Today, as I was shopping at a drug store in town, I saw something that reminded me that it is time to begin gathering information about something fun that I want to do this spring and summer with my boys. As I walked by the end of one of the aisles, I noticed a display with supplies for starting seeds indoors. Is it really time for that already? It turns out that it is not quite time yet, but stores are always very far ahead of schedule when they put merchandise on the shelves. According to the Farmers’ Almanac, I should start some of our seeds in late March and others in April.
For the past couple of years, I have not done any gardening because I did not feel as though I would have the time and energy to attend to it. Now that Dylan is three and Blake will be a year old soon, I think that they will have fun gardening with me. Dylan loves to be outdoors and is very curious about nature. He has a couple of house plants that we care for together, and he likes that. Blake also enjoys being outdoors, so I think that a small and uncomplicated garden could serve the dual purpose of producing some fresh vegetables for us and providing a fun outdoor learning activity for all of us.
Since today is the first day that I have really thought about the upcoming gardening season, I have not yet given much thought to what we will plant. I think that we will keep it simple, and grow some of our favorite vegetables that will work for our climate – carrots, butternut squash, acorn squash, zucchini and summer squash are the things that come to mind when I think of what we may enjoy growing and eating. We’ll leave growing potatoes to Grandpa Terry, because he has a piece of land where he has a place set up to grow them already. Perhaps we can persuade him to let us use some of that space for sweet potatoes, in addition to the white ones.
Gardening is thought to be a wonderful activity for families with children of all ages. I am excited to give it a try with our two little boys. Even if our plants do not produce much, we will have fun being outdoors and digging in the dirt.
Photo by mrmac04 on morguefile.com.