15: The Purposeful You — Sustainable Gardening with Tasha Medve

Food doesn’t come from the grocery store — it comes from the earth. Sustainable gardening is our most direct connection to nature, and one of the most powerful ways we can take climate action right in our own backyards.

This week, I’m joined by Tasha Medve, the gardener and creator behind The Purposeful You. Tasha shares her passion for creating a “food oasis” at home, her best tips for beginners, and why gardening is about so much more than summer harvests. From fall crops to companion planting, we talk about the joy, the practicality, and the deeper meaning of growing your own food.

We also dig into family life: how to get kids involved in gardening, why it matters to raise eco-conscious kids, and how the garden itself can be the best teacher of all.

Takeaways

• How gardening connects us to the earth and why it matters now more than ever.
• Practical tips for beginners, including raised beds, fall planting, vertical growing techniques, and companion planting.
• How to make gardening fun and age-appropriate for kids.
• Reframing “failures” in the garden as part of the process.
• The therapeutic and reflective side of gardening.
• Small, sustainable shifts families can make at home.

One Small Shift

One of the very first changes Tasha made at home was rethinking single-use disposables like paper towels. By simply moving the paper towels out of sight, she created a habit shift that made low-waste living feel more natural. Stay tuned for us losing our minds over dish cloths!

Connect with Tasha

The Purposeful You - Website

The Purposeful You - Instagram

The Purposeful Gardner (Book - pre-order now!)

DIY Arch - Ideal for Vertical Growing (free printable)

