growing up in the garden
a magical, messy place for kids
"Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden." — Robert Brault
When I was born, my parents were living in an old 1830s farmhouse in Lunenburg, MA, a rural town about 50 miles northwest of Boston and just shy of the New Hampshire border. The home was situated on 40 acres of land, with farm land, woods, and huge lawns on all sides. We moved from that home when I was around 12, and it wasn't until I was much older and living in cities that I truly recognized and appreciated how fortunate I was to grow up surrounded by nature.
As I watched families strolling their kids around Brooklyn while living there, making their way to playgrounds and local parks, I would ponder what it must be like growing up surrounded by concrete. I'd think of some of the fondest memories of my childhood — climbing apple trees, picking fresh blackberries off the bush, going to the nursery with my parents, riding on tractors, planting seeds in the garden, munching on snap peas from the vine, going for long winter walks in the woods, attempting to skate on a cranberry bog — and realize that these kids would likely have none of those experiences.
Now this isn’t to poo-poo city living. Heck, I've bounced from Boston to San Francisco to New York to Los Angeles, clocking in at a grand total of four cross-country moves in just eleven years.
But as soon as I had a modicum of outdoor space in Santa Monica, CA, my adult gardening journey began in earnest. Sure it was only a concrete patio, but I finally had sunshine and the itch to garden that I could finally scratch. I'd been yearning for years at that point to have a garden, knowing how much joy it brought me when I was younger. It was an aching longing to return to something I once loved but had to put on the back burner for a long time.
For better or worse, things that happen during your formative years have a way of sticking with you throughout your life. In my case, I count my lucky blessings that early exposure to the natural world was such a massive part of my upbringing. Our maple trees were tapped by local farmers for maple syrup. My parents taught me about composting, and how to plant seeds in the ground. Whether or not I was any help, they included me in everything, and I was a little sponge, soaking it all up.
And like a seed waiting patiently through the winter to emerge in spring, my early love of gardening remained dormant for years until it had just the right environment to germinate. And that environment was a little rental bungalow in Santa Monica, CA.
So when our daughter was born and we moved back to Massachusetts (that’s a story for another day —we left in August 2020 when she was 2 months old at the height of COVID!), I was eager to take my years of learnings thus far and apply them to a larger space. I’m grateful every day that we moved here, because it’s been an incredible opportunity to give our kids a taste of the childhood that I grew up with.
I think we all intrinsically know how good exposure to nature is for our kids, but I was curious if there was any research to support that hunch. Turns out, there is!
Increased Fruit and Vegetable Consumption — A 2007 study published in Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that gardening programs in schools increased children's fruit and vegetable intake significantly.
Better Mental Health and Emotional Regulation — This 2022 Preventative Medicine Reports study shows that participating in gardening improves mental health, enhances psychological well being, and improves self-regulation in school aged children.
Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Awareness — This 2024 British Ecological Society study suggests that gardens in primary school settings have the potential to awaken the inherent interest in nature that every student possesses.
And it doesn’t have to be that serious! I’ve always found that my kids are happiest when I give them a few garden tools and set them in an area of the garden that I don’t mind gets a little messed up. But here are some other ways I’ve gotten my two kids involved in the garden to varying degrees (they’re currently almost 5 and almost 3, but have each been in the garden since they were babies):
Give them each their own special area —this year, I have two old tires that I filled with potting soil and I’m letting them go crazy planting, digging, watering to their hearts’ content.
Ask them to help you water. They love a task and love playing with water. This is honestly a great way for them to be really helpful —just make sure you set the nozzle to the appropriate spray, lest your plants get blasted by the pressure-wash single stream!
Harvest, harvest, harvest! Pick peas, tomatoes, beans, you name it. Show them how, then set them off to the races. My daughter used to have a rally cry of, “PICK BEANS! COOK BEANS! EAT BEANS!” and it still makes me smile thinking of her chanting that throughout bean season.
Let them arrange flowers that you’ve cut, or cut their own with assistance.
Plant seeds, the bigger the better. Lettuce won’t have a snowball’s chance in hell with little ones, but peas and beans mine have always enjoyed planting.
Go on bug hunts. We have a few nature books, and last summer had a handy dandy clipboard and bug scavenger hunt printout that got lots of use.
Involve them in seed selection. My kids have enjoyed flipping through seed catalogs and choosing some varieties to try. Or grabbing a few packets at the nursery.
Kid-sized gardening equipment. They have a set of garden tools, a mini wheelbarrow, their own watering can, and a pair of garden gloves. It helps make it feel very “official” and they double as great overall outdoor play items.
Backyard birdwatching. If your kids have an affinity for Pokémon like my daughter, they might take a liking to IRL Pokémon —birdwatching! We have a kids’ backyard bird book that she eagerly grabs when she finds a new lifer, and gets excited to add a sticker to her book.
Mud kitchen near the garden. One of my favorite ways to be out there with them when I really need to accomplish some tasks — I can get some work done and they can periodically ask me if they can pick certain leaves/flowers to add to their mud pies, mud soups, and mud smoothies. They learn names of plants and flowers this way, so it’s sneaky education!
That’s a non-exhaustive list, and I would love nothing more than to hear some of your ideas for how you’ve gotten your kids involved in the garden!
