The Secret Garden + Edible Gardens = Kids Off The Couch

Michelle Obama tapped into a green zeitgeist by planting the White House's organic, edible garden. All around the nation, locovores and plant lovers are turning their backyards (and even their front lawns) into fruit and vegetable producing plots. To celebrate spring, we revisited The Secret Garden. In Agnieszka Holland's beautiful 1993 adaptation of Francis Hodgson Burnett's classic book, Mary is shipped off to a lonely mansion on the English moor to be raised by her uncle. There, Mary discovers two secrets: a hidden garden, overgrown with weeds, and her sickly cousin Colin, locked away in a secret part of the vast estate. Mary instinctively knows that both her cousin and the garden need sunlight and love to return to health. We needed a restorative dose of nature, so we stole the kids away to our favorite public garden, and were happy to discover a hidden Secret Garden (inspired by the novel) and even tumbled upon an edible plant area called Nature's Table Garden. Teeming with new lettuce and tomato plants, this fragrant plot inspired us to stop by a nursery to pick up tomatoes, lettuces and herbs for our own edible garden. Summer will truly have arrived when we enjoy that first tomato salad!

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