Resources

West Coast Seeds

What to Use Instead of Paper Towels: 5 Easy Swaps

Transcript

0:00

Most people think gardening season ends when the summer does, but my guest today is here to tell you, that's just when the fun starts. Welcome to Sustainable in the Suburbs, a podcast for the eco curious who want to live a greener life and are looking for a place to start. I'm your host, Sarah Robertson Barnes, a soccer mom with a station wagon and a passion for sustainable living. Each week, I'll bring you practical tips and honest conversations to help you waste less, save money, and make small doable shifts that actually fit your real life. Because sustainable living doesn't have to be perfect to matter and you don't have to do it all to make a difference. Hello and welcome back to Sustainable in the Suburbs, the podcast where we start where we are, use what we have and live a little greener, one small shift at a time. My name is Sarah Robertson Barnes and I'm so glad you're here. Thank you so much for listening and being part of this growing community. Sustainable in the Suburbs is listener supported. So if you've been enjoying the show and want to keep it going, there are a few simple but meaningful ways to do that. You could share an episode with a friend, leave a rating or a review, or check out the links in the show notes to my blog, shop, newsletter. Every bit of support makes a difference and it truly means the world to me. Today's episode is all about one of the most powerful ways we can make a difference in our own backyards by growing some of our own food. Food doesn't come from the grocery store. It's our direct connection to the earth. Gardening is one of the most tangible ways that we can take climate action, nourish ourselves, and close the loop from seed to table to soil. And while some people think gardening season winds down when summer ends, the truth is there's always something to plant, to tend, to harvest, or a dream to plan for. My guest today, Tasha Medvey, is the creator of The Purposeful You, where she shares inspiration for living more intentionally, growing your own food, and embracing seasonal, sustainable living. She lives on Vancouver Island with her family, and her upcoming book, The Purposeful Gardener, is out in January and available for pre-order now. So today we'll talk about practical tips, gardening with kids, and why the season for growing and planning never really ends. Hi, Tasha. Welcome to Sustainable in the Suburbs. I'm so glad to have you here. Thank you. I'm just thrilled to be here too. So thank you. So let's start with a little intro. Tell us about yourself and what life is like for you in your little corner of the world. Yes, well, I am living in Victoria, BC. So I'm on Vancouver Island in Canada. It is, we call it the Palm Springs of Canada because we're in this unique climate, climate, it's very warm here as you get warm too. But uh it's definitely the most mild spot in Canada. And yes, I have two kids under six. and a wonderful husband. just celebrated 17 years together. that out loud is also like, whoa. And yes, I'm so thrilled to be here. I love gardening. I love children in the garden. And I have just loved inspiring people to live a more sustainable lifestyle through my community too. I visited Vancouver Island a couple of years ago and was ready to leave my entire life behind and just not get on the plane home. So we'll talk a little bit more about the reasons why, but the microclimate was definitely one of them. It's zone seven, right? Zone 9A, technically. But what I've really learned, especially since I moved into more of the farmland here on Vancouver Island, it is not the same as a US Zone 9. So people have to realize Canada Zone 9 is very different. I'm not a Texas Zone 9. I am a Canada Zone 9. Yes, cries in zone 5B over here. You still get tomatoes, you still get them. Yes, it is a banger week for tomatoes here at the Robertson Barnes household. So I'm very grateful for that. Tell us about the purposeful you and your work there. And I've always been really curious about what inspired the Yeah. Yes. So I was expecting my first child. I find most people start a sustainable journey for a reason, right? And it was when I was expecting Quinn, he's now six, and I was three months postpartum. And I thought, oh, I really want to get into the content world. I love marketing. I love broadcasting. And I thought, let's just share everything I'm learning. I'm going through a rabbit hole of how to live more sustainable with non-toxic products. And then I started getting back into gardening. And I think my son, because he really found my purpose in life and the purposeful you, the name was created because I wanted people to find purpose in their daily lives that had the environment in mind. And so that's how the journey, the purposefully you started that first post on Instagram Quinn was three months old. Gosh. Time flies. think that's sort of when I first like quote met you on Instagram was that he was like a baby and now he's a proper child. That's, oh, you filled this incredible Instagram community. Like you're nearly half a million people now that are just enthralled by your just incredible gardening content and your videos are so warm and encouraging and you just really capture. not like the beauty and also the practicality of growing your own food. And you always look like you're having so much fun. Does this visual storytelling like come really naturally to you? Absolutely. And it's funny because I very much pivoted to only garden on the purpose for you and some sustainable living with it, of course. um When I, we built this brand new garden and I realized that people wanted to see more of that. They wanted to see more inspiration. They wanted to get inspired to grow their own food. Everyone was wanting to be more self-sufficient and I just, I'm literally my best version of myself in the garden. So those videos, it's just the creative brain just flows. And my biggest thing was being very authentic and vulnerable and no filter. And it's just, uh it's just me. And I feel like I can relate to more people that way as well. Yeah, you're so, you're very warm and non-judgmental and yeah, just try this and see how that works. And like I have a garden, I've garden for years and there's still things that are absolutely mystifying. And I know that I can come to you and you're like, I got you girl. Let's try this. Let's try that. And I really appreciate that. Cause there can be a lot of weird gatekeeping. And I think that's what's so amazing about your channel. So everyone, please go follow at the purple spell you immediately. So you have a new book coming out, which when you told me about it, I was very excited. It's coming out in January. It's called The Purposeful Gardener, Double Your Harvest and Create a Food Oasis with