Meet Elliott, my grandson from Denver, Colorado. Last year, at the ripe old age of 10 months his favorite thing was digging in the dirt. He’d happily dig in a plastic box of planting soil for an hour, using child sized garden tools from Gills. Now, at almost 2 years he’s advanced to planting and tending his first vegetable and herb garden.
Elliott’s garden has radishes, carrots, squash, lettuce, arugula, tomatoes, mint, and basil. Yes, he really planted them himself! The rows aren’t perfect and more seeds are grouped closer to the edges where he could more easily reach. He doesn’t care. It’s his garden and he’s already reaping and eating its bounty.
The radishes are fast growing and he loves to eat them freshly picked and washed. He enjoys picking mint leaves to chew while playing in the back yard. Soon there will be tomatoes to snack on, then carrots to eat.
I suggested to his mom for next year’s garden, mixing carrot and radish seeds together. It’s a tip I heard on Justin Butts’ radio program. The radishes come up first and their fast growing leaves provide a living mulch for the carrots, which grow more slowly.
We’ll see what Elliott thinks about that!
-Kathy
Reader Interactions