05/27/2021
How Does Your Garden Grow?
This spring, as a family, we dove headfirst into the veggie gardening craze, and I can’t even tell you how excited I am every time I see one our little seedlings poke itself out of the dirt for the first time. My excitement has been equally matched by the kids as they proudly display their basil, peas, and zucchini to anyone who will listen.
There is something so magical about the learning experiences in growing vegetables or flowers as a family.
First, it is peaceful and calming to play in the dirt. It offers time for introspection and connection both to nature, and to each other when we are out playing in the garden.
Second, we are connecting with our farming heritage. The kids and I talked about my grandparent’s garden and my memories of that as a kid, as well as our ancestors who farmed the land.
Third, the value of consistently adding the right ingredients to support healthy growth. Water. Sunlight. Fertilizer. Anything living needs this. We had a few tiny sprouts dry up on us from lack of water and / or sunlight. We learned our lessons and started again!
Fourth, we learned about the need for transition time. Plants, like anything else, need time to transition from one environment to another. With plants it’s called ‘hardening off’. As you move plants from their indoor, cozy-life, to the outdoors you gradually increase the amount of time they spend in the windy, sunny, harsher environment.
I can’t get over how relevant of a lesson this is for parents as we help our kids through their various transitions – whether it is back to school, off to middle-school, or off to high school. Kids and plants both need transition time!
Fifth, we are embracing the silver linings in another COVID year. We would probably not have had the time in previous years to do this. As I continually remind my kids, staying at home is not all bad, and there are many things, like gardening, that we have been able to experience and learn from that wouldn’t otherwise have happened.
Who else is putting together a vegetable garden this year? What are you learning as a result?