Raised Beds, Vertical Growing and Companion Planting, which I will link in the show notes so everyone can go pre-order it. How did this book come about? I'm so excited. And the pre-sales will start in September. And I'm going to reveal the cover soon. And it came, I have to say thank you to people who are following me on Instagram because a publishing company reached out and said, this is time to share your story, your inspirational pumpkin arch. Like, let's share this with the world. and help people and guide people to creating a food oasis in their backyard. And the food oasis really came because I think food is beautiful. Even if the tomatoes aren't perfect and it's messy, I just think food is so beautiful and we should just enjoy that process and create a food oasis. Whether you have, you know, a balcony and you're going to grow a whole bunch of fine foods or you have a large garden. And vertical growing is a really big part of my page because you can double and triple your harvest in the same space. And I really created some unique techniques and DIY projects that will be in the book. And it's a complete guide, whether you're beginner or intermediate, which I'm very excited about. Your pumpkin arch went ultra, ultra viral. And it's something that I've had on my list for the last few years. So I also know you have a printable for that. So I will link that as well, because it is a dream of mine and I need to get my husband on it in terms of the building. We have a fence situation that needs to be dealt with first, but it's on the list. When you were putting this together, how did you decide which methods you were going to focus on? That was the hardest part. I really went off of what people loved to hear and see and learn about and the questions I get on social. Because why would I reinvent the wheel or just share the exact same methods of gardening that everyone's doing? I really, it's very much based on my garden and all the techniques that I do so that I can just say, this is an option. This is how I grow my tomatoes from start to finish. There's literally eight pages on growing tomatoes in the book because I think they're beautiful, but I also I want people to succeed and it's a very, um you know, the book does focus on certain things to grow. It's not a wide range of things to grow. And I think that um I think that it was very hard to narrow down. I actually had chapters get cut out because I wrote too much. But ah without saying too much, I think it's just the perfect amount of information for someone to start or continue or revive that garden journey that they've always wanted to do. So the book covers raised beds, which I have, vertical growing, which I need to start, and companion planting, which I know a little bit about. But for someone who's just starting out, which of those do you think is like the easiest gateway drug sort of into growing more of their own food and feeling really confident? Yes, I'm a huge advocate for raised beds. And that's why the book does focus on raised beds so I can feel more attainable because we're all busy. We're all busy. I'm not a farmer. I don't expect everyone to feel they have to weed every Saturday in their in-ground garden. I cried over enough weeds that I do believe that raised bed gardening allows people to start a garden fast. And there's options of metal or wood depending on your budget. And this allows people to just get their hands in the soil. And companion planting is a huge part of the book because there's natural pest control. There's flowers, herbs, and vegetables all together in harmony that work so beautifully to grow an abundance of food that is not very clear to many people. And I think I just wanted it to be so clear and interesting. So people want to create these beautiful beds with herbs and flowers too, because flowers bring joy. They do. They do. saw your P wall this year with all the nasturtiums coming out. uh And I marveled at it last year. And then this year, all the flowers just made it somehow even more magical. And that's something I've started doing a lot of too, is doing a lot more interplanting with flowers just because I want to, because it looks pretty. Absolutely, it looks pretty and there's some things like marigolds, they're beautiful. You could put them in a vase, but they also deter pests because of their scent. Like there's purpose. So the book is called The Purposeful Gardener because I want everyone to feel like they are their own personal, their own purposeful gardener and their own personal journey. So they don't have to do exactly what I do. But sharing everything I do will allow them to take parts that work for them so that they can see the bees, they can feel this harmony in their backyard. So your work beautifully celebrates all of that, the joy and the abundance of a well-tended garden. But I know for you, it's also very much a family space and your kids are growing up surrounded by it, in it. And that brings me something that I'm really curious about, which is, again, your kids are growing up like really in the garden. How did you get them involved? Yes, that is a question I get often because it's not always easy. I would say the first thing I want to tell parents is you're going to learn very quickly what tasks mommy's doing and what task you can do with me. And then just becomes enjoyable when you help them. When they're in the garden though and they see something grow, they plant a pea seed, they eat peas that they planted. For them to witness that at a really young age, I think is extremely powerful. And I actually have a section in the book about growing food with children because they belong in the garden. They really do. And I would say any parent listening that the earlier the better. My kids were five months old grabbing spinach and just chewing on it. And my son still likes radishes. And since he was one. And I think that they will love food, appreciate food. and eat more fruits and vegetables because they have experienced it from the garden. Of course, it tastes better too. Do you have any tips for making gardening fun for different stages? So I have two teens and right now they are not into it, uh even though they were when they were little. So just wondering if you could help me out personally. Yes, absolutely. I always think of these next stages too, because already my son is less engaged now that he's six than my daughter who's three. So for him, he wants to, you know, drive his Gator and take away all the clippings at the end of the year. And he wants to do uh different jobs, moving the wood chips, moving the soil. For teens, I would say if they... like to cook, it's kind of a fun way for them to maybe cook together or figure out what kind of ingredients they like in the garden to cook with if they are into cooking or just growing things, making them involved