Gardening with children: Passing on the wisdom

Another gardening post from mom:
I got my love for gardening from my grandmother who planted pansies and lettuce together every spring. By the time the pansies were full and spreading, we had eaten up lettuce.
For my 9th birthday I planted my first garden. Too bad Nanna lived three states away. She would have given me some great advice to ensure a great garden.

Oh well!
In my enthusiasm, I pulled up the carrots every couple of days to see how they were doing. Fortunately, I spent the better part of the summer with my grandmother, so the over-inspected carrots had a chance to do their thing. My parents ate them before my return. They assured me the carrots were terrific.

Frederick and I have lived closely since his birth. From the beginning, I took opportunities to acclimate him to garden life. By 18 months he was helping me to pick pesky grubs from the garden beds.
“Bye, bye, bubs,” he said as I squashed them with my garden boot.
He tried saving some in his pocket to take to my house.
“No!”
Now that Frederick can read and write, we are getting quite sophisticated in our garden lessons. Actually, he is home-schooled so we can be much more creative in how he learns.
We bought a plastic container with a greenhouse top and peat pots inside. There are five pots per row, just enough for planting one variety of vegetable.
Frederick took the pots out, one row at a time and planted a few seeds in each pot. The sizes of the seeds fascinated him. He could hardly wait to open the next envelope to see what those seeds would look like. He compared and contrasted to his heart’s content.
He numbered each row and made an inventory list of what he had planted. Thank God he did. Without that list, I would have forgotten what-was-what. In fact, when I looked at the list later, I was surprised at some of the varieties we had planted. So much for short-term memory!
Now we have transplanted some of these seedlings into six-packs. Frederick was so solicitous over these babies! He could hardly bear the thought of my thinning them. Where four seeds had germinated, I removed two and divided the remaining two into separate grow spaces.
“Oh, poor little things!”
“The chickens will love them, Frederick. Think food chain!”
What I’m thinking is generational continuity. I feel such a close connection to my grandmother and to my gardening roots when Frederick and I garden together. My grandmother would hardly recognize the world I live in and I will hardly recognize Frederick’s world when he passes 50. But some things don’t change. I delight in passing one of those things on as we water these delicate seedlings.
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To become inspired to start your own garden, check out the Victory Garden Drive.