*Guest Post* Gardening With Kids

One of the most engaging, exciting outdoor things you can do with a kid is garden.

Now in our eleventh year at about 7500 feet, I feel like we’ve finally gotten the hang of gardening here. Unlike the ripe fertile soils of my youth, we battle gale force wind, quarter size hail, forty degree temperature changes in 24 hours, all manner of furry mammals and ungulates, and last, but certainly not least, winters that end in July and begin in September. And we are VICTORIOUS.

Getting out with the kids is easy and fun. We put on our shoes and go! My oldest is now in his eight year of garden goodness and his second year of planting his own little plot. My youngest, two, LOVES the garden. I am glad for the deer fence, otherwise, I’d have a hard time keeping him out of there. Both of my sons understand where their food comes from, whether it is the greens we eat at dinner, the potatoes in their soup, the carrots we snack on during a hike, or the berries on their waffles. They’ve seen first hand, from seed to harvest, the bounty of God’s great Earth. Every day during the gardening season, both boys get to participate in growing food. They help plant, water and harvest. It brings me deep joy to know my children are eating organic produce they have contributed to growing.

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