The idea of growing your own vegetables has always appealed to me once I hit my twenties. When I was a kid, I couldn't have cared less! My mom would sometimes have a garden, but we never really had to do anything except maybe weed a little and make sure we didn't blow grass clippings all over it when we mowed the lawn (a feat in itself, trust me!). And I admit, I was a little disgruntled when she got rid of our swing set and put a garden in it's place! (Ok, I guess I was getting a little too big for the swing set, but still!). Anyway... when Cory and I got married I had good intentions of starting my own garden. But we married and moved in to our house in early June (after the honeymoon) and it just seemed like it wasn't a good time to dive in to something I didn't really know much about. Fast forward through the next almost 5 years and I've either been pregnant or had a fairly new baby in the spring. Not a good combination (for me at least) to go whole hog into something I'm not familiar with. BUT THIS YEAR I AM DETERMINED! We try to be very conscientious about the foods we eat. We eat organic when we can find it and try to limit processed foods (though I admit, it's hard!). Due to Eloise's food allergies, it gives us more of an incentive to know whats IN our food and where it comes from. All the more reason to grow our own! And with Eloise and Dinah getting older, I want them to learn the importance and process of gardening (right along side me). No offense to my parents, but they didn't have us girls help with the garden so I am pretty green when it comes to all of it. I have been doing my homework though and I hope to be on the right path!
The girls helped me pick out the seeds we would get (I did a little swaying, of course)... and we drew pictures of what we would be planting (a way to let them "help" me).
Then we ordered our seeds and waited for them to arrive! Once they got here, we did a little more waiting... much to the girls' chagrin. They wanted to start right away!
Finally the day came to plant our seeds!
Eloise and Dinah were excited.
I let them help water them - since I didn't really want
them touching the dirt with the perlite in it.
Eloise stood and studied the dirt for awhile
until she finally revealed how frustrated she was
that nothing was growing yet! Haha!
It was a good opportunity to explain the process,
which I admit I should've done in the first place!
Live and learn!
Our garden is going to be a small 4'x4' raised bed that we will
be rotating crops in. So we only planted a few broccoli and
cabbage plants to begin with. We have the rest of our schedule
set for everything else (and transferring to the raised bed).
Yesterday when we came downstairs I noticed that
the seeds had started sprouting!
I sure wish I would have gotten the girls' reactions
on video! They were over the moon!
Today, Eloise was even more excited that the sprouts
are even taller than yesterday!
Seems like we're doing something right, even
if I am just kind of winging it!
Now.... if the snow would stay away!
We are ready for spring!
Smart choice, letting your kids garden right alongside you. That's what I've always done, and this year they are going to have their own 3x3 bed each to plant and maintain their own garden. I've turned it into a bit of a school project and it fits nice with the botany we will be studying over the summer! Good luck with your first garden! I bet you'll be hooked!
ReplyDelete