Gardening can be a fun event

By Staff
Michelle Blaylock, Mom's Corner
I hope all the mommies had a great Mother's Day last Sunday. We are anxiously awaiting the end of school and all the fun summer activities. I decided to put in a small garden this year mostly because my hubby and kids are trying to eat us out of house and home! I'm just planting things we eat on a regular basis. There's no point in planting things that only John or I will eat, at least from my viewpoint.
I have learned a few things about gardening with children. Some I've learned on my own through trial and error and other things I remember from the large garden my Mom put in every year.
My mother was a no nonsense gardener. She didn't do it for enjoyment. It was to feed her family of seven children, husband and my grandparents.
She believed earlier was better hence the rise and shine time of about 5:30 a.m. to get busy and not waste the day. I don't rise and shine during the summer at 5:30 a.m. I prefer to "waste my day" and sleep to 6 or 7 a.m.
Nevertheless, I did learn several things from mother. The first was to get things done earlier in the day so the afternoon could be left to recreation. She also taught me to "lay out the garden" taking into account how big the plants would grow, if they needed room to vine etc. She also always had a plan of what to do with the "excess" produce. Depending on what it was we either canned it, froze it, or gave it away. Mother also planned for next year's garden at the end of the summer. For example, as we picked the produce if we found something that was spoiled in one way or another we buried it in the garden. Mom always said that made the soil "richer" for next year.
One thing Mom didn't do was encourage young children to garden. Like I said before she had a no nonsense approach to gardening. I do encourage young children to garden. For one thing they can be a big help. Almost all children love to dig in the dirt! Therefore, they are great at helping prepare the soil. Children should have their own size tools to help prevent accidents and obviously they shouldn't handle extremely sharp tools.
When we moved to Indiana, we finally had a large enough yard to have a "real" garden. The kids and I diligently went to work planting it. I was so excited. I couldn't wait to show them the magic of growing things. Unfortunately, there were several things I had overlooked. In my excitement, I planted way too much, hence more garden than we needed or could really care for properly. Lesson one, don't plant more than you need; better to start off small and then increase the next year if necessary. I also had been eagerly anticipating the "family bonding" that would occur.
Lesson two, some children my not be interested in the "great outdoors." If you want your children to participate and enjoy it, you better choose things they like to eat in the first place.
Our then 5 year old daughter, didn't like hardly any veggies so she really didn't care about "tending" the garden past the fun of digging in the dirt!
I do try to make sure each child has something that is their "favorite" in the garden. I have one that would probably live off tomatoes if I let her, so her job is to keep special watch on the tomato plants and tell me if she sees something amiss.
Lesson four, I learned quickly that it's better to give children their own little plot. They can still be encouraged to help in the "family" plot, but by having their "own" you can keep the damage caused by not so gentle hands down to a minimum. I hadn't thought of this when I put out my first garden after having children. Our oldest son was about 3 years old. His "plant" was spaghetti squash. Every day he would get up and run to check if there was a "squash" on the plant yet. Of course, one day he found a little bitty tiny squash. Yep you're right. He picked it and brought it to me to cook. I explained that it wasn't quite ready yet and showed him a picture of what a ripe one would look like.
He thought about this a minute and said, "Well, can we glue it back on?" In my experience, much of having fun with children comes from your own outlook. If you're doing something and you can't chance having a mistake made -and there are those times- then that's the time to find the kids a different activity. Take time to explain to them why they can't help.
Now, if you hate the thought of gardening and being outside, there are other things you can do to show your child the magic of growing things. For example, cut the top off a pineapple leaving about an inch of fruit; then place it in a shallow pan of water after roots develop plant it in a pot. It will make a very pretty house plant.
Other ideas are growing lettuce seeds on a sponge, herbs in small pots in a sunny window, a window box or planter garden.
I hope you have a great week. If you have a question, suggestion, or tip to share please send it to: Mom's Corner; P.O. Box 1496; Hartselle, AL 35640 or email: