DIY Fairy House Tutorial Using Microgreens
This DIY Fairy House requires only a few supplies…a planter, dirt, seeds, some fairy décor, and a little water and imagination.
Author: elifairchild
Make Your Own Flower Medicine – Rose Petal Honey
One of my girl’s favorite recipe is rose petal honey, made from the pink petals of the rosebush in our front yard. My youngest calls it her nighttime medicine because nana will give her a spoonful before bedtime when she stays with us.
Five Fast-Growing Plants to Spark Your Kids’ Love of Gardening
(Alternate blog title: Five fast-growing plants when your kids are impatient AF)
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I’ve been gleefully digging in the dirt since I was four years old (probably earlier). Whether I was making mud pies or planting sunflowers, the garden has always been my happy place. With my hands in the dirt, I can shut out the world when it becomes too heavy and tune into the rhythms of nature. I want my kids to have this outlet, too, which is part of why Motherhood in the Mud was born. Happiness for me and my kids can always be found playing in the dirt.
We purchased our home three years ago and I loved everything about our property…except for the random circular patch of grass that sat splat in the middle of our xeriscaped yard. I honestly have no idea why the previous owners kept this random patch of grass (putting practice?), but the only purpose I could see was the giant litter box it provided our neighborhood bunnies. I had aspirations to transform this space, but to what?
Lucky for me Monty Don and Big Dreams, Small Spaces came to my rescue during some late-night binge-watching. In season 3, episode two he helps another mum transform her front yard into a community vegetable garden and she hosts a garden opening party for her entire neighborhood (the dream, right). I immediately began Pinterest spamming my husband with English-inspired garden ideas. I too wanted to create something beautiful to share with my community and provide an edible children’s garden where my kids could explore and play.
We broke ground on our front-yard garden on Easter of 2017 – ripping up all of the turf and installing garden rows and fencing in its place. Our front yard garden has gone through several transformations since the initial installation (raised planter boxes, drip watering system, bricks to block out Peter Rabbit), and I’ve also learned a few hacks for making a kid-friendly garden along the way.
The best part is that I’ve been able to witness the same joy I feel gardening come to life in my kids. Each spring, we sing and read about the season as we plant our vegetable garden for kids and dream about our summer harvest. But if you’ve ever gardened with kids, you also know that they want immediate results… like right now.
One way I’ve kept their interest is by making sure we have plenty of fast-growing plants that they can watch come to life practically overnight and you don’t need a Monty Don-inspired space either. All of these easy plants to grow will work well on a kitchen windowsill, patio, or dining room table. Below are five of our favorites that I use to keep my kids inspired in the garden.
Radishes
From seed to plant, you can have spicy and delicious radishes ready to eat in 30 days. We grow ours in a rain gutter planter box that runs along the outside of our garden, so I know firsthand that you don’t need much dirt to bring these beauties to life. Radishes will grow equally well in a pot or a raised planter. Just make sure they have around four to five inches of space for the radish root to grow. Because ours are in a rain gutter, they don’t get very fat, but they are the perfect snack size when our kids pull them up and (believe it or not) eat them! You’ll see radish sprouts within 3-5 days of planting, which also make a great salad topping if you (or your kiddo) are feeling impatient. Shop for radish seeds.
Microgreens
Broccoli, purple kohlrabi, radish, collard, and turnip – oh my! These little beauties are amazing! Microgreens can be purchased by the green type or in a mix (I prefer the mix) and they are packed with vitamins. Mix the seeds with just a little bit of water and dirt and they will sprout almost overnight to create vibrant green micro forests that are ready to harvest within 1-2 weeks (once the leaves start to sprout)! We grow ours in our pocket wall planter that hangs on the side of our chimney. The spicy greens are the perfect way to kick up your salads and my kids love being tasked with giving them haircuts. Shop for microgreen seeds.
Chia
Ch-ch-ch-chia! We are believers in the health benefits of chia (all hail chia!) and put them in everything from our smoothies to our bread. However, I was recently reminded of how much fun chia is to grow when some misplaced chia seeds started sprouting from our kitchen sponge. We’ve been experimenting to see if we can grow chia seeds in really tiny spaces – like a fairy pot and a clamshell. Similar to microgreens, chia sprout in just a few days and have a nutty taste similar to alfalfa sprouts. I think I am going to also try sprouting in a mason jar method described on the Simply Notable blog. Shop for chia seeds.
Greek Basil
It’s been a few years since I’ve grown these in our rain gutter herb garden, but writing this post reminded me to put some in my Amazon cart. This basil is of the dwarf variety and is meant to grow small. They only need a ¼ inch of soil and will start sprouting in 12-18 days. These tiny basil plants remind me of little green umbrellas when they come up and the kids love the aroma the plants leave on their fingers when picked. I love to use them to make microgreen cherry tomato Caprese salad. Shop for Greek basil seeds.
Wheatgrass (AKA Cat Grass)
We like to plant wheatgrass in the spring, as the vibrant green shoots are the perfect addition to our Easter table (see my Easter Basket craft if you are reading this around the holiday). Wheatgrass is also nice to have around if you have a kitty. We have some growing in our garden year-round that my girls will harvest as treats for our cat Jon Snowflake. Wheatgrass seeds only need one inch of soil, a little sunlight, a little water, and it will be ready for a haircut in 6-10 days. Check out Ecopeanut for a variety of ways you can grow wheatgrass indoors. Shop for wheatgrass seeds.