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, guys. I desperately needed to water the garden today (while we hustle to reinstall irrigation ASAP) so I resorted to bribing my son with a cookie if he came outside with me. Once out there (after eating said cookie), he enthusiastically picked dandelions to “plant” in his tire garden, helped me water, looked at bumblebees, and then proceeded to have a prodigious meltdown because he got mulch in his Crocs.
Until next (pizza) Friday,
Amy
LOLs of the Week
Reading
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Listening
A two parter this week! Pop those headphones in out in the garden to drown out your neighbors lawn mowing, leaf-blowing, and weed whacking.
Growing
I’m in zone 6a here in Central Massachusetts, which means it’s ~2 weeks before last frost. I use May 20th as our tentative first frost-free date, as historically that’s what our microclimate has dictated. A frost-free date is an estimate of when your area should be safe from freezing temperatures in the spring, but it’s not a guarantee. Think of it as a general guideline based on past weather patterns. Some years, frost might linger a little longer, and other years, it might warm up sooner. If you’re confused about what this means for your location check out this handy dandy tool!
I’ve been a busy little bee out in the garden, gradually clearing the beds and topping them with fresh compost as needed. I’m leaving the leaves until planting time nears to keep the soil moist and (hopefully) cut down on weed seeds sprouting. Because good golly are they a-sproutin’!
I got all four trays of my cooler weather crops planted out and, yet again, I feel as though I vastly overestimated how many leafy greens my family of two adults and two small children consume. But that’s what a chest freezer is for! I stumbled upon some kale and collard greens that managed to overwinter, so I’m going to harvest some to have with lunch today. And by overwinter I mean they’re kind of off-shoots growing out of the bottom of the stems that I left in the garden over the winter, just to see what would happen.
This weekend, I’m going to be starting some cucumbers, squash, and melons inside, and also I’ll direct sow some when I transplant those out —usually 1 or 2 weeks after our last frost date has passed, just to really make sure there is no more cold weather on the horizon.
Our next door neighbor dropped off a pot of rhubarb that her mom had divided, so I plopped that in the ground. I had been meaning to plant some more, so the timing of it all was quite fortuitous! The two varieties I have currently both happen to be predominantly green stemmed, which is a little weird for any baked goods where you really want to show off the gorgeous red of your rhubarb. It all still tastes good, but looks quite like you’ve accidentally used celery instead. And speaking of rhubarb, I have to harvest a bunch this weekend! And cut off the pesky flower heads that have already started to appear —which will encourage the plant to keep producing foliage instead of trying to go to seed.
Loving
Baltimore Orioles. The bird, not the baseball team. When I’m on my daily walks, I will usually have Merlin Bird ID running a sound recording in the background to get a sense of what birds are around, and today I heard one of my favorites —the Baltimore Oriole! We’ve been getting them every spring since moving to Massachusetts, typically around the first few days of May. The first year we lived here, we saw them in our yard and I frantically ordered an oriole feeder and rushed out to buy grape jelly and oranges. Every year since, I eagerly await their return, stalk them with binoculars, take photos, and diligently refill their jelly jar, lest we upset them. I’ve got my eyes peeled —and jelly feeder freshly filled —so hopefully they’ll be here any day now. Here’s a little video of a couple of them bathing in the waterfall of our koi pond last May:
Baby Chick Watch 2025. I can’t recall if I actually mentioned it here or just on Instagram, but we have one of our Buff Orpingtons currently sitting on a little clutch of eggs that I decided to let her hatch out. I’m almost positive that it’s the same Golden Girl a.k.a GG (we have 4 Buff Orpingtons and I can’t for the life of me tell the difference) who hatched babies last year —on Mother’s Day, of all days! I noticed her sitting on eggs on April 21, which is exactly the date that I tucked fertilized eggs under her last year. Since we have a rooster now, I took that as a little sign from Mother Nature to let her have some more babies. I’ll report back in a couple weeks! Chicken math is a real thing, guys.
Link Roundup
The Sex Lives Of Common Vegetables [NOEMA]
Tradwives Are the Harbinger of Systemic Breakdown [Jacobin]
Where bees won't go: The unloved pollinators of the underworld [BBC]
What Free Diving in a Kelp Forest Taught Me About an Overlooked but Incredibly Valuable Ecosystem [Smithsonian Magazine]
Hatching a Legend: Audubon and the Bird of Washington. [Distillations Magazine]
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My son is 2.5, some days he loves piddling around the garden with me and other days he’d rather stay inside or I also resort to bribery 😆 I am planning to make a magic runner bean tee-pee for d this year using grow bags and big bamboo stakes. Also for watering, I give mine a spray bottle! Sneakily working on fine motor skills too lol and I don’t have to worry about anything being drowned.
I loved reading this! I grew up and still live in the rural South. My grandma has been gardening as long as I can remember, and I was constantly exposed to gardening and nature in general. We lived in front of woods that she would sometimes go into to gather wood and plants. My elementary school also really immersed us in gardening and farming. Most students had some relationship with either. I remember we had a garden outside of our classroom that we tended to. Later, we had a greenhouse. It was really fun and engaging. And in general, most kids like to get up from their desks anyway.