Learning in The Garden

Transferred from my "green" blog upon its closure - one of two posts I saved because it is filled with special memories : )

This summer we made our first serious attempt at vegetable gardening - well actually there is nothing serious about it - it is all fun!

We started in May when we had the privilege of hosting our daughter’s Brownie troop at our house. We got to pick the activities for the meeting, so we decided on a healthy garden theme. The girls painted terracotta pots and planted sunflower, basil, bean and tomato seeds in peat pots.

We talked about how to care for the seedlings and asked the girls to report back on the progress of the plants. We ended the meeting with a snack of locally grown fruits and vegetables and we discussed nutrition – it was really fun to see the girls’ interest in the topic – and we loved that there was no disappointment shown over our healthy snack choice!


Sure enough the seedlings took off, so we decided they needed a home. We constructed a small raised bed where we planted the seedlings as well as some strawberry plants, tomato plants, and bean and carrot seeds. We have let the kids manage most of the garden care, which has been an awesome and rewarding learning experience for all of us.

And now we are on to the harvest! There is something fresh and ready for us every day - we check on our veggies first thing when we get home. We are already planning for a major garden expansion next year. We still have a lot to learn - like better spacing our plants and mulching around them - but we have found that we definitely belong in the garden.