in the planning stages. Say, let's just plant a garden. What kind of tomato color should we grow? Let's just try new things with them and see what. Ask the questions, I think, before you just plant a garden to see how they can be involved. That just reminded me that last summer I made a bunch of pesto with my oldest and he was super into it. So I need to pull that out again. And I had completely split my mind. So I'm so glad that you said that. If parents want to start gardening with their kids, but that feels really overwhelming, like what's an easy win? What's a great way to start? Yeah, a great way is, you know, you're a landscape plant. If you have, you know, start with some herbs instead of, you know, purchasing like a hedge for a boxwood. Try to create your landscape plant with food that you might already have. I love oregano and thyme. You can add, so then you're learning spice, you're learning to grow, grow herbs, dry them, fill your own spice jar. So I always say start with herbs. And there's two types of herbs. There's perennial herbs that can be part of your landscape plan. They come back every year. Or there's herbs like basil. can interplant in your backyard or in a side yard if there's enough sun. And it's just an experience every single year. I'm a big fan of growing cabbages in my quote like flower gardens or whatever like in the front yard. I've started to put a lot more food in there just for fun because it looks cool and why not? know, food does look neat. I see people put blueberry bushes in their yards. Obviously, it has to be fully fenced. We have a lot of deer here. know, you know, currants, salmon berries, there's a lot of, you know, native wild berries you can even put in your gardens that are, like you said, part of landscape plan, but bringing that food forward. Yeah, I just did an elderberry bush in my front yard garden. We have a garden in the front yard. I'm married to a lawn guy, unfortunately, but I do have this one uh wildflower garden in the front yard that I just keep slightly making bigger every year. And I put an elderberry bush in there and that handful of berries that I got from it was, was pure magic. It is that feeling. That is what I want everyone to feel. It might be five months of hard work, but when you taste that tomato or that elderberry, it's all worth it. you know, gardening is linked to longevity for a reason that gives you hope every year. puts your hands in the soil. It just revives you in different ways each year throughout the season. And I just think for young parents, like we were talking about, just trying to start. Just start, just start with one. Is there anything that your kids have taught you about gardening? to be present, to watch the bee, look at the bee, look at the centipede and, you know, really just look at the garden as just this beautiful living oasis and just take a moment to really appreciate it. And I do when they go to bed, I like to walk through the garden in silence and I love look at the sleeping bees. But during the process, they just find things. They point things out that you would never see. And it's just important to stay in that moment and do it with them. Witness something with them. Yeah. Something I really appreciate about you, and we talked about this earlier, is how you share very practical, like no nonsense advice that people can use. And you do it with so much warmth and joy. So I'd love to ask you a few questions for the folks thinking like, okay, but where do I, what do I do? Where do I even start? So if someone's never grown anything before, where should they start? I know you've mentioned herbs a couple of times, but like, what's a vegetable people can start with. That's relatively easy. Yes, great question. first, you just have to know if you want to grow food in the spring or the summer. That's the biggest thing people don't realize. So knowing when your last frost date is and being on the East Coast, it's mid to late summer in some areas. And on the West Coast here, I can plant peas in March. So knowing uh your zone and your garden zone is number one in your frost dates. But the easiest things, uh I always say just You're okay if you go and buy a few starters at the store. Don't feel you have to do everything by seed. I don't even do everything by seed. you know, start with your tomato plants, the zucchini. Some cucumbers need a lot of water, so I don't always suggest that. But tomatoes, zucchini are very prolific. Put some pea seeds in the ground and see how it goes. And lettuce, those would be the ones I would probably say go for it. Last would be radishes because they are that quick gratification and 30 days you have food and that's just really fun, right? But those would be the ones I would start with. What's a beginner mistake that you see all the time? How can we avoid that? They start too many things. They have so much ambition and they just put 20 different things in a raised bed or don't understand the space scene that some plants might need. um So start small, start with a few things, learn the growing patterns and always grow what you love to eat so you want to enjoy the process. This is precisely why I stopped growing zucchini because I don't particularly like it, but I can grow like Jurassic Park sized zucchini. So I had to let that go. As you know, I cannot grow a proper carrot to save my life. How do I do that? And how can I reframe this failure? So it just feels like part of process. I can't do it. Why? And you're not the only one, know, carrots are tricky. And I will admit, this was not my carrot year. I re-seeded carrots twice. So whether it was the soil, the seeds, the watering, the temperature, I would say keep on sowing them, keep on adding the seeds because they need 14 days of water straight until you see them sprout. And that's probably the hardest part is keeping them moist, keeping them dark. But a lot of people forget that you need to turn the soil. I dig down. It's the only bed, I do very much a no digging approach. It's the only bed when I rotate my carrots that I will dig down minimum six inches because the carrots need loose soil to actually form straight. And even when I do that, I'm still gonna get a carrot that looks like legs. You're still gonna get those funny carrots. ah But hopefully those few tips are some light bulb moments for folks. I found adding sand to my, I have like one raised bed that I do it in. I kind of rotate out carrots and onions and adding sand was a bit of a game changer, but I'm very hopeful for my carrots this year because I use tape, like the carrot seed tape, because carrot seeds are like microscopic to me. So I got the tape from West Coast Seeds. So I'm very hopeful. They look great on top. I'm going to pull them soon. I will send you a picture, but. Yes, picture. fully anticipating more deformed carrots, but