Saturday-Gardening Day

TheArt and Science of Manaing the Large Family

Large Family Logistics

Gardening with the children

Of course all the things you are learning in the gardening books you are sharing with your children. Every time you go out and putter around in the yard, take your children with you and talk to them about it. Ask them questions and for their opinions.

Little children also like to garden and their sharp little eyes will probably be better than yours at distinguishing between which seedlings are weeds and which are the plant you want to be growing. However, there is an age that is not fun to garden with and this is the toddler. They walk on the baby plants and will tear them out with their hands. We�re talking utter and complete destroyers here. These children should only be in the garden with complete supervision. I mean do not take your eyes off of them. You should take them to the garden though on a regular basis and you should talk to them about the plants. Teach them to respect the plants and they will eventually learn. And soon the plants will be so huge that the toddler can�t do damage.

During your gardening time keep the toddler in a playpen outside where he can see you, assign him to an older sibling, or do the gardening during naptime.

Babies are much easier to garden with. They take more naps so it�s easier to go outside. They don�t need to be trained in contentedness for the playpen. My sil keeps an old swing beside her garden for the baby.

The other children should be at your side helping with various tasks. Praise them for all their help, talk to them, answer their questions, and ask them questions. Gardening is a huge learning opportunity and there are so many helpful books out there. One book that we use all the time when gardening is the Rodale Guide to Garden Pests. Nearly every bug we see outside we can find in this book in all of its life stages. It also tells how to control the insect. Children are great at finding bugs and are fascinated by them.�

Older children can appreciate the business opportunities that a garden can present.

Taking your produce to the Farmer�s Market is a great way to get out in the community with your brood and spread some light around! Giving your excess away is a good way to get to know your neighbors. Your local food bank can also benefit from your garden.

Gardening is a good thing on many levels for many people.

�Gardening Day is the day when we focus on the outside of the home. There are some tasks that need done every week regardless of the time of year and they are listed at the right as �Kid Assignments.�

During Gardening Season, this is the day that you do your planting and landscape projects. If your husband is home another day of the week rather than Saturday, then switch the order of your days. The point is to keep a day of the week for keeping up with �outside� chores.

Gardening 101

There are a couple of options for beginning gardening. Of course you want to be successful and have an enjoyable experience.

I cannot recommend going all out and growing the 1 acre market garden with every conceivable vegetable. Tuck that idea away for when you have big kids that are proficient gardeners. If you already have big kids, get a year of gardening under your family's belt before tackling the great home business of market gardening.

From experience I know that if you are pregnant and due at the end of summer, don�t grow a big garden. Unless, of course, you think 5 foot tall weeds are a thing of beauty. If you are going through the first trimester of pregnancy at the beginning of the gardening year, don�t do it. Stop right now. OK, maybe grow a tomato plant in your flower garden. But that�s all.� If it is the middle of a pregnancy and you�re feeling great, go for it, just keep it in moderation. No market gardening. If you have big kids that are obedient and know a little bit about gardening, then you can rely on them to be the gardeners and you can direct from your lawn chair in the shade. Same goes for if you have a fresh baby, you will not feel up to a large garden, take it easy and plan a weekly excursion to the Farmer�s Market.

Let�s say that you feel great and you want to start growing food for your family.

First decide what your family�s absolute favorite vegetable is.

Go to the library and check out some gardening books. My all time favorite gardening book is The Joy of Gardening by Dick Raymond. It is very practical with lots of how-to pictures. It is a bit old and might be oop but you can probably find it at the library. Research your family�s favorite vegetable and determine how hard it is to grow it. At this point you might decide that this plant looks too touchy and choose another vegetable to start with.

My point with the favorite vegetable strategy is that you will be committed to it, will look forward to the harvest and the children will have a fun time growing their favorite vegetable.

Another easy beginning strategy is the Salad Garden. Salad vegetables tend to be very easy to grow. If children grow their own salad, they will also usually tend to eat it and like it. Actually that goes for about any vegetable.

Once you have decided which vegetables you want to grow, then decide how much of each vegetable you want to grow. That will determine how big of a garden plot you need.

Then you look in the local paper or ask around and get your garden plot tilled. If your soil is poor, you will need to amend it. This is well-covered in gardening books. Another very helpful source of information is your State or County Extension Service. They are there to help people farm and garden and have lots of information that your tax dollars pay for. They will tell you what you need to know or where to find the information. Look in the phone book in the government pages.

Once you have your vegetables planned, your plot tilled, and the soil amended. Then you will plant your seeds or plants that you purchase at the local nursery. For easy beginning gardening, buy the plants at the nursery rather than start by seed. For some things this isn�t an option like beans or peas. But tomatoes, peppers, basil, broccoli, cabbage, etc. buy the plants for your first garden. Another year, try starting them from seeds, we�re trying to minimize disappointments this first year. Follow the directions that come with the seed or plant. It might seem a little silly to plant a little itty bitty seed or plant so far away from the next one but you will experience one of the beauties of God�s creations and that is how a plant can grow in front of your eyes.

Seeds that provide nearly instant gratification are radishes, lettuce, and beans. Vines such as cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins are also easy to grow, you can buy these as plants but the seeds are generally successful. Cucumbers will grow up a fence. Runner beans will also. If want beans to climb buy the pole beans not the bush beans.

A fun thing for children is to plant a teepee garden. Put a bamboo stakes in a circle fastening them at the top with twine. At the base of each pole plant a couple of bean seeds. There is a bean called Scarlet Runner Beans that have red flowers that is pretty for this project. Children like to hide and play in the teepee.

Now for the easiest garden of all for the beginner, or for the years when you are short on help and/or incapacitated in one way or another, is to plant vegetables among the plants and bushes in the established beds around your house. Tuck a tomato plant here, a cucumber there, a line of lettuce behind a row of flowers and there is the easiest vegetable garden of all.