Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in New Orleans, LA

I've mentioned gardening before. This is my first year attempting to grow my own vegetables ... or anything for that matter. Once I learned about how to garden without tearing up my yard with the use of raised beds, I jumped in with both feet. My daughters did too. The three of us now spend a lot of time looking over the plants and as we reap the benefits of our first harvest, munching on lettuce leaves.

We have an indoor gardening table where my eldest , Adelaide, and I plant seeds into trays and fill clean yogurt containers with dirt to serve as pots. I purchased a grow light which have served well in starting lettuce seeds as well as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

I've mentioned gardening before. This is my first year attempting to grow my own vegetables ... or anything for that matter. Once I learned about how to garden without tearing up my yard with the use of raised beds, I jumped in with both feet. My daughters did too. The three of us now spend a lot of time looking over the plants and as we reap the benefits of our first harvest, munching on lettuce leaves.

We have an indoor gardening table where my eldest , Adelaide, and I plant seeds into trays and fill clean yogurt containers with dirt to serve as pots. I purchased a grow light which have served well in starting lettuce seeds as well as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

We have two raised beds which are easy to tend too. Adelaide and I check in on them practically daily but it's not necessary. It can be helpful when gardening with children to give them their own plot to care for. I've given Addy a couple of pots with plants for her to kill care for with all her might. The baby on the other hand has the sandbox but she is still intent on ripping leaves off everything in the garden.

As for gardening gear, I am partial to Gardener's Supply for  a few reasons. They have high quality, useful products and they are located in Vermont not too far from where I grew up. Their website is easy to navigate, full of user comments and free shipping offers are common. They have recently added a great new feature to help you plan your own kitchen garden.

For seeds, I've picked some up at both Home Depot and Lowes. I also ordered from a couple online companies including Gurney's (great for conventional seeds and inexpensive plants) and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds home of rare, GMO-free seeds. Jefferson Feed has a small selection but they have a great number of mulches, soil additives and compost (plus there my kids like to look at the cats and fish for sale).

If you are looking for live plants locally, check out the farmers' market for seedlings and even trees.

Of the books I've bought, I've found Mel Bartholomew's All New Square Foot Gardening to be most helpful followed by Dan Gill's Month-by-Month Gardening in Louisiana. I also purchased the Louisiana Fruit & Vegetable Book but I found it lacking as for when to plant different veggies.

Gardening with the kids has deepened my appreciation of it. If only because Adelaide walks up to newly surfaced seedlings and emits, "ooooh, their sooo cuuuuuute!" I'm also fairly certain that Daisy will soon stop killing garden plants ... or at least I hope so.