Postage Stamp Gardens for Serving With Kids

Gardens are one of the best tools for teaching kids about God. The plants themselves hold lessons from Proverbs, parables and other places in scripture. Working in the garden can help kids practice lots of godly characteristics from patience to “working as if working for the Lord.” The resulting produce can be used to serve others in lots of ways.

In today’s world, gardening is an art many people don’t learn as a child. You may live in an area where you have very little yard or no yard at all. Going online for the answers to your gardening questions can become overwhelming.

I was excited when I was given an opportunity to review a new book The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden: Grow Tons of Organic Vegetables in Tiny Spaces and Containers by Karen Newcomb. Even though I was raised with a very large one half acre garden in our yard, much has been forgotten over the years of living in inner cities and suburbs. This book fills in any gaps for those who have forgotten things and has everything a true beginner will need to know to succeed.

I love the layout of this book! It takes you through the entire process from plotting out your garden space to getting the soil correct to planting and even watering. My absolute favorite part is the back two-thirds or so of the book. It breaks down every single food or herb you might want to grow. Not just the normal varieties, tips, harvesting and growing tips but also the rarely covered typical problems.

This problem advice is great for people like me who think it’s going great and then something goes wrong and you can’t figure out what happened. It keeps you from making the same mistakes year after year or giving up on a vegetable you could grow successfully if you changed one minor thing. The book also has a great section on what things grow together well or act as natural insect repellants or attractors. The author even throws in a few bonus flowers which work well with food gardens.

The only negative about this book is that there are no photos (there are some diagrams, charts and sketches). I am very visual and find photos helpful and inspirational. The paper stock is also cheaper than I would like. I feel like it wouldn’t hold up very well over the years of constant thumbing.

Having said that, this is a wonderful book to use to help your kids learn the lost art of gardening. In the process you can teach them Bible lessons, work on their character development and even help them serve others. It should give your family hours of godly fun.

This book was given to me for free in exchange for my honest review. An affiliate link is included in the post for your convenience.