Garden with Your Kids
By Donita Brannon
If you have been watching the Food Network lately, you may have noticed their recent campaign urging us to “Cook With Your Kids.” The idea is to get your children into the kitchen with you to help prepare meals, etc. In doing so, you are sharing quality time with your children while teaching them fundamental cooking skills such as using a knife and measuring ingredients. This is really an age-old concept. I’m sure many of you remember being in the kitchen with mom or grandma as she basted a golden-brown turkey or baked a homemade pie. Those warm feelings and pleasant aromas linger on throughout our lives. I was blessed with parents who took the time to cook with their kids. I now have a treasure trove of recipes, happy kitchen memories, and (as my mom is quick to point out), I’m a darned good cook!
With Mother’s Day right around the corner, I realized just how important it is to spend quality time with your children, and not just in the kitchen. So, I am proposing a "Garden With Your Kids" campaign.
I acquired my love of gardening from my parents. When I was a kid, it seemed they were always out working in the yard. Their hard work paid off: we always had a beautiful yard, occasionally earning that coveted "Yard of the Month" sign. I was learning by example. But my parents were teaching me much more than just how to plant a garden, they were instilling in me a sense of pride and accomplishment.
It almost seems unfair to call it "yardWORK," for to me, it never seemed like work. I was having the time of my life. From a very early age I enjoyed being out there with them, digging in the dirt. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was learning valuable horticultural lessons that I would continue to use throughout my life. For instance: once, when I was probably around seven or eight years old, I observed my father cut a small branch from a Vitex tree to use as a stake for an unruly geranium. A week or so later I was amazed to see tiny leaves sprouting from that Vitex branch. It had actually taken root and was beginning to sprout! That, my friends, was my first encounter with the fascinating world of plant propagation. (Plant propagation is the process of reproducing new plants by a variety of methods including seeds, cuttings, division and layering.)
Soon, I would notice how the fleshy leaves that fell from our "Hen & Chicks" plant onto the soil below would slowly put down roots, and like magic, tiny plants would develop. Ah ha! Leaf cuttings! It wasn’t long before I was building terrariums out of jars and jugs, rooting cuttings from anything that would stand still long enough. Little did I know that my childhood fascination would grow into an adult passion. Plant propagation is one of my all-time loves. I truly enjoy taking an old gangly plant and creating lots of fresh, new ones from it.
Occasionally, I would help my mom, as she would dig up clumps of daylily or iris. She would pull them apart and replant the fresh ones, giving the extras to neighbors and friends. Unbeknownst to me, I was learning another propagation technique – division, and in the process, she was showing me the wonderful act of sharing.
In our backyard, there was a big old fig tree that produced lots of delicious figs each year. We would pick them, and the whole family would join in to help make fig preserves. We got to enjoy the best of both worlds: “Gardening With Your Kids” AND “Cooking With Your kids”!
I know kids today are a lot different than the kids of my generation, but almost every kid enjoys playing in the dirt. So, I urge you to get out there and garden with your kiddos. Plant a vegetable garden, so you can cook with your kids as well. Plant a tree together. The whole family will be able to enjoy it for years to come: a place for a tire swing, a shady place for a picnic, fruit or nuts from its branches. Whatever you do, enjoy the time spent with your children. Who knows, you may inspire a life-long passion!