What are your favorite plants to bring to life with your kiddos? Leave a comment below or tag @motherhoodinthemud on Instagram so we can watch your garden grow.
Unplugging Our Summer with Nature Camps in Orange County
As we plan for this summer’s adventures, I’ve researched Nature Camps in Orange County to get us exploring and learning about the natural world we love so much. I’m really excited about what I’ve found (Can I go too, pretty please?).
This post is a non-comprehensive list of some fantastic-looking Nature Camps in Orange County to help kids unplug and get outdoors this summer.
Grow Your Own Easter Basket Grass
I was determined to go a more natural route this year and grow our own Easter basket grass. I remember friends’ tables beautifully decorated with wheatgrass Easter grass during my own childhood and how much I loved to run my hand over the top of the grass and find little chocolate eggs hiding in the displays!
Before and After: Playroom Organization for a Small Space
It’s been one year since the pandemic hit, and we have been in our home with our kids for 365 days and counting! Our poor house could use a break from us. Since I can’t give it that, I’m doing the next best thing and reorganizing and clearing out clutter. Over the course of this year, we have seriously struggled with playroom organization for a small space. Our playroom lives in our kitchen – formerly our dining area. During the pandemic, our playroom has served as a virtual classroom, a lunchroom, an art space, and more! All this busyness has led to a lot of mess and clutter.
We recently withdrew our four-year-old from virtual school, and this felt like a great opportunity to shake up our tiny playroom. I’ve been researching Waldorf homeschooling and wanted to transform it into a Waldorf-inspired playroom that invites creative play by reducing the number of toy options and providing more open-ended, natural toys. In Waldorf circles, this is known as creating an invitation to play, but Montessori also practices similar methods.
Below is a picture of what our playroom looked like before we reorganized for a small space. Each of those colorful bins was filled to the brim with puzzles and toys and the stacked organizer held all our art supplies. While my girls emptied the toy bins onto the floor daily, nothing seemed to hold their attention. I often ended the day grumpy and stressed picking up toys after trying but failing to get them to clean up after themselves. I was giving them everything and it was too much for all of us.
Our first step to creating a Waldorf-inspired playroom was to get the kids on board. I declutter a lot – much to my family’s chagrin. I’m a minimalist at heart living in a family of aspiring hoarders and my efforts to minimize can elicit protests from my kids. To celebrate this big change, my mom bought the girls a Melissa and Doug Dust, Sweep, Mop set. I’ve had my eyes on this toy for a while and it did not disappoint. The girls couldn’t wait to take the cleaning toys for a test drive. Together, we cleared out the playroom and let the kids go to town wiping down the floor and furniture with their new cleaning toys and some wet rags. We even filled a coffee can with water for the toy mop (not recommended, but we didn’t care). The girls continue to use the Melissa and Doug Dust, Sweep, Mop set daily to help with tidying up.
Once the floors were sparkling, I started to put the room back together. Previously, I had many toys available in brightly colored bins. In going through the contents, I realized that many of the items I was making available had been outgrown or were never played with at all. I was able to cull about 80 percent of puzzles and games to my local Buy Nothing Project group (seriously, check them out if you are into awesome humans). The rest went to Toy Purgatory…ahem our toy library in the garage attic. The girls didn’t even bat an eyelash at all I was getting rid of; they were too excited about the new space I was creating for them. The girls had to go to bed before I could finish, so the transformation was a happy surprise for the next day.
One of the biggest changes I made in organizing our small space was moving the art supply storage out and bringing in our Wooden Easel from the garage. I will often leave a special message up for the girls or draw a seasonal picture for the girls each day. My kids love to draw and paint, so I also placed a small selection of paper and a rainbow of crayons and pencils (just enough to fit into two glass jars) that they can pull from. I left out a watercolor pallet and some paintbrushes. Minimizing the number of art supplies made it possible for me to decrease the size of the mess they are able to make, while still providing space for creativity.
I also arranged a small selection of our favorite natural toys (I’ll write more about these later) on the shelves, including a Waldorf doll in a basket, Melissa and Doug Lace and Trace Pets, and Areaware Blockitecture Habitat, and Areaware Balancing Blocks. I then hid a few handmade gnomes within their toys to encourage them to explore the new setup.
My kids raced out to the room the next morning just like it was Christmas Day and they immediately started to play. I even got a love note from K – my six year old.
I continue to rotate the toys in our Waldorf-inspired playroom weekly to keep the area fresh and exciting. Sometimes I’ll pick a theme for the week like space or Saint Patrick’s day. We’ve also added a reading nook since the initial reorganization and continue to make adjustments to our playroom organization for a small space.
I’m so happy with how the room has turned out. The shift from overcrowded to minimal has dramatically reduced cleanup time and increased active and creative playtime for my kiddos. Now that we’ve done this room, we have begun to look for ways to reorganize and minimize (we’re calling it Waldorfing) every area of our home.
Do you have a play space you are proud of? I’d love to see how you support creative play in your home. Leave a photo in the comments below.
This post contains affiliate links for products my families uses and loves. If you choose to purchase the products listed for this craft, you help support this blog and our muddy dream.
Watercolor Easter Egg Garlands DIY
I repurposed my kids’ watercolor artwork to create Easter Egg Garlands to bring the celebration of spring indoors.
Muddy Mama Origin Story
We made it seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic with my husband and I working and schooling from home, and I am proud of us for it, but we were going to break.