gardens

​When my sons were little we would travel to Ohio to visit my Grandma and Grandpa.   They loved to roam the 'gentleman's farm' my grandparents lived on.  There were two ponds, a large canning garden, a big barn, a tractor, a riding lawn mower with the blade removed so they could drive it all around the pathway that led to my aunt and uncle's home, bullfrogs and lots of fishing.

My Grandfather was an educator by profession and farming was his hobby.

I still see my Grandmother sitting on the screened porch with an apron full of beans and a large bowl on the side table for the snapped beans to go in.  It meant there would be fresh beans for dinner to go with the hush puppies and fish fry  for dinner that night.  All of the relatives had huge canning gardens full of peas, beans, corn, tomatoes and strawberries.  They would can all their fruits and vegetables for the winter.  No one ever thought of going to the store for a can of corn!

As Joel and Nick got older they wanted to start their own garden in Seattle.  Our garden was an 'eating garden'.  We did not have the room to plant the variety of plants that grew in the gardens in Ohio but we always had fun watching our garden grow.  A few stocks of corn, carrots, peas, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.  There was always something to eat as a snack when they walked by the garden in the summer.  I loved that they were seeing where food came from, taking pride in their garden and learning responsibility as they tended the little garden we planted.

I hope you have a chance to visit a farm or a pea patch to show your child how plants grow and what we harvest from those plants and eat for our meals at home.

Enjoy getting dirty in the garden this week!