One of the reasons I love renting a house instead of a garden is that we have a back yard. We don’t have a place that we can dig up for a garden, but since much of the yard is wood chips rather than lawn or other plants, we built some garden boxes from scrap lumbar and grow plants there.

My children love this. They get to see the plants grow and see where their food comes from. That makes them luckier than a lot of children, who often have a disconnect about where food comes from.

The nice thing about using containers is that you can garden even in a small space. For those raising children in apartments or condos, you can do something as simple as grow herbs in the kitchen window.

Encouraging your children to garden has many benefits. They’re often interested in eating foods that they helped to grow. The flavor is better and the produce is fresh as can be.

You can also teach them about concern for the environment. Show them options to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Start a compost pile if you have the room. Organic gardening is not all that much harder, and the results can be wonderful.

If you don’t have the space for a garden of your own, look for community gardens or look for other ways to introduce your children to food sources. My family has gone apple picking in an orchard, watched cows in a field and talked about relevant topics in addition to growing our garden.

Some schools even have garden programs. This will vary by where you live, but even if your school doesn’t have such a program, teachers sometimes have some great tips for where you can help your children learn about where food comes from.

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