it's fine. They still taste like carrots. uh And if they look super weird, I just end up dehydrating them. So no harm, no foul. Absolutely, the ugly ones are fun ones. Yeah, I think it teaches us to like, food isn't supposed to look perfect. It should look weird. And I actually kind of sort of cherish it a little bit more when it's a bit funny looking, like, you know what? Same. Yes, absolutely. We all have different personalities and their personalities shining right now. So what's one small like tweak that can make a huge difference in how your garden thrives? I would say soil. Soil is number one. When you have good healthy soil, the rest really does fall into place. And I discovered on relisted in the last couple of years, which is for organic growers, the soil is organic compost, organic matter, and you know, either manure and it is at a high temperature so that you don't have a lot of weeds. but it's full of nutrition and it's perfect for organic growing. And putting that, amending that soil in your beds every spring is just crucial. It's just a step that can't be missed. Yeah, I'm adding compost for me. When I got my backyard bin and got super serious about compost and then saving all my worm castings from my vermicomposter inside made a really big difference. As we head into fall and winter, I think a lot of folks think like, well, gardening is done. So I'll just try again next year. But that's not true. What should people maybe be thinking about if they want to keep growing through the fall and winter? Yes, a fall garden is my favorite gardening season because there's way less pests. Obviously, I love August come, the tomatoes and the pumpkins. But right now we are at mid August and you just need to think about, hey, what am I going to be pulling out in the next two weeks? And what can I plant right now that will germinate fast like lettuce or go to your nursery and At the end of August, it will be full. Your garden centers will be full of starters. And learn the plants. Do kale. I do Swiss chard. Broccoli is my favorite in the winter. And you can have a whole garden season right now and have food until December. Obviously, it depends when your first frost date's coming. But a lot of the fall garden vegetables that you're planting can tolerate frost. So the garden season's not done. I am then... going to be planting a whole, whole nother garden plant, which I usually do within the next week or two. I just put my kale in last week, so it's starting to pop up. you mentioned lettuce, and lettuce is something else. Like, I just can't do it. And I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'll get little, like a full head of lettuce seems to elude me. The heads of lettuce are very hard. It depends on variety. And because they're heavy feeders, lettuce, people don't realize that they need a lot of nutrition. So something beside it might be stealing the nutrition. And I love just growing cut and come again lettuce. I just do rows of lettuce. And you only want to do one at a time and then two weeks later do another row so you don't have a lot at once. But I'm all about just the quick salad greens. I think it's way easier. going to give up on lettuce, like heads of lettuce. I'm just going to go for the cut and come because that, that I can do fine. And I just, I don't know. I feel like I, this is where we get into the perfection of it. Right. It's just like, why can't I grow a head of lettuce? But like it's still lettuce in the bowl. So I appreciate that refrain. Speaking of frames, have you ever tried cold frames? I'm kind of, I'm really curious about that. And we're planning on giving it a go this winter on one of our raised beds. found like some old windows and Brad's going to jerry-rig something. yeah, what do think? It is, I think you have to do that, especially on the East Coast so that you have an extra month. We used to do some old windows over our tomato plants to even extend them a little bit longer and just create a bit of like a heat dome. I used to put some cold frames over one or two beds just to extend the warmth under there for things like spinach. Almost your sensitive greens, I would focus on those under the cold frames. And it's a wonderful way to extend your season. And why not? I want food under the garden as long as possible. Yeah, I really feel like going out to cut some spinach or arugula in December would heal me a little. So looking forward to trying that for sure. So we've talked a lot about like the practical side of gardening, but I know for a lot of gardeners, it's also something much deeper. For me, it's like, it's a place to slow down and regulate and reconnect with myself and listen to birds. and notice things that we miss when we're just like, go, go, go, go, go. And one of the things that I've tried to teach my kids and that I think about a lot is that like food doesn't come from the grocery store. It's our direct connection to the earth. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on that side of gardening. Yes, it is very therapeutic. And when you let go of being perfect or having to be on time with a seed getting in the ground, when you are just in the garden, there is something just happens. And I could be in there for like eight hours and just get lost in your in the garden. And that might mean you just want to sit beside your flowers and You know, have your drink in the summer and just be present and look at the flowers, listen to the noises around you. It's very therapeutic. But planting, getting your hands in the soil, and just cultivating a garden, there's just nothing like it, obviously, because that's what I teach people. But there is just nothing like it. It's also a beautiful way to... You know, can honor someone in your garden. We lost our beautiful dog two years ago and we planted roses in her honor. And every time I go into the garden, she greets me with the roses, whether they're in bloom or not. And I think that there's ways to bring purpose and intention into everything you plant in your garden where you just feel really proud. and a place that you want to surround yourself with or bring your family there or have dinner in your garden. I think this just, everyone has their own journey and they'll find their own purpose in their garden as they start to garden and as they spend more time in the garden. I'm just a bit verklempt over the rose bush. Yeah, that's really lovely. Thank you. She was our soul mate. She's beautiful. Yeah, this old dog. What has your garden taught you about yourself? that I find the best version of myself in the garden. You know, I'm just, I'm at peace. I'm at peace in the garden. I know I belong in there. And obviously it is my career to be in the garden, but I feel so grateful that I found something that I just love to do and teach in a natural way. But I just, I just know