Get ready for dirty hands, lots of digging, and muddy shoes. Spring is the ultimate time to begin gardening and what better than to do it with your little ones. Trust me it’s worth it.
I love herbs and my family and I enjoy fruits and veggies. My kids have always been curious as to how they can grow their own produce. A few years ago I began the tradition of creating a small garden in my back yard. I didn’t have an ideal space or a great amount of room but I found a small space filled with soil that was in direct sunlight and so I went with it.
I had no clue what I was doing. I am a MOM who cooks A LOT and have kids that were stoked to “plant stuff.” When we started “GAME PLAN GROW FOOD” (lol) my kids were in garden heaven. We went to the store and looked at all of the seeds we could buy. We narrowed it down by which veggies we like to eat the most and which herbs we use the most in our cooking.
Ultimately, we chose the following seeds: watermelon, green peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, and watermelon. As for the herbs, we decided to plant basil, rosemary, chives, and mint. We got extra soil and veggie food and some gardening tools for me and for them. We went to our patch of soil in the back and started to dig and throw seeds, literally. HGTV would likely vote us “most unlikely to grow anything”. This city girl had never gardened before, therefore my kids and I went to town with sprinkling seeds in specific areas and hoped for the best. It was SO MUCH FUN! Laughter, smiles and tons of group work was endured for several hours.
Fast forward two months and my kids kept asking, “Mom, when are the peppers going to be here? Mom, when are our herbs going to grow more leaves? Mom, when is our watermelon going to develop?” I thought our rogue garden was doomed.
Then I heard one of my son’s shouting from outside, “we’ve got a pepper, I can see it growing and cucumbers and look at our crazy mint!!!” I rushed outside and by golly gee we had some veggies and herbs in motion!
Every day the boys would check and see if it was time to harvest. This went on for several more weeks. Finally, we had cucumbers that we were eating with our dinner and herbs that were being used in our family recipes.
Fast forward five years and my kids and I are now still planting and harvesting together. Every spring my boys pick out the veggies and the herbs they want to grow and we see how it goes. It has become a meaningful family tradition. Best of all, it’s become a team activity. Everyone shares a role, and everyone gets to enjoy the successes of our gardening TOGETHER.