These days, it’s hard to get the kids off the couch with the Internet and video games to contend with, let alone get the whole family together for a group project. However, if you are so inclined to give it a shot and get your family to connect on something around the home that will do everyone some good, why not start a family garden?

There are several benefits to having a garden, and when you add the whole family, it becomes extra special. You can teach your children a little bit about nature, the current condition of the planet, the rewarding feeling of growing your own food, and save money at the same time!

Growing your own food in the yard with the family can also be a great way to bond and get together on a regular basis. You can all share in the reward of the delicious first dinner that was made with fresh fruits and vegetables that came from the garden you all grew together.

Here are a few tips to get started on your first family garden:

• Prepare and plan
  The biggest reason that people don’t have a garden is that they don’t understand what’s involved or know where to start. get everyone in the family involved, read up a bit on gardening and plan out the start date on a weekend when the whole family is available for a few hours.
• Decide what you will eat
  Choosing what it is you want to grow can depend on the time of year you are starting the garden and what the climate is like in your area. However, you still should have plenty to choose from.
• Go organic
  If you want the true experience and also stick to the whole green living family idea theme, then be sure to use organic gardening products, fertilizers, and insect repellents. You don’t have to use chemical pesticides. Adding friendly insects like ladybugs will take care of the pests. Also, this allows you fresh food that can be eaten straight out of the ground, if so desired.
• The garden tour
  Be sure to take your kids through a quick daily tour of the family garden so they can watch nature at work as well as feel the rewarding sense of accomplishment as their food pushes through the soil

For many of us, the fact that we live far from landfills is a blessing, but it also often means that it’s easy for us to forget the massive problem that exists with the heaping piles of waste that plague our environment. When you and your family decide to make it a priority to recycle, you are making a commitment that does a great service to our Earth and all life that inhabits it.

There are so many products that we all use on a daily basis that are not environmentally friendly in the slightest. When you see a pop can lying in a ditch, that can is there forever until someone decides to pick it up and recycle it into something reusable. Otherwise it will end up in the humongous piles of waste in landfills and sit there indefinitely because it is not biodegradable.

Recycling is one of the the most important parts of our attempt to clean up the mess we’ve made. It will work if we all work together and participate.

How to start recycling as a family:

The amount of recycling products available to buy is growing and could really make a big impact if we all helped out by recycling all materials that can be.

Your family can start simply by having separate bins for your recyclable items and either putting them out at the right time weekly when your city’s sanitation department is scheduled for pick up in your area and/or bring items to your local recycling service.

Typically, cardboard is to be bundled together and the same with newspaper. Also, bottles and cans are to be separated and put together. Breaking down all the cardboard boxes you use (even product packaging) will also help a great deal. Typically those are the general rules, but consult your local sanitation dept. for literature on specifics for your area.

To make it an easier job on everyone and get the family involved, why not give each members a job to do and you can all meet in the living room on that night once the chores are finished and share a snack together. maybe make it movie night that starts after the recycling is done?

Really, there’s no reason that we all can’t help to recycle and reuse in order to help improve the environment and attempt to clean up the mess we made.