that it's where I'm, I just. I feel complete at the end of the day when I've been in the garden. Yeah. Why do you think gardening matters so much in a world that feels so uncertain right now? Well, self-sufficiency, even just being able to pick your own herbs can feel very powerful, can make you feel in control. We can't always control whether a plant's going to die or not. Our life is busy if you haven't watered it, but there is this sense of self-empowerment and self-sufficiency that we can create with one pot or 10 raised beds, whatever your journey is at the moment. And I think just at the end of the day after work, if you just sit beside a plant, I think your day's gonna end better. You're gonna feel better. And how do you see gardening as contributing to living a more sustainable lifestyle, like both for your family and in a bigger picture way? There's a lot of ways to garden that is more sustainable than the big box stores make it out to be as well. Reusing, reusing, reusing, reducing your plastic. There's a lot of ways you can be sustainable in the garden from the get-go. But when we think about food being transported, when it's being picked, the amount of nutrition that is lost because it's picked so early, because it has to look perfect in our grocery stores. the plastic during transportation, picking a carrot, washing it, and eating it. It's just a beautiful thing. Yeah, the plastic, just from seed to table and disposal at every stage, even in organic gardening, like commercial organic gardening, there's just so much plastic that I think folks don't realize. living sustainably is a way of life for both of us. And that leads into something that's close to both of our hearts, and that's raising our kids with these values. And I actually first came to know you through your eco-parenting content. And I'm curious how that still shows up in your family today. Yes, I think that when you start on the sustainable journey, if you've experienced the rabbit holes, when you know more, you just slowly implement different um strategies in your home that just become second nature. Like my kids don't know what saran wrap is. We haven't had it for seven years. um They know what a compost is. They'll ask where to compost their banana peel. When they say that, you just in public, you think, You know, I did it. And they know mom's a no balloon mom. Parties don't have balloons. em I'm not, not that I'm not fun. We do a lot of different things, but they know balloons are bad for the birds. They'll tell their friends the balloons are bad for the birds because there's no place they end up. And even if they're in their landfill underneath the ground, the birds will find them. So I think just slowly implementing things in your own home and as an adult, create your own new habits that your kids, when they leave the home, all they know is what they've been taught. And how I'm sure you have analyzed how you grew up. And I've done that many times. And, you know, my mom's quite a granola and I composted my whole life yet. You know, we still use toxic products in our bathroom growing up and I've switched my mom over to better products. you know, we just know better now. But if you're children leave the home with certain habits, it's just something that is so much easier for them to continue rather than them teach themselves later on after a habit's already created. Yeah, we're creating scaffolding for them of how to be in the world. So even if the worst thing my kids do to rebel is go to McDonald's or start using Saran wrap, I trust that they're going to come back to the habits that they were taught growing up. And they're ever-changing. I haven't been. the I am now when they were one. You know, we got to just sort of roll with it in the season of life that we're in now and what have you. my oldest sent me a meme the other day, which was having a weird mom builds character. Like this is you. So I nailed it. I love that. They are thinking of you everywhere they go. Yeah, exactly. And so you know what? I may as well be like the quote weird mom who composts and like rides her bike to the library. I'm totally fine with that. So. Absolutely. You know what? I reflect now on what my mom taught me and what my dad taught me. And especially writing my book, I had to really reflect why am I am who I am today? Why do I do this? Why do I do that? And we're all influenced by our parents. there is a, and not to put a lot of pressure on parents either, we're not perfect. There was two years where I did not do a to go cup for coffee. And now you might see me with a to go cup. that is disposable from a coffee shop because I needed coffee. It was a big day and I needed coffee with the kids and I forgot my cup. And I had to really let go of the perfect sustainable day today and do my best. But I know that I am doing my best all the time. And I don't want people to not start because they think they have to be zero to 100 % either. Yeah. One of the criticisms or guess questions that I get is that uh living like more sustainably is more expensive. Do you think that's true? No, because you eliminate things in your home. You eliminate, you change different things. know, our compost doesn't even have a compost bag in it. You just wash it. So not buying those. know, you know, we're having our toilet paper is now on a schedule that gets delivered and it's bamboo. And now I use less toilet paper because I know when the next delivery is going to come. So I think there's there's the compounding effect is really real when you start to create new habits. If you're going to go out and buy all the expensive tabware and all the expensive things that people think they should have, then yes, it will be. But slowly accumulate things is what I always tell people. Yeah, when something breaks or runs out, then you replace it. But like throwing out everything that you have is not sustainable. Going out and switching all of your food storage all at once is not exactly sustainable. Just do one thing at a time and that's great and that's enough. And you're building new habits and that's going to be more sustainable for you. What are a few like realistic kid-friendly changes that a family could make toward being a more eco-friendly home? Yes. Number one I love this year now that my son started kindergarten and I'll be in school system is no canola bars because the school was a very much no wrapper school, which I love. And we just made all our own energy bottles. So I switched one thing this year. I just did one thing for their lunches that I didn't have to buy canola bars for the lunches and they found recipes they really liked. So there's little things like that. that you can do where the kids see that you made that change, they make the energy balls with you. And that was one thing that just stuck with me that I thought of, I'll