It’s spring, and I’m working in the garden. My little plot of land is a bit haphazard, or perhaps just unconventional. I don’t have a nice square bed with neat rows. Instead I have a curvy, narrow strip of dirt that wraps around the house. I plant things in no particular order, and often with complete disregard for expert advice. Surprisingly, though, it mostly works out.
In the past few years I have become increasingly serious about growing food plants. Learning about food miles and local eating has certainly influenced me to produce some of my own food. But it was really having these kids that inspired me to get out and dig in the dirt. I want my little ones to know how much better a fresh-picked carrot tastes, why we love earth worms, and where food comes from. I want them to appreciate and understand the miracle of every bite we take.
Wee lettuce seedlings
Each year I expand my ‘crops’ just a little bit. Last fall I planted garlic. I have an amazing blueberry bush that was here when we bought the house. And from past years I also have raspberries and strawberries, as well as mint, oregano, chives, and sage. I have plans to buy some tomato plants, since my tomatoes did so well last year. And I’m trying to grow some seeds, too. I planted parsley, carrots, lettuce, and cucumber. I am beginning to lose hope in the parsley and I just planted the cucumber so it’s too soon to tell how that’s doing, but the lettuce and carrots are now healthy seedlings.
Strawberry flower, hopefully soon to be transformed into delicious fruit
My truly ambitious plan for this year is to see if I can do some seed saving. The idea is that you take the seeds from the plants you grow, like say the tomatoes or cucumbers. Then you preserve and store the seeds carefully, so that you can grow new plants the next year. Of course, this is how people did it for nearly all of history. If it works, you don’t need to buy commercial seeds every year, so your initial investment in seeds or seedlings really pays off in the long run. If it doesn’t work at least it won’t cost much beyond my own time and effort.
The blueberry bush is starting to blossom
When I work in the garden my 4-year-old Hannah works with me, using her own gardening tools. Sometimes digs where she shouldn’t, and she has a rather heavy hand when planting seeds. I try to remember that a lot of this is for her and not for me, and to relax already. Sometimes I am successful in that, sometimes not so much. And while Hannah and I work 9-month-old Jacob practices his crawling or finds an interesting stick to play with. Occasionally he gets a handful of something he shouldn’t have, like dirt or rocks or leaves, and I have to be quick to stop him from putting the offending item(s) in his mouth. But that’s part of daily life with him, no matter where we are or what we’re doing.
Watch out for mint, it grows like a weed!
I enjoy those times with my kids, having an excuse to get outdoors if only briefly. Now that are seeds are starting we go out for at least a little while every day to ‘check’ on them. Hannah is very excited by the daily progress. And I feel glad that she seems to be getting it. As for the baby, I believe that he learns most by watching us and what we do, and so he is probably absorbing something. Plus he is simply fascinated by all the colours and textures of the back yard, with its dandelions and grass and rock walls. Even if he doesn’t understand gardening it’s still fun for him.
What about you? What are you growing this year? Or do you have any suggestions for easy and robust plants I could try with my little ones? I’d love to hear your input.
The previous owners of our house were major gardeners, so we’re enjoying their roses and other flowers lots. There’s not a ton of other planting space, but Q-ster is enjoying watching his little Earth Day plant from preschool grow.
Good luck with the seed saving. Very cool.
We have more weeds than anything else. Last year we tried to deal with it ourselves, but decided this year to hire some professionals. Your garden looks like it’s coming around nicely.
Congrats on yesterday’s win.
I have been growing herbs for many years now, and love them….I love growing mint as the girls love to just help themselves to a few leaves!
This year we started a pea and bean crop inside the house…it is still tooooooo cooooooold to actually start planting outside. We have many sprouts though and it is fun to watch the girls and their excitment.
Our alley way is full of raspberries and our neighbours across the street have a garden as big as Wong’s (seriously) and they are kindly neighbours and share. This year though, like last, we will do tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, cucumber and carrots. If I had the space I would love to start growing heirloom tomatoes and carrots of various colours….and I have always wanted to grow a pumpkin or two…but our backyard is the size of a postage stamp. Next house!
Wee Guy has really been bitten by the ‘growing things’ bug this year. We do it year round, using a really old book on growing pips and seeds etc for reference (blogged here http://coopette.com/blog/book-review-the-pip-book ) and one of his rewards is to buy more succulents or herbs from the garden centre in Port Moody. We’ve had good success with patio tubs of tomatoes, and some alpine strawberries which seem quite hardy (not sure about the snow this year tho’ ……). Courgettes are fun as they ramble a bit, and indoors a honeydew melon can provide some excitement (support the fruit in legs of pantyhose!). Potatoes were a complete washout last year.
Last year our neighbours dug up their patio and the whole neighbourhood was minty fresh for days
Eve likes growing flowers more than food, but we have the usual herbs, peas on the pod that never make it into the house, and peppers. Now that my parents live close and my Dad expands his garden every year I’ve let him take over the tomatoes because I only had a tiny patch and it ended up looking like Jack’s beanstalk growing into the clouds.
And don’t stress if he eats a little dirt — it’s organic!