With food prices going up I’ve been hearing more and more people talk about starting a garden. It’s a great way to get a little more control over your food supply.

It’s also a great activity for the entire family, even fairly young children. How many little kids do you know that don’t love bugs, dirt and plants?

While it can cost a little money to get things started, and there are no guarantees that you’ll see a good harvest, there are many benefits to gardening. At the very least you will get some exercise and family time if you work at it together.

The big benefit for children is that they learn about where food comes from. Too many children these days have little idea as to where their food comes from. A garden helps them to appreciate it more. They may even try vegetables they would otherwise be reluctant to eat, just because they helped to grow it.

Not to mention garden fresh produce tastes better than what you can buy at the store.

Your main investment will be tools. You’re going to need to be able to dig and to remove weeds. I also recommend a compost bin, so that you can make the most of your kitchen scraps. This is far better for your garden than buying chemicals from the store, not to mention more frugal.

Child size tools as appropriate are also a good idea. You will want to set aside a part of the garden for your children to garden on their own, or at least dig around, if they’re too young to be of real help yet. Even at 2 years of age my kids loved trying to plant seeds.

If you’ve ever worried about the chemicals most farms use or winced at the cost of organic produce at your local grocery store, gardening should be appealing. You’ll have control over what you put on your food as it grows.

At this point in the season you may not want to start from seed. But there are plenty of garden centers with plants well started for you, and plenty of time yet to get these going for a good harvest. You’ll get the advantage of not struggling to get your seeds started, but you’ll have to deal with the plants costing much more than seeds.

If you’ve never gardened before, or if you’ve had bad luck at it, try checking out some books at your local library. You can get some great tips on what you need to do. Some factors will depend on where you live, but you can find information to help you garden successfully in your area.

Stephanie Foster runs http://www.gardenmedley.com/ because she loves gardening with her family. Get more vegetable gardening tips at her site.