Gardening with my kids

My husband and I had meant to just plant some mums in our back yard flower box. After all, you can't really go wrong with mums. But my oldest insisted on bringing home three lettuce plants, too. So I bought two basil plants, since they looked very healthy. Now, in amongst the mums, we have some nice lettuces and some basil growing. (The bean plant that he brought home from preschool in a little cup was long ago eaten by something, probably a hedge hog, whom I believe to have taken up a residence under our deck.)

My preschooler was so excited to pick lettuce tonight for a tossed salad, that he pulled up half of one of the plants! Meanwhile, his little brother thought it would be a good idea to help out the hedge hogs by digging a hole for them in the flower box. After the excitement of picking lettuce we headed over to the straggly looking tomato plants along the fence (the one vegetable I plant every year) and were able to get just a few tomatoes. (I'm not much of a gardener, but this time I think it was the tomato blight that has hit Upstate New York).

Anyway, at dinner my preschooler dished up a huge salad for himself, covered it in ranch dressing and ate it all! That made it all worth it.Enjoying the simple things. I guess that's what gardening is about.

I found the Kids Gardening website interesting: kidsgardening.com. Through The National Gardening Association, they promote gardening as an aspect of education and provide grants for youth and community gardens.