Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Gardening with a Toddler
As a suburban family, trying to live a naturalistic life, planting an annual garden has become a necessity in order to save a little money to eat organic foods. Last year's garden saved us over $500 in organic kale alone! But now that my little Luke is a rambunctious, busy little boy, I have found the task of planting our garden a little more difficult than in years past. Here are the three biggest tips/tricks that I have for anyone who wants to plant a backyard garden while taking care of a 2 year old :)
Firstly, distraction with some natural, imaginative, toys. My little Luke loves to be physical.... he loves to run and jump and tumble and play. But having a few pieces of "equipment" has been a huge help in keeping him occupied for a good 20-30 minutes at a time. We have a handful of different sized tree stumps set up in the back yard. Not a day goes by that Luke doesn't come up with a new way to use them. This year he was doing "Spiderman Jumps" while I planted some of the garden. And, I find it interesting that the next door neighbours, who have a big playset (play house, swings, slide, etc), enjoy coming to our house to play on the stumps too. So, these free-to-us stumps were essential to the success of the garden.
Secondly, build up! This year we lucked out and got the "leftover" cedar log siding from my parents' newly built log home. With these pieces of wood, my husband and his brother built raised beds for us. We don't have enough good earth and compost to completely fill them yet, but every year we'll add to them to eventually fill it up. Anyway, having the raised beds has helped to keep little feet out of the soil of newly-planted seeds and seedlings. The simple barriers/boundaries of the beds have given Luke a way to stop, think, and realize that he shouldn't be in them.
And lastly, make sure you leave some space for your toddler to play in the dirt. This year we gave Luke his own small raised bed, and we call it "Luke's Garden". He can do whatever he wants with this space. He can dig, rake, hoe, etc. We gave him his own seeds to plant .... leftover pumpkin seeds, and beans - big seeds that were easy for him to hold, and see. I doubt anything will actually grow in there as he drowns it when he waters his "baby sprouts", and he stands and stomps and jumps in it on a daily basis. But having his own space to do whatever he wants in, I find, is essential. It makes him feel just like Mommy and Daddy, and it's great sensory play on a daily basis :)
So there you have it. My top three tricks for finding the time to grow your own food while still looking after your toddler. I highly encourage you to get out there and plant a small garden. It's so rewarding and so educational for your little ones. Plus, it's easy cash in your pocket :)
MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2011
Garden Update
Me trying to add some more sheep manure to my yucky clay soil.
My first garden ever has definitely been A LOT of work to get started. After turning over the sod, and making the drills, and realizing that the soil is a hard, mucky, red clay I've spent hours - and a lot of money - trying to get the soil enriched with nutrients, and air. Sheep manure, peat moss, compost, compost-tea.... it's never ending. I have planted all of my transplants and seeds.
I'm happy to report, despite the less-than-marvelous soil conditions, everything is growing!!!!
-corn is thriving and I planted my pole bean seeds around each corn stock on Saturday
-peas are about 8 inches tall now and really starting to fill out
-my carrots and turnips are coming along.... I hate having to thin the little carrot sprouts out.. I feel like I'm killing them, and I get a little guilty feeling :)
-my spinach, lettuce and cabbage are all up
-beets are just showing themselves
-my onions and garlic are just taking over.... they really are shaping up and I'll be getting a good harvest from them
-potatoes are getting stronger each day.... and my compost pile has 15 potato plants growing in there that are the healthiest things. I'm going to try to keep them in their and harvest from there at the end of the summer
-and many seeds are just planted and should be sprouting up this time next week
There is something so satisfying about planting a garden and watching it actually grow. I feel like it's my therapy... even though it's a lot of work, I find it relaxing, and a great time to pray. Happy gardening everyone :)
First Garden Ever
Well, I've started preparing for our first garden ever... yes ever. Mitch and I have both grown up with people in our family who garden (my grandfather, his dad, his brother, etc.) but neither of us have ever gardened before. But, with the price of organic foods skyrocketing, and a wonderful cold-storage/root celar in our basement we figure this year is the year to start. Below is a picture of our back yard.
We live in a newly developing suburb, and we don't have neighbours in the house behind us, or to the right, so the land isn't fully graded yet, which has caused troubles growing our lawn (which we planted last fall). You can see, especially in the back, beside our compost, the drainage issue we've had... every time it rains that area gets flooded, taking any grass seed with it. So... we're going to try to put some raised beds in there so that we won't have to grow grass, and it won't look so awful. Our soil is also very very compacted, and basically a wonderful mucky clay (can you sense my sarcasm). So we're going to have to put a lot of compost, peat moss, manure, and sand in there to enrich and lighten up the soil. Which will be quite costly... but once it's there, it should help us produce a better yield.
Along the right side of the yard you can see where we've turned the soil for gardening. This space consists of 2 rectangular spaces = 7' x 32' and 4' x 14' . We also have a turned the soil in behind our garage to form a garden space that's 21' x 10'. The plan for now, is to grow as many vegetables in these spaces, as we can! I've started planting some seedlings and they're doing quite well. It's so satisfying to have the seeds that you have sown start to sprout up and get stronger.
I don't know how successful we will be with our first year of our garden adventure, but we're going to try our best and hopefully be able to store some of our harvest in the root cellar.
Wish us luck! We're going to need it.
