Today’s post is the fifth in a series of “At Home With Gratitude” topics. We at Little Wonders hope this series will be helpful to you, our community, by providing support and resources during these unique times. As Mireille’s recent blog post mentioned, we hope to find the silver lining and embrace this as an opportunity to slow down and spend quality time with the ones we love most. By doing this with gratitude, we will set an example for our children and hopefully make this a time that our little ones will remember fondly.
By Mireille McKee with excerpts from Stephanie Fustar
This week’s Earth Day got me reminiscing about some of our fondest moments with our now-adult children. Like most young children, they loved being outside, questioning everything they observed, playing with sticks, bugs and in the dirt! Now they are both in their 30s and gardening continues to be a huge part of their lives. Justin chose his current location in Astoria because it was next to one of the largest urban gardens in the city. He loves the continued opportunity to be involved with nature at its best, growing what nourishes our bodies. Kristin, living in DC, had her dad help design her latest balcony garden and is so proud to send pictures of her baby seedlings. Their childhood gardening memories are among their most cherished, and gardening will remain a life-long connection between us all.
We found so many benefits to gardening with the kids starting when they were young. My husband truly enjoyed sharing with them his passion and introducing environmental awareness through connectivity with nature. Other benefits of gardening with your children include: learning about the life cycle, becoming responsible to care for something, building body awareness, and learning science and math. A huge benefit that I consistently see when working with the children in our Little Wonders garden is increased interest in trying and appreciating fresh veggies. There will likely be frustrations, and it will take time and patience as their eager little bodies learn to be gentle and give the growing plants space. This is all part of the experience and will instill a deeper appreciation when your plants bear their first bounty!
Ready to get started? Eartheasy is a great place to start. You can involve the kid(s) at the planning stage by discussing different areas where you could plant the garden. Talk about how the plants need sun and water to grow. Discuss the types of plants you could grow and you can even let them pick what they would like to grow. Some of the favorites children have enjoyed in the Little Wonders garden are strawberries, cherry tomatoes, kale, beans, lettuce, and of course potatoes. Potatoes are so easy and so fun to dig up and have provided the children with opportunity to not only dig them up and wash them but to count, sort, classify, and finally eat them. Next is the fun part - digging, soil prep and planting. Involve your kids as much as possible with these steps, and remember that time and patience (and mistakes) are necessary! After you’ve planted your garden, include your child(ren) in watering the plants and discuss the changes you see in the plants over time. Finally, enjoy your well-earned harvest (and the smiles and delight in their faces)!
We encourage you to support local businesses including Golden Nursery in San Mateo which offers Little Wonders a 10% discount. Wegman’s in Redwood City is also a great local business and both nurseries are great for seedlings, dirt and information. During this "shelter in place" they both have limited hours, but are accepting phone orders and pickup with social distancing.
Planting a home garden together is such a great way to live with gratitude during our "stay at home" period and enjoy family time together watching your children's curiosity bloom (along with your plants)! Our children grew to love the time spent out in the garden exploring what we could grow and having that precious family time. I know your family will find many benefits to gardening together and I hope you give it a try!