This year is exciting for us in that it marks the first year of our married life that we've been able to plant a real, in-the-ground- vegetable garden. We're starting out small (25 square feet), but it's already such a source of delight to me! It's been fun getting M involved in the process too. She's not really big enough to hoe or to weed yet, but here are some of the things I have been having her do with me:
- planning (discussing and looking at pictures of the different things we could plant)
- putting the seeds in the ground
- covering them with dirt
- watering/ fertilizing with spray molasses
- harvesting (yes- already! we like to go out before dinner- each with a pair of scissors in hand and a basket to cut chard and spinach for salads)
For a beautiful children's book to accompany gardening adventures, I can't recommend highly enough A Seed is Sleepy by Diana Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long. The plant and seed illustrations are large and detailed without being too busy; the words are gently childlike. It's wonderful!
Have you found other ways to involve a little one in your gardening? (or any other good children's garden books?) I'd love to hear about them!
1 comment:
I put watering the plants on my 12 yr old's chore list and the almost 3 yr old goes out with him to "help". It gives her some outside time and me something of a break.
I thought about her using a thumbprint to help decorate the tile plant markers but then the 12 yr old took some tile scraps and some sharpies and made some before i did so, maybe next year.
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