Gardens are magical for kids. I still find them magical myself. I planted a dozen different types of vegetables in early May, and it never stops to thrill me when I see the first plants emerge.
Today, L and I did some gardening maintenance since we're at a midpoint in our harvest. Our family can barely keep up with the zucchini and tomatoes. It seems like every day there's a new foot-long zucchini to pick. We should continue to get many more in the coming weeks, so I did a little pruning and harvesting of those plants.
We had a great season already of peas and beans, but it was time to yank them out. I replaced them with beets and some more salad greens that should do well in the cooler fall weather. I also thinned some carrots and parsnips hoping to get some bigger vegetables in a few weeks.
Kids are great helpers in the garden. They can drop seeds into carefully prepared holes. They enjoying helping you water, especially with a kid-sized watering can. And, best of all, kids are excellent at harvesting. It's fun to teach them which part of the plant to eat and which part to discard in the compost pile. It's a great place to secretly teach kids about nutrition, since most of the fun of gardening is tasting everything straight out of the soil (okay, maybe after a squirt of water from the hose.)
L isn't even eating solid foods yet, but I've been introducing him to the smells of the vegetables in our gardens. I will hold up a juicy tomato or shallot to his nose to see his reaction. Sometimes he wrinkles his nose. Sometimes he smiles. I think he likes gardening, too.
Links:
HGTV: How to grow a vegetable garden
Backyard Gardener
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