We’re expecting our first any day now, and we’ve adjusted our garden expectations accordingly. But I’m very excited to be outside with baby as time goes on, and to share my love of plants and homegrown fruits and vegetables with her as long as she likes it.
I just want to hear your positive stories and fond memories of growing up with a parent or loved one who gardened, or if you are a parent or have children close to you, your experiences sharing your hobby with them.
No negativity please; my poor husband was forced summer after summer to weed and pick in a massive garden his father would put in and preserve but never really ate, just canned and sat, or enjoyed, never got to select a variety he liked or feel like he was a part of the process until he started doing separate 4H projects on his own…so I’m aware of the flip side of pushing children into the “free labor" role without any ownership of the experience. None of that here!
My mom used to always let me pick out at least one plant at the nursery. I picked watermelons for 10 years in a row and we never got a melon. When i finally got my own place planted my own and got 2, shared one with mom at a bbq. She still talks about it haha. Fond memories of watching those and them bursting.
Even though we never got any she always let me buy more watermelon plants and take over part of her garden with no hope of yield. A fond memory. Thats a mothers love i guess
Around the age of 10 growing up in South Carolina my friend and i were walking along the backside a recycling center in another neighborhood and through the rocks about 20 feet from the fenceline there was a single 3ft vine with a nice sized dark green watermelon attached and perfectly ripe. We took it home to split and it was dark red inside and super sweet. His father was convinced we stole it from a neighbor’s garden it was a volunteer! Lol.
Celeste fig patches growing randomly deep in the woods and honey suckles. The smell of magnolias and the taste of wild blackberries. Sego palm pups to give to everyone in the neighborhood and fast growing mimosa seedlings to climb. Banana patches and all the cool bugs and lizards that live within it. Angel trumpets for sale and fresh, super sweet, firm and juicy peaches for free. When i was also 10 i transplanted a magnolia seedling to our yard. Its now 20 ft tall and wide despite growing next to huge pines that take all the water(we cut them down 4 years ago so the magnolia is going good now, finally)
Despite being a buckeye myself this is how i grew up and it was awesome
My two most clear gardening memories with my children: when my second-born child was around two years old (back when we all still lived together) I would arrive home from work and she would join me outside in the lawn garden, which was now provided some afternoon shade by the sun being behind an oak tree. There she would happily toddle about, pulling ripe Sungold cherry tomatoes off of the vines and immediately munching them out of hand while I worked to pollinate the recently opened flowers. Another time she and her older brother (two years her senior) joined me when I was harvesting the carrots that we had grown in the main garden. As I piled the root vegetables together my two little ones found that they liked the freshly harvested carrots (a rainbow of different colors) very much, and they chowed down with abandon, dirt and all.
I miss those days. Make as many memories as you can with your little ones. Oh that things had turned out differently and instead there was a wealth of those happy recollections to share.
Oh yes, toddlers and berry bushes are a match made in heaven. Great fun to have tiny servings of food right at finger-height, with new ones coming ready every day. Mine loved learning the rules of green → red → black and ready to eat. Though they were a bit loose with their definitions and ate a lot of not really ripe berries. Apparently it’s the novelty, not the flavor, at that age.
Oddly, my toddlers also really liked weeding. They didn’t have long attention spans, and I had to be SUPER careful to give them a ‘safe’ area and simple directions for what is and isn’t a weed, but I guess they saw me doing it and wanted to prove their competence.
Kids are now in elementary school, and one of their favorite extra chores (to earn screen time ) is picking up garden litter: either gathering the stray rocks that ‘grow’ in the beds, or carrying prunings to the burn pile. Which is great for me - I hate hauling away my mess after I’m all tired out from making it . They love the challenge of dragging a stick bigger than they are across the yard, or working as a team with a wheelbarrow.
Congrats and hope the birth goes well for all three of you. If things do go off the rails, know you’re not alone.
I grew up with an apple and apricot tree that were mature long before we moved in. They received little to no care but produced plenty for our needs. I loved climbing in them until the apricot split one heavy-cropped year. The same happened to the apple just last year, but mostly disease finally caught up to it. Something about hanging out in a tree and being able to grab and munch on unlimited fruit must have lodged itself deep in my memory
I planted a cara cara when we were expecting my son, this year we got a small harvest of small oranges. Flavor was great, but quite sour. Lousy year for CA citrus though.
He’s not able to participate much but enjoys holding a container and eating blueberries about as fast as I can pick them. Likes “helping” dada harvest just about anything, really. Every year I plant more strawberries for him, the alpine strawberries are a real hit since he can pick (or play with) them himself
Congratulations! Best wishes for the process. Baby wearing so you can move about gardening and life! Get a bunch of the different baby wearing wraps/carriers to find the one that works best for you for infant through self-propelled. I think I still have a bunch, can message me. outdoors/nature/feeling dirt/leaves/eating sticks to some degree…it all soothes and grows healthy little humans. Within a week of being home with my first I remember I put held her up to “stand” in the grass/dirt and took a picture of her tiny feet on the ground. And thus is began. I guess it was good I had more turf and less mulch back then so everything was soft for little hand, feet and knees. My love for gardening grew with my kids and the desire for them to see and be a part of it. Their wonder makes it all worth it.
My kids love posing with the gardens - it’s so funny! Anything they love (everything?!) they have to have a picture with. Sometimes many pictures of various poses, produce arranged and rearranged if it’s been picked, and fighting over whom stands where, but generally all good fun and super cute. Nearly every picture taken of my kids spring through fall is with a plant.
One kid oddly refused to try or eat most of any grocery store fruit. But, tried berries we grew and eyes did that thing only little kids can do where they literally swell and light up with joy. And my heart said, “I’ll grow ALL the berries for you!” And here we are.
they also love giving tours showing off everything and teaching family and friends about it all and encouraging them to pick and try things. it’s amazing how much they learn being around it all and hearing me talk out loud/update them on the happenings when I think they’re not listening. They even come up with excellent ideas now of their own or to help me problem solve. Each year they do less and less of the actual gardening and more and more of the posing and picking, but they are SO proud of everything “they” grow. It’s super cool to be able to give them that confidence and sense of accomplishment. And, when I think some plant is not working out and I’m spiraling upset, they’re so quick to point of what’s working great and the positives. To them, it’s all amazing, and the things that aren’t going according to my plan, are a big whatever in the grand scheme of it all. They bring back the balance.
The wonder fades as they age and they get a bit jaded, but the love remains. I was at my second grader’s school today for an art and science sharing, and she was presenting and said, “I like gardening and plant explorations because it makes science feel like my home.” And my heart swelled.
We didn’t garden growing up beyond helping my mom plant annuals one day a year. I don’t know when I figured out that flowers turn into fruit, but not for a long, long time. I think it’s such a gift for your kids to grow up really understanding what is real, unadulterated food, where does it come from and what does it taste like.
it was a volunteer! Lol.
) is picking up garden litter: either gathering the stray rocks that ‘grow’ in the beds, or carrying prunings to the burn pile. Which is great for me - I hate hauling away my mess after I’m all tired out from making it