Our Little Roots is a monthly subscription box filled with everything needed for you or your child to begin growing a garden. Each monthly kit includes non-GMO seeds, high-quality organic soil, labeling stakes, and a biodegradable starter pot. Subscriptions begin at $11.95 per month.

The Homespun Chics received this box for review. All opinions are 100% our own.

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February 2016 Our Little Roots

The Costs:  $11.95 month-to-month

3-Month Prepay – $10.00 / mo.
6-Month Prepay – $9.50 / mo.
12-Month Prepay – $8.75 / mo.

25% OFF COUPON:  FIRSTROOT

*Save 25% off your first month-to-month box using this code!

We were so surprised and excited to see this box on our porch last month! As motivated as I am to get our garden going, I decided to make our raised bed into an herb garden this year. We use a lot of fresh herbs with our cooking and our resident voles seemed to avoid them last year. I couldn’t wait for Little G to learn how to grow his own food and knew his Papa would help him do this activity! My father-in-law, Kevin, will eventually plant the seedlings in his own garden for Little G to nurture throughout the spring season.

[A Little Backstory] We had an absolutely traumatic experience with our raised bed garden last year, finding an entire vole colony had moved into our front yard. We watched with utter helplessness as every last flower, shrub, and vegetable was eaten from the root up leaving us with a steady trail of empty holes in their place. 🙁 Needless to say, we have a lot of work to do to make our veggie garden come back to life at our house! Next year….

We received the perfect spring veggie seeds to start at the end of February! Calabrese broccoli is an Italian heirloom variety that produces one 5-8″ head and several smaller side shoots. Little G loves broccoli and I knew this would be perfect for my little guy to grow with his Papa!

The February 2016 Our Little Roots box included a biodegradable starter pot, two labeling stakes, organic soil and a packet of organic, non-GMO seeds. Literally everything (minus water) needed to start these seedlings!

I love this label! I didn’t realize the seeds would be organic, but this is a MAJOR plus for me. I serve as Office Manager at an organic farm and am fortunate enough to spread the word about clean food and knowing your farmer on a daily basis. Working for a wholesale organic farm has given me clear insight into the dangers of pesticides in our food and the importance of keeping our carbon footprint at a minimum when providing quality organic produce to the consumers.

I really love this information card. It’s extremely helpful to know how long you need to wait until harvest so you can plan when to begin starting your seeds. I also like the background information on the crop itself! Little G got a mini history lesson on the plant he was about to grow! The cooking suggestions are also great!

The growing instructions look good, are easy to follow and have cute illustrations. I would have loved to receive this box when I first started gardening. I just had no clue what I was doing and bought too many seeds, planted them at the wrong time, depth, and dealt with the consequences!

Now to the fun stuff! Let’s get started!

Little G is SO lucky to have a remarkably gifted Papa to help him with his gardening project. My father-in-law has a really green thumb. His vegetable garden is the envy of the county and I swear he can grow any type of plant. Papa gave Little G a plastic spoon to measure out the soil to fill the cups. Little G really enjoys scooping things so this was right up his alley!

Papa moistened the soil with water once the dirt was partially filled before they placed the seeds.

Little G got to learn all about how broccoli plants begin as tiny little seeds.

Papa put way too much faith in Little G and poured out a heaping pile into my toddler’s hand… only for Little G to dump them ALL into one of the four cups. Oops.

We had very few seeds left to plant in the other three containers! Ha!

Papa helped Little G carefully plant the rest of the seeds. I couldn’t stop laughing…

After adding a little soil to cover the seeds, Little G went to work spooning water over the top of each cup to start the magical growing process!

Did you say MAGIC?

Papa wrote on the two labels we were provided and Little G stuck them in! Now we will never get this tray confused with anything else!

A celebratory high-five is in order, I do believe!

Fake-out! Papa got you, Little G!!!!

Now that the seeds are happy in their new home, the guys set the newly planted tray in the window sill. A perfect area for the seedlings to begin their journey.

Week 3 and it’s obvious which cup was planted “unsupervised.” I’m still laughing…

Week 4! I asked Papa to send another update to me over the weekend and just look at these babies grow! Little G has an absurd number of sprouts growing up in the bottom left cup but I am super impressed at the quantity of sprouts that have grown. I wouldn’t be surprised if almost every seed in the packet sprouted. Quality seeds make or break your garden each year and Our Little Roots totally gets it.

Our Thoughts

First off, the red smudge on Little G’s face is from some sort of juice and/or fresh berries and/or candy that his Nana may have snuck him. Secondly, this is not a mug shot. This is what happens when I ask Little G to hold something up and “smile.”

Now that I cleared the air, I loved the February 2016 Our Little Roots box! I can’t believe this subscription is only $11.95 for a month-to-month plan! Little G LOVES broccoli any way he can get it so it was the perfect plant to start him growing his own food this year! I was concerned that he would be too young to understand what he was doing but he surprises me every single day. Papa and Little G had a blast putting this kit together and I know that my boy will be excited to nurture these babies into adulthood over at his Papa’s garden throughout the spring!

The curation is terrific. This is a perfect cool weather crop to begin now and plant while we are still in the rainy season. Broccoli tends to become bitter and attracts many, many bugs if grown in the heat, so it’s best to avoid planting broccoli too close to summer. If you miss the spring planting season just hold off until the fall!!

Try it out by using the coupon code FIRSTROOTS to save 25% off your first month-to-month box!

xo
Sarah

What do you think of the February 2016 Our Little Roots box?