Joy and interest, with children in the garden
Will it grow?
Gardening is such a joy, especially with children in the garden, and there is so much patience required for it. We sow the seeds, my children and I, and we look at the pot a minute later, – it is unchanged?! When will this sunflower grow? It isn’t even yellow! It isn’t even green! But it is addictive, even for our little ones – perhaps especially for them.
In an instant world
And isn’t it a good thing, with everything so easily available at our fingertips, to wait on our bounty? Isn’t it good, to have to put in time and effort into a plan, and then wait on something that, in the end, is really out of our control – we cannot really make our plants grow.
Growing for colour
This year we found ourselves growing so many pumpkins plants, and tomatoes plants – I have been told by my good neighbour friends, if we sow only a quarter of what we have done we’d actually have a notable harvest! But we have something to show for our efforts – the most colourful of everything – my boys will even grow courgettes if they’re different colours. My children in the garden – they grow colour. Never mind matching colour combinations – the brightest – splashes of paint, thrown around outside with abandon.
Trying new things
But we had to try one of all the most interesting colours and shapes we could find – yellow pear drop tomatoes, long red ones, and round tiger striped ones. And squashes – pink, blue, orange, green, yellow, black even! (Our black ones turned out stripy, speckled green, and our blue turned a mint green…)
Best laid plans
There was a lot we could not plan for in our garden – though many in Scotland got red tomatoes, ours are all still green, apparently ripening in a bowl on our sill… But there were some successes – the chard, for example – ‘bright lights’ of course, and how those bright colours were enjoyed by the little ones. And the rhubarb – not something that takes any effort, except the love and devotion of the children in the garden picking any shoot that surfaced.
Happy, interested kids
But I must say that I am delighted to involve my children in the garden. We inherited a garden with more rhubarb plants than I care to count, so any interest – idenitfying, picking, cooking – I am very happy with. Children up the tree, children in the turf pile, children digging steps, or as deep as they can go. Children picking and eating calendula on the spot. Children saying ‘calendula’. These all give me so much joy.
https://thereisnoshouldbe.com/animal-care-in-homeschool/
https://www.dutchdutchgoose.com/2020/06/27/homeschooling-in-the-garden/