write when you ask that. I think when children see what you do, they just, they do what you do in the home, you know? And I don't think they're not gonna ask for certain things if they've never seen it. So. Hopefully I answered that question a little bit. What comes to your mind? What sort of questions do you find you have that parents are struggling with? I think that's part of it is that kids just come with so much stuff. No, they don't. No, they don't. They come with nothing. They arrive naked. And so the stuff that we think that they need is really just marketing. We're really deep into back to school advertising right now. Your kid probably does not need a new backpack. They don't need a whole new wardrobe to go back to school. You manage the expectations for your child. So, mean, the word like no is very powerful, but also explaining the why. And it doesn't have to be a big like climate change discussion. It can simply be like, you know, what we have is perfectly fine. It's still very much usable. It's in great shape. So let's just keep using it until it's no longer usable. Like we use what we have. That's a big thing in our houses. We shop our house. We use what we have and, know, minor teens. And so they're starting to get into like being opinionated about what they're wearing and that sort of thing. But like my oldest wanted these like shoes, some basketball player or guy, I don't know. And Brad found them on Kijiji because like we live in the greater Toronto area. So we have, we have an embarrassment of riches of things on Kijiji because people buy things and they wear them twice. And then they put them up for sale. so we've always been able to find anything that they wanted secondhand, every brick of Lego in our house, the video game machine thing, PlayStation. Thank you. That escaped my mind. But we found all of that secondhand. again, that's just something that we started working with them on since they were younger. But I think you can implement this with teens too. It's just like, you know, things cost money. Mm-hmm. They cost money. And so if you can buy it secondhand, you're just saving money. don't have to do the sustainability piece with them. Just like you're going to save money. And it might take a little longer to source, but that's the point in terms of like budgeting. And you know, if you're about to get a job, how many hours do you want to work? to for these shoes and that kind of thing. So I think there's lots of ways to approach sustainability with older kids that aren't necessarily about the planet because they're minor like, know mom. But instead I'm like, well, that's going to cost us a lot of money. How many lawns are you going to mow? Absolutely. Like you just, you need on the head is the language and what lesson are they gonna learn? And it's all about how we speak to them and explain to them. And my kids are very visual kids as well. So for my son, I explained why we're not, we don't need any more clothes, but what we're gonna do is we're gonna wash every single clothes and we're gonna lay out how many pants do you have? And if we need more, then we go to this one secondhand store and we just get a new pair of pants. There's times they can get one new special thing before they go to school, but they don't need 10 new things to go to school. So there are, like you said, it is up to the parent to say no as hard as it is, but they don't know any better. It is up to us to set the boundaries and the boundaries are really important. And as you have teens now, and I have a child who's growing up to get into the getting competitive. that person has this. I want that. And so I'm just exploring that whole part of saying no to all the things that everyone else has. And that's a that's a whole new journey. That's such a universal part of parenting though. Like, so and so has this. Like no matter if you're doing the sustainable living thing or not, the kid down the road always has something else. Like no matter what, I think that's a really universal experience with parenting. So I find that at least the sustainable living frame of it gives me a really solid framework for explaining why that doesn't move the needle for me. Okay, well, so and so has a PlayStation, so go play it over there. Or what have you, right? And then we get, you know, like you have things that your friends don't have. It's the same thing, but it's also a really great opportunity to talk about sharing and being in community and that sort of thing. Like, okay, well, you guys can all go down to the library and use the 3D printer. We don't need to buy one. There's something in the community that can fill that need for you. So there's different ways that you can reframe it, I think, and sustainable living really lends a lot of different avenues for you to take with that particular problem of, my friend has this, like, okay, so what's a way that we can figure that out for you? Whether it's borrowing it from them or going and getting it from the library or getting on Kijiji or whatever it is. And those extra steps, like away from the instant gratification of it. really helps to dampen that a little bit. They have that and that's cool. So we've definitely found that which has been really interesting. That's good. That's good. And that's what I want to, I want my children to feel happy with what they have. I want them to feel empowered and then I want them to have the patience. Actually, we just went through the whole someone had a little water kayak thing that they had that they got off of Kijiji. And so now every day I'm on the marketplace and myself go, did you find one today? No. But he's learning patience of, hey, it's not going to show up at our door tomorrow. Let's wait and see because we have three more weeks. We're going to use this and let's see if you like it next year. So, yeah, like you said, it's all about the language, the opportunities, the the lessons that can be learned. And it is a beautiful thing. They'll thank us in the long run. They'll thank us when they are going through their own journey in life, whatever that might be. Gosh, I hope so. Parenting's a real trip, gosh. It's that my mom always says, cause she was a principal at elementary school, it's the hardest job you will ever do. And I have to remind myself that when it is so hard, we have to give ourselves grace. We're all doing good things. We're all doing our best. And, but it is good to feel like you are living more intentionally. And I think that's the biggest thing with sustainable living is live every day with intention. with every decision you're making. We all have a choice every day to click a button and get something sent to us or start that garden, even if it's just in an existing place in your home. You don't need to buy anything. You can spend $3 on a seed packet tomorrow. So it's just about