I love to do gardening stuff with my son. He is very clever and helps a lot; he also provides some surprises, like when corn appears among your lettuce. Despite some problems /picking green blueberries, stepping on young plants/ gardening with 2-3 year old humans can be fun.  It is a whole new world for them, they have fun /and you too/and they learn a lot. So what my son like to do:

Sowing seeds: Plenty of fun. Planting is plenty of fun. I did it with him when we were sowing tomatoes: filling the pots with soil, making holes, putting in them little seeds and the watering them.  Any  2 and 1/2 year old can do that. Then you can just sit back and supervise. Well, maybe not, but it is a great fun for them. I got plenty of seeds this year so I let my  son plant a few pots on his own. I thought, a few seeds lost, no problem. Well, he did well and his tomato plants are now taller than he is .

Planting seeds and bulbs: This was another happy activity. In the autumn /he was a bit more then 2 years old/ we planted some flower bulbs. I made the holes and he decided which bulbs to put where. In the spring we were enjoying the beautiful view to our flower garden.  After the tomato success we planted some lettuce, peas and later corn. It was plenty of fun and he enjoyed watching them grow. He is especially excited about the corn. It is true that after planting you have to thin the plants a bit /extra work/, but it is worth for the enjoyment and learning excercise for your kid.

Planting seedlings: This activity is a bit tricky, because you have to be careful to not destroy the young and tender plant. Well this was partly successful and he did not even enjoy it that much.

Watering: Watering is always fun. It is true that you have to make sure that your plants get also some water. Most of it ends up on you and on your child. Refreshing and fun.

Harvest: The most exciting thing to do. Finally you can pick and eat things to put them into your tummy. We bought him a little tractor with a trailer and he takes his picking jobs very seriously. When we were harvesting cherries he picked them and then he dumped them into the trailer. Then I had to pull the tractor, trailer, him and the cherries into the house, where I made jam. While pitting the cherries I was closely monitored and criticized by him. Maybe not so much fun for you but a lot for your offspring. We harvested peas, currants, strawberries, grapes and many more.  Usually they end up in his tummy and harvest lasts until the tummy is full. But that is ok.

You can do many more things in the garden with your little one. Here are some basic tips to make your kid enjoy the joint projects.

- Do let him/her experience the whole thing, do not worry about the possible damage. If any it will small. The reward of happiness in their eyes is much more.

- Make the joint gardening about your kid. Everything will take 3x as long and maybe the things will be not perfect. That’s ok.

- Explain and show very slowly and clearly. Show only the basics. do not overcomplicate.

- Make sure your kid wears the right kind of protection especially against the strong sun.

- Make sure he or she does not eat the soil.

I will try to write more about our joint projects. I hope in 2 years my daughter will join us. Have fun with your kids in the garden.

We renovated our house about a year ago. The intense work left us with plenty of rubbish. I tend to live the philosophy “one day I will need that”. This does not pay of all the time, but sometimes yes. One of the treasures we have are our bricks. They were made sometime in the beginning of the 20th century and they have a nice stamp of the local brick factory. I use them for flower beds and other small constructions in the garden /we even sold some in the local antique shop for $12 each… wow…expensive flower beds huh?/. In the spring my son and I decided to give a new home to our toad friends. Until now they have resided in my cellar. I tolerated them because they did not touch my wine. But you know, sometimes you just get jumpy when you see a jumping small thing in the dark cellar.

Toads are great helpers in the garden because they eat a lot of nasty garden enemies, including human enemies like mosquitoes and flies. Therefore to attract them is a good idea. Toads like shade, a moist place to hide, soft sandy soil to borrow when it is dry outside. On a paper we drew the plan for the toad residence. No building permission was needed so we started. On a sandy hill we flattened out the area. We used some side roof tiles as a residence. Around the residence we built a bed, filled it wit soil and we planted strawberries. The residence is done. We don’t know if there are some toads but we have seen a lizard running around. We can’t discriminate! Lizards are equally welcome.

The truth is that during this project my son let me down. He refused to do the physical work and decided to boss me around. Ahhhh…..kids.