A garden of his own…
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My son, Gavin, is three years old. He has been my little garden buddy for a couple of years now. Last summer, when I was pregnant with my daughter, Gavin helped me quite a lot with day to day gardening tasks. He would sit with me and help pull weeds, and when the bucket was full, he’d get up to empty it in the compost bag. He helped water the plants, and seemed to take an interest in the vegetables we were growing. Over the winter, I told him he could have a garden of his very own this year. He was really excited about it, and we spent the months of January and February talking about what he would plant in his garden.
Once April came along, Gavin was getting anxious, so we decided to get started. He and my husband built the frame- Gavin even helped drill the screws in place. He chose the color red, and did much of the painting himself. If you know anything about 3 year olds, you know they are all about, “doing it by myself!” Once the painting job was complete, we attached plastic to the bottom, using a staple gun, which Gav also assisted with. He filled it with garden soil, raked it, and planted a variety of seeds. I let him do it- so, of course, he basically threw handfuls of seeds into dirt. He has quite the cluster of lettuces and carrots growing there! In addition, he has one vine of sugar snap peas, a strawberry plant, and one lone marigold. The strawberries are beginning to ripen and we picked our first one today!
This has been a great experience for both of us. He is learning about plants, and getting some hands on experience with nature, while I am learning to not be such a control freak (sort of). We spend the mornings watering our gardens. We’ll give our plants little pep talks, “Grow pumpkin, grow!” We chase away the squirrels and feed the birds. It’s been a great bonding experience, one that I hope continues for life.
3 Responses and Counting...
Even though I don’t have kids (yet), this is still one of my very favorite posts! I love that you give Gav enough credit to go through the trials and errors of gardening ~ and it will probably have the same effect as teaching a kid to ski at the age of 3, by the time he’s X age, he’ll just be a natural! And it’s awesome that you can spend so much time together on your hobby. You’re very inspiring and I’m saving this idea for when there are Adamson kids running around!
We are doing this next year. I just love it!! What color will Miss Liv’s garden box be??
LOVE! So glad you started this blog, it is so fantastic… I love seeing the pics of you & your fam & life in NY.