reframing how we want to, what kind of lifestyle we want. And just slowing down. So Tasha, like to end every episode with a segment I call one small shift. And this is where I put my guests on the spot and ask them to share one small doable change that's made a meaningful difference in your life or something that listeners can try today. So what's one small shift that you would recommend? one small shift. It's so funny because what comes to mind is my first shift that I ever that I pretty much ever did in the home. And that was I was obsessed with eliminating toilet paper. And I don't know if it was you or someone else that hit it on themselves. Was it you? I that with paper towels. I had to put the paper towels in a cabinet so that I wasn't just reaching for them. And that made, like that changed everything. Oh my gosh, so you, that was you, I thought it was. You literally stemmed our family. You stemmed our whole way of living with no paper towel because I did that. We did not miss paper towel. We got a Swedish cloth. So I eliminated that and I got a $6 Swedish cloth. And now our kitchen has two Swedish cloths at all times. We use them for almost a year at each one, even though it says six months, they're fine. Wash them. It has been just a game changer. And when people come over and they ask for paper towel, I give them either the cloth, the reusable cloth, or the Swedish cloth to clean up the mess or a napkin. I'm just going to wash. that just, I just felt like that was so empowering when it actually happened that we never bought it again. It's been six years. So thank you for that. Not a visual medium, but Tasha can see my face and I'm losing it right now. This may be, yes, paper towel or like my real pet peeve. I probably need to do a whole episode on how to paper towel, but I am so excited that that worked. that's, I was like, I just got to not see it. And oh, that's so awesome. Big fan of Swedish dish cloths. I have a zillion as well. They like one Swedish dish. dishcloth can replace up to 17 rolls of paper towels and they do last longer than they say, especially if you don't put them in the dryer. Yes, absolutely. I actually just boil mine in water and that water can get nasty. So I put it through the dishwasher on the top rack every few weeks and I also boil it in the water and then I just wring it out and let it dry. And I have never actually put one through the dishwasher, through the washing machine. Wait, you can put them in the dishwasher? What? Like in the, on the top? What? Yes, yep. They're perfect for the dishwasher. And you re-enow and it smells like it was a dish that was washed. Okay. This just blew my mind because I just checked them in the washing machine. I have like a little laundry basket under my kitchen sink, which is where I throw all the tea towels and the dishcloths and all of that. And then I just check them in with whatever load I'm doing. But since I have to run the dishwasher like every two days, oh my gosh. Okay. I'm going to try this in report back. Perfect. You let me know. I was going to say I love how you have a little laundry hamper because mine are literally on the ground at the side of the kitchen waiting for when I walk towards the laundry. There's always a dish towel on the ground. No, it's just like a little plastic basket that I got at like Valley Village or something like that. And it's under the sink next to the green bin. And so, cause I change out, I do a Swedish dish cloth and a knitted dish cloth on the sink. the Swedish cloth is for the counters and the dish cloth is for everything else. You know how we all have our little like Monica Geller, 11 types of towels situation. And then I changed those out every night. I just chucked them in the basket and then it just goes to, cause it's not more laundry. It's like, five extra things. Not a big deal. So yeah, I just got a little, like it's, I don't know, like the size of an iPad, I guess, the bottom of it. And I just checked it under the sink and then it can all just get checked in there. I just hang the wet cloth over the side so it doesn't get musty and then you won't have details on your floor. So. I love that. There's a light bulb moment. This is, yes, I see there's always something new to learn, like these little just tips and tricks. Like it would never occur to me to put a dishcloth in the dishwasher, even though I used to microwave those yellow sponges. I can't like that seems like another lifetime ago. So, okay. Yep. I'm going to try this and report back. So this has been such a great conversation. Thank you so much for sharing your time and your experience. and your love of gardening with us today. So for folks who want to find you, uh where can they go? Yes, you can find me on Instagram at the purposeful you. also have a website, the purposeful you.com and I have blogs for lifestyle, garden, travel, children. And so you can see me there also on Facebook at the purposeful you. And I'm just a DM away. I'm always happy to answer questions. I find that's probably a part time job, but I love connecting with everyone. And it surprises people when they see that I replied to them. So I'm there to say, I'm a human, I'm not a robot, and just connect with me. And I'd love to share what I learned and know and just connect with anyone here. And for anyone who's excited to dive deeper, the Purposeful Gardener is coming out in January and I will have the pre-order link below so you can grab your copy. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. I hope you enjoyed hearing from Tasha as much as I did. I loved getting into the practical side of gardening and the joy it can bring to our families and how growing your own food is such a powerful act of sustainability. So whether it's trying companion planting, involving your kids in the garden, or simply taking a moment to dream about what you'll grow next, I hope this conversation leaves you inspired to see gardening as so much more than a summer hobby. You can find links to everything we talked about today down in the show notes, including how to connect with Tasha and check out her upcoming book. And while you're there, be sure to check out my links too, especially signing up for my newsletter so you never miss new blog posts, resources. all that great stuff to help you live a little greener. Until next time, start where you are, use what you have, and live a little greener. Thanks for tuning in to Sustainable in the Suburbs. Every small step adds up and I'm so glad we're doing this together. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to follow the show, share it with a friend and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. You can find me at sustainableinthesuburbs.com or at Sarah Robertson Barnes on all the things. Until next time, start where you are, use what you have and live a little greener.