Last year was our first summer in our house so we planted a garden. We weren't exactly sure how we were going to keep Lucas out of it or if he was just going to trample all of the plants as he was barely two. Luckily Lucas was absolutely fascinated. He loved walking up and down the rows and looking at the tomatoes and the peppers that were growing. One day, when our neighbor was over she asked Lucas if he ate the tomatoes right off the plant. He walked right over and bit a grape tomato right of the vine, you have to love how toddlers are so literal! He also enjoyed taking his trucks into the garden and driving around the plants and was very careful of everything growing in “Daddy’s garden.”
In September my class of four-year-olds began studying worms. We ended up ordering some red wiggler worms and making our own compost. Being new to composting I ordered 2,000. Who knew they multiplied so fast? By Thanksgiving Lucas had his own bin at home. He loves to dig around and talk to the all a little worms. I mean what could possibly be better for a toddler than dirt, worms and decomposing food?
Now that Lucas is a little older, I planned to have him more involved in the garden this year. I wanted to have Lucas have the full gardening experience so off to Home Depot we went! He was really excited to pick out his own seeds. I was hoping to get him adorable child sized gloves but could not find any. Amazon has a great assortment. The Easter Bunny will be ordering some from there this year.
Since Lucas was going to be in charge of these seeds, I wanted to do it as economically as possible so we skipped the peat pots and saved our egg cartons. I cut off the tops, and poked a hole in the bottom of each one to allow for water drainage. We used our homemade compost to fill each well. Lucas was excited to find a few straggler worms in the compost. He made sure to place them in the egg cartons as well, I may need to go save some worms a little later. We placed the egg cartons on an old cookie sheet, to allow for over zealous watering. Lucas planted spaghetti squash, peas, dill and cilantro. It was fun to compare the different sizes, shapes and colors of the seeds. It was also noted that the packages make different sounds when you shake them! Fingers crossed some of these seeds make it.
Although it was fun to use a child sized watering can, it was not very practical. A $1 spray bottle from Walmart was the solution to any floods!
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