Gardening with my children.
When I was little I had a garden.
From the time my children could walk, they had a garden as well. Nothing fancy but they had one.
When the kids were little, gardening was a whole day thing at our house.
I would make lunch and supper the night before and we would spend most of the day outside.
My kids’ first gardens were mostly flowers.
I selected flowers that were good bloomers and could take being dragged by their flower petals most of the day.
We usually had plants like; pansies, marigolds, asters, daisies and snapdragons.
Every year I would suggest new things to add to their garden like; strawberries, sunflowers or blueberries to try.
The first year we planted a vegetable garden
I couldn't understand why their corn wasn't germinating and then I looked at my flowers pots;.... their corn was growing just fine.
We always planned the kids garden during the winter months and that's when the kids put in their order for what they wanted in their garden.
Most of the time their selection was; corn, carrots, popcorn, peanuts, peas, beans, cherry tomatoes, sunflowers, gourds, pumpkins and no brussel sprouts.
Growing pumpkins was the funniest thing though.
I thought the pumpkins were going to take over the world. They kept running away too. I wonder why? Maybe the neighbours had more room.
My kids also had to have a hiding place in the garden, so
I propped up some branches like a tepee and we grew beans and peas.
They used their hiding place as a fort or as a playhouse.
When my son was using it; it was a fort.
When my daughters were using it; it was a playhouse.
When they were all using it, it was peace and quiet to me. :)
One thing that I learned early in my gardening experiences was not to allow my husband and the kids to weed my garden.
One time they left me all the weeds and plucked out most of my seedlings. The reason? "the weeds were blooming!"
Well, that was it, the husband was fired from his teaching duties and the husband said.........? "thank you!" :)
As they grew older and less interested in their own gardens, my garden became a teaching garden.
I had one of everything that I could fit in my small yard like; 1 grape vine, 1 cherry tree, apple tree, pear tree, peach tree, 1 blueberry bush and 1 asparagus plant etc.
I didn't have much room for trees either, so, I espaliered some of the fruit trees against the fence. Some of them didn't like to be tied down and died.
I happen to mention that I was losing some of my fruit trees and then one of my kids looked at me and said "Mom, I don't think your trees are into bondage!"Wow! Do You Think That's It?
Gotta love those kids. :)
Will my grandkids have a garden?
That I have to wait and see. :)
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