Creating a Homegrown Experience with Your Kids

“The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.” ~ Swedish Proverb

At the beginning of every summer we have a ritual with my dad, the real green thumb of the family.  We plant a garden.  Surprisingly, this custom only started the summer after my mother died.  We never had a garden at my house growing up.  However, we did support the local farmers and traveled to random farm stands around town to seek out the freshest picked vegetables.  Some of my fondest memories are the car drives with mom on late August afternoons.  We’d search high and low to find the farmer on the side of the road selling the freshest crop of Silver Queen corn out of the back of his pick up truck.  Mom would scavenge through all the ears, pull out pieces and prove to me first-hand that the higher the quality of sweet corn, the greater the chance of ear worms.  Whenever I bothered to pay attention, there was also some message or lesson to be taught.

This past weekend, we made our grand plans for the design of our summer garden, appropriately titled, “Brooks Garden Variety.”

Staking our claim - Brooks Garden Variety 2011

The small 6×8 plot of land only receives partial sunlight throughout the day.  There’s no fancy white picket fence, only a crude border of chicken-wire—our lame attempt at keeping the deer away.   While on the surface it appears to be a very simple project, there’s so much more involved physically and emotionally. First we discuss with the kids: what we want to grow, which veggies need direct sunlight versus partial, whether the plants grow along the ground and if so, is there enough room between each crop, and most importantly, will we even eat the yield.  Sure it would be awesome to grow the world’s largest watermelon but, we’re trying to keep it real for the kids.  We have learned the hard way to plant only what we think we’ll eat, and enjoy.

I love how everyone takes their specific roles very seriously. My 6-year old takes ownership of the marigold planting around the perimeter of the garden.

Alex carefully plants his marigolds

At the plant store, he makes a beeline for the sought-after flowers and rattles off how important they are to the garden because they “keep the bugs and stuff” away from the veggies.  My 9-year old is our organizer and herb picker.  She smells the herbs “for freshness” and carefully selects the ones with most fragrant odors.  She immediately cancels the others off our list.  Same is true for the vegetables.  We all voted to limit the variety this year to: string beans, edamame, tomatoes (which are really a fruit, did you know that?), zucchini, and cucumber.

From afar, I watched my city kids throughout the morning–squished on top of each other and their Pop-Pop Buddha–hard at work digging and planting and enjoying getting dirty.

Getting down and dirty...the only way to learn

It was a dreary day with spotty light rain but the weather didn’t seem to put a damper on anything.  Everyone was on a mission.  MyJudytheFoodie played a prominent role in this years’ planting as the kids lovingly spoke of how we would use the fresh basil for Judy’s Pesto Sauce and how the zucchini could be a nice addition to Judy’s Banana Bread recipe.  Then, at the moment when the garden was almost completed, a sharp cool breeze came in from the east and startled me.  I couldn’t help but think that Mom was there with us, watching us, smiling at us–carefully guiding us through this process like she always had and always will.

Do you partake in any “homegrown” activities with your family in your apartment or in your home?  The most original activity will receive a free box of vegetables and herbs homegrown from  Brooks Garden Variety!