As the winter seems to be drawing on and on I’ve noticed my kids itching to get outside and play in the dirt. That is one of their favorite things to do. Who couldn’t blame them? To be young and free of worry, enjoying the sunshine and spring breezes sounds a lot like heaven to me. We have already started our annual spring yard clean up.
As we were planning on where we want to move the swing set, the firewood pile and where to put our table and chairs, my son decided he wants a garden. At first I thought of the great big gardens my Grandfather used to plant. My first thought was “there’s no way I can keep up with a garden” but after some more thought I’ve decided it’s a great idea. What a great way for the kids to learn a little something. Then they will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor by eating the yummy stuff we plant.
The first thing to do is give careful thought to what you’re going to plant. You know what your kids will eat and what they won’t. Once you have a good idea of what should go in the garden round up your little ones and find out what they would like to have. Make a list of the items they name off. Don’t worry about the list being long at first. Use this list as a discussion with your child about the foods they enjoy and don’t enjoy. If they like salads think about what they like in their salad and see if those things are on the list too. If they name off something that you just know they aren’t going to eat ask them why they want that in their garden. If they present a sound reason consider planting one or two plants of it. They just might find out they do like it.
Kids tend to be impatient so they may want to start on their garden today. I know I keep trying to explain to my son that we can’t just go out in the back yard and dump seeds down. He understands that some preparations need to be made but he still wants it done now. That’s normal for an older preschooler. Time is a difficult thing for them to understand. In order to deal with this issue of starting your garden you are in luck. You can go to the local store of your choice and buy some starter sets. In the starter set you should get some little pots, a tray to put the little pots in, some seeds and some potting soil. Spread out some newspapers on the floor, put down your tray and put the pots in the tray. Take one pot and use it to scoop the potting soil out of the bag and into the pots. Be sure to not overfill them. Poke a little hole in the top of the soil and put in a few seeds. Gently cover them back up with a little soil. Then put them in a nice sunny window and water them often enough to keep the soil moist.
The great thing about this is that older preschoolers can do a lot of this fun stuff with your supervision. As they take care of their plants and watch them grow they will begin to understand that you have to do certain things to take care of plants. They will also understand where the yummy vegetables that they do like come from. They will revel in the time you spend together working in your garden. They just might try a new vegetable and find out they love it. That’s my plan for asparagus.
