I just want to preface this post with the fact that I am NOT a farmer or even a person with a super green thumb, but I love having the ability to dig in the dirt and teach my children where food comes from. That passion is what is prompting me to write this post.
Each year, I try to plant a few vegetables in some containers and attempt to grow some of our own produce. As the years have gone by, some things have grown better than others. Last year was kind of a dud of a year. Our tomatoes got planted late and they didn’t grow well. The tomatoes that did grow got eaten before it was fully ripe and then even our basil didn’t grow well. I am not sure exactly what the issue was, but I am sure that not watering things (with a two year old and 6 month old) exacerbated the problem.
I have never had a super large garden, since I have lived on my own. I grew up with my grandparents planting a huge garden each spring and then even my own parents having a decent sized garden in a raised bed. Since I have moved out on my own, I have planted a few things in gardening pots and moved them to each place we have lived. Each year I typically plant tomatoes, basil, peppers or some other herbs. This year I went ahead and planted tomatoes and some herbs (seeds) at the beginning of May. Well the weather took a turn here in Ohio and dropped to like freezing temperatures at night and despite the fact that I covered my tomatoes they died. I ended up finding some other garden plants at Aldi for a decent price, I scooped those up for replacement plants round #2.
I have also worked hard to try to encourage and include William and Samuel to learn about gardening and growing produce. William has helped me plant this year and last year. He also helped me harvest cherry tomatoes in the past. He loved eating them as we washed them and cooked with them. This year, William helped me to plant the tomato plants, spinach seeds and some flower seeds. We have been watering them and watching for them to grow. I am hopefully that they will survive and we will be able to pick tomatoes this summer and cook with them. When we planted the seeds, we talked about how we had to we cover them up with dirt and give them water to drink and they use the sunlight to grow. We also talked about how trees and plants use their leaves to absorb sunlight and that is how the plant’s get their “food.” This is a great way to start talking about science lessons.
