Gardening with children can be a wonderful thing. Their enthusiasm is catching, as is their curiosity: you want to see your garden differently? Get on your knees and turn over leaves and rocks with a two year old. Our girl is growing up in these gardens and it is a fun thing to watch. And, even better, her help becomes more and more useful with time.
Sewing project
She’s admired the strings of dried peppers hung in the pantry for a couple of years now. I pull what I need, grinding it or merely flaking it into a dish. When the new peppers were tiny flowering plants this spring, she asked if she could string them when the time came. Well, the time was this Sunday, when the peppers were quite ripe. And quite ably, she strung three two-foot long strings for the pantry.
I sure hope she’s still willing to help at 14.
Glad you came to visit!
Got something to say? Email me at fastweedpuller at gmail dot com.
fast grow the weeds 
I so miss those days. Okay, that sounds pathetic; I don’t sit around missing those days- it’s just that when I see your tiny one it makes me nostalgic. Now I can mooch vegetables from my grown gardener- there are benefits to every age. Sometimes I forget that.
AND I bet she’ll still help when she’s fourteen; you’ll simply have to work around her busy teenage schedule.
14, fine. 15, she’ll hate you. Way the world works.
I love her; tell her.
My 14 year old is a treat right now — I hope it lasts a bit. I’m preparing (on friends’ advice) to let it go around 16-17, but it is very sweet. The almost-10 year old? Difficult now. Maybe she’ll be a sweet and funny 14 year old too.
Part of the fun of having an entire crew is getting to roll through stages with lots of them and notice teh differences and similarities.
Enjoy it now… My 28 year old now marvels at how much she likes to weed!!
Mine own gave up interest for awhile, but now, all three married, two 26 and one 28 and they are very interested again.
I so enjoy gardening with their children now.
14? hard to say, hope she continues, for now, enjoy!
If I learned anything from being a girl growing up in the garden with her parents, when she’s 14 she won’t be interested, but when she’s 26 she’ll be calling you from her own garden and saying thank you.
One of my friends on Twitter the other day shared a quote: “Gardening is caught, not taught.” You’ve giving her the best opportunity to catch it! (BTW, don’t worry. Not all teens turn on their parents. I was a very lucky one whose teen was always sweet and communicative–even if he didn’t want me to hug him in front of his friends.)
Robin
Pamela, I bow to your wise counsel.
CC, when she’s that old she’ll wonder why I let her dress this way. I have a feeling “Because you wanted to wear that, plus that flowered hair thing” will not be good enough. Hah!
Stef, are you sure you’re old enough to have a 14 year old? Quite a crew you have though! Yeah it must be fun keeping on top of everyone’s interests and schedules. And yeah, my experience (not personal) with big families is that they’re really fun.
Sharon, send her my way! Wow the weeds have gotten the better of my garden this year.
Kimberly, wow, grandkids. Our girl asked me this week if I would live to see her own grandchildren (where in the world did she get that idea) and I had to say “sure” thinking, as I do, that I will be around at 100 but wow. What a concept! A 5 year old thinking about her own grandkids.
Taylor, one of my happiest moments was having my mother weed MY garden on Mother’s Day! Hwah. Like, what comes around goes around. I hope she thanks me, that’d be nice.
Hah, Robin, that’s great. (I wonder what else I can throw at her that she’ll catch, cooking, maybe?) I’m glad to hear your boy was a sweetie during those early teens; I was a holy terror until, well, 35 or so. I do hope you’re not too flummoxed by your new status as an empty-nester, that must be so different! Just save the garden heavy lifting chores for when he’s home some weekend…
I’d love to see the strung peppers!