Gardening with Children
Oh, how I can't wait to set up a garden! I have really been dragging my feet. I originally started this blog in 2007 to chronicle my journey into organic gardening when we moved from Houston to Denver, but I ended up failing miserably.
When we moved back to Houston, I didn't start a garden because our backyard is way too shady. We're thinking about moving into a three-bedroom house sometime soon-ish, so I'm even more reluctant to start a garden. Plus, we have free-range chickens, and I'm worried about how they would interact with the garden.
But at least my class has a garden plot! It's amazing how it always seems to work out for us, even though I have no idea what we're doing. Last year, we planted and harvested lettuce and had a salad party. Then we planted and harvested sweet potatoes in May and harvested them when we returned to school in the fall (because I teach at a Montessori school, the students stay in the same classroom for three years). We cut them and turned them into sweet potato french fries. We had an awesome discussion about the difference between frying and baking.
Kids love healthy food when they are involved in its preparation. It's amazing! I can't wait to build a family garden, so our son can dig his hands into the dirt and witness the sheer amazingness of growing your own food.
I need to stop dragging my feet and just do it! Maybe I should do some container gardening, while we figure our our house situation...
When we moved back to Houston, I didn't start a garden because our backyard is way too shady. We're thinking about moving into a three-bedroom house sometime soon-ish, so I'm even more reluctant to start a garden. Plus, we have free-range chickens, and I'm worried about how they would interact with the garden.
But at least my class has a garden plot! It's amazing how it always seems to work out for us, even though I have no idea what we're doing. Last year, we planted and harvested lettuce and had a salad party. Then we planted and harvested sweet potatoes in May and harvested them when we returned to school in the fall (because I teach at a Montessori school, the students stay in the same classroom for three years). We cut them and turned them into sweet potato french fries. We had an awesome discussion about the difference between frying and baking.
Kids love healthy food when they are involved in its preparation. It's amazing! I can't wait to build a family garden, so our son can dig his hands into the dirt and witness the sheer amazingness of growing your own food.
I need to stop dragging my feet and just do it! Maybe I should do some container gardening, while we figure our our house situation...
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3 comments:
I really want to container garden on my porch. Every time I think about starting I get overwhelmed, so I hope you will and I can follow!
I bought cheap square plastic pots with drip trays from target. Then I bought expensive organic potting soil and some plants---tomatoes, peppers, cukes---and seeds for lettuce and chard and spinach. Poof! Garden.
You have to water fairly frequently...I water every other day some, and once a week til it runs through. We have trees, too, and they're doing well even tho something is eating my avocado.
Container gardening is a lot of fun. And it does work ! Maybe, start small : just a few tomatoes. And soon, you'll be hooked !
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