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eNewsletter | Free Catalog | ||
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IN THIS ISSUE |
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Dear Organic Gardeners
Reflections on real food and fatherhood... |
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A Dad's Guide to Gardening An assortment of ideas for enriching your time in the garden with the kids...
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The Case for Broccoli A Food Farmacy investigation of nutrition and varietal choices...
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Tepary Beans A look at one of North America's most drought tolerant native crops...
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Farm Report: May '06 Mulching, planting, creating shade, and welcome to a new intern... |
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News & Views
USDA organic research monies... German biotech firm cancels potato trials in Ireland... Organic Seed Alliance announces "Producing Organic Seed" field days... Forest Gardening Workshop at the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute... Permaculture Design Course in Maine... |
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Please send letters regarding this eNewsletter to: Scott Vlaun, Editor. |
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A Dad's Guide to Gardening
by Dan Sandweiss
School has ended, Father's Day is approaching, and the outdoors is beckoning. This is the time to make the most of our garden and our relationship with our kids. But what's a dad to do? There's no time during the week, and weekends seem like a whirlwind of regular chores. Try some of the ideas below to integrate your time with your kids into your time with your garden. Your children will love it, you'll find they can be more helpful than you expected, and you'll strengthen your bond with them.Physical Labor: Your kids love to use their bodies outside. Although their strength may be no match for yours, they can feel a great sense of accomplishment by helping load the wheelbarrow, by filling up the watering can, or even by digging holes for transplanting seedlings. Make it even more special by buying them a pair of their own gardening gloves. When you go into the garden with your child, make sure you put on your gloves and ask them to put on theirs. In addition to helping them feel that this is a special activity, it will protect their hands from goatheads and thorns, and prevent blisters and scratches.
A Trip to the Nursery: My kids love looking at all of the plants, pots, and gardening supplies during our trips. If you can handle a little begging that may result from their excitement about the little pails and shovels, you can turn the trip into an educational lesson. Help your kids read the markers for the plants and explain the Latin names. Show them the difference between organic amendments and pesticides, and synthetic ones. Explain how various garden tools are used.
Easy Seedlings: Explain that he/she is going to turn a seed into a seedling to plant in the garden. Show your son or daughter how to use a Paper Pot Maker. Provide your child with an organic seed starting mix to put in the paper pots and a few easy-to-grow seeds. Our Children's Garden Collection has Lemon Cucumbers, Righteous Red Zinnias, Sugar Baby Watermelons, and Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes, which are all easy to grow in pots before setting out in the garden. Plant the seeds to the depth recommended on the packet, water the pots well, and enclose in resealable plastic bags. Leave the bags in a warm place and have your child check them every day. After a few days, you will see excitement in your child's eyes as the first sprouts begin to emerge. Relatively soon, the plant will be large enough to put into a bigger pot. Help your son or daughter with this activity and watch with pride as he or she takes ownership of the plants and calls your attention to their continued growth.
Planting Right in the Earth: Other easy-to-grow seeds in the Children's Garden Collection like popcorn, purple pole beans, pumpkins, carrots, lettuce, and snap peas are best started right in the garden. Help your kids follow the instructions on the packet and watch with delight as they marvel at the sprouts emerging from the soil. An easy way to keep the seeds from drying out while they germinate is to cover the row with an old board after watering. Your child can lift the board every day to check for sprouted seeds. Once sprouts emerge, remove the boards and watch them grow. Mulch around the plants to keep the weeds down and keep the moisture in. Lettuce seeds need light to germinate, so skip the board, plant them near the surface, and keep them moist. A light layer of straw allows light in while conserving moisture. Luckily, they germinate quickly.
A Garden Meal: Though most kids profess to dislike vegetables, I find that this is a myth when it comes to freshly picked produce from your own garden. My children couldn't get enough of the carrots they helped pick from my cousin's backyard garden. So, enlist their help in pulling tomatoes off the vine, yanking carrots from the ground, or pulling beans off the plant. Better yet, have a hose handy so they can wash a piece of produce and immediately pop it in their mouths.
And, kids love to help make meals. After they've picked some veggies from the garden, let them pop peas out of the skins, or spin lettuce in the spinner, or pull apart pieces of basil for the pasta sauce. Don't forget to compliment them at the dinner table on the fruits of their labors.
A Fun Book: It's always fun to read a book to your kids, especially when it's during the day and neither of you is tired or cranky. Choose one about children involved in the garden. Seeds of Change recently collaborated with Mitten Press to publish I Saw It in the Garden by Martin Brennan, a book about a girl and her grandpa planting in the garden. Linnea in Monet's Garden by Cristina Bjork describes a girl's trip to Paris to learn about Monet's lily paintings. Grandpa's Garden Lunch by Judith Caseley is about a girl who helps her grandfather plant a garden, then harvest the vegetables to make a delicious lunch. Finally, The Pickle Patch Bathtub by Fran Kennedy recounts the true story of children who grow cucumbers so that they can buy a bathtub for their farm. Its illustrations make the story very entertaining.No matter the method you choose for bonding with your kids over gardening, all of you are sure to come out of it with a smile on your faces. Enjoy your Father's Day and the rest of the summer with your children.
Dan Sandweiss
Seeds of Change Marketing Analyst
Photo captions: (1) Some of our favorite kids work together to dig a new garden bed. (2) The lovely cover of "I Saw it in the Garden."
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