks like now. We planted two weeks ago, today.




Are you doing anything special for Earth Day, this year? I would love to hear about any projects or activities that you have come up with!