Growing Food with Kids

Perhaps the hardest factor of selling all our property and living full time in our RV was the thought of giving up my yard and gardens. For most of my adult life gardening has been my preferred form of therapy.  Indeed, one of the best surprises of this lifestyle is how much I still garden. I do it as part of my RV Volunteer work quite often, I do it in friends and family’s yards and I do it on a level at my site that I never dreamed of four years ago.

We are truly fortunate to have a regular summer gig that brings us back to the same site April to October. Our little volunteer community out of the public eye gives us all unique opportunity to plant in the ground and has allowed me to create a vast container garden each summer. Our first winter I bought a book call The Bountiful Container and read all about the intricacies of growing food in containers vis a vis in the ground. I have learned a great deal the past summers and am getting the process down. In addition to the vegetable containers I also established several square feet of ground space with perrenials at the entrance of our site as official Pollinator Habitat and registered it with Plant -Grow- Fly. A program that tracks habitat that is being grown around the country specifically for caterpillar hosting and feeding, butterflies and other pollinators.

I still comb through garden magazines, and seed catalogues too early in the spring.  I even grow herbs and greens in pots on my patio at our winter gig, wherever that ends up being. The only thing that has changed is the volume of food that I grow. My canning equipment is at my daughter’s house in case she ever wants to start canning. These days, I grow enough for us to eat for the summer months and to satisfy my love of eating right out of the garden. There is nothing more delicious to me than a salad that was in the garden just a few minutes before I eat it.

A little dream came true for me. Two of our grandkids said they wanted to grow a garden with me this summer. We spent last Monday repurposing a volunteer neighbor’s old steps into a raised box in an area of our site that has great sun, but poor soil. Problem solved. 

Turning Don's steps into a planter

During an overnight visit this past weekend, I took them to my favorite greenhouse. Neither had ever been to a big greenhouse.  Given the circumstances we are all in, they hadn’t been anywhere in weeks. I got permission from my daughter to take them and called ahead to the greenhouse to be sure they were aloud to come in with me. The answers were “Yes and Yes” Yay for all of us!  I don’t know what excited me more, watching them marvel at the acres of plants and stunning variety that Goode’s always has or realizing how utterly happy they were to just be out and about. We had perfect weather for the greenhouse trip and subsequent planting when we got back.

Shopping for plants at Goode's Greenhouse

They chose their favorite veggies to eat, Cucumbers for Isaac, they both agreed on carrots, so I bought seed for the fun Kaleidoscope variety and Tomatoes. Hunter chose a Big Boy (grandpa’s favorite) and a Chocolate Cherry one I have had before and remember being delicious in salads or just as finger food. Hunter found some small rose variety and asked if he could plant it in one of my flower beds. I couldn’t resist. He was thrilled!

Marigold's for Pest Control

Peppers for Grandma

Sewing Carrot Seeds

Isaac planting his cucumber

All planted and ready for growing season!

The weekend is over, the rains have come, and the plants are happy in their containers and new raised planter box. The kids will have a project to tend each time they visit and will get to enjoy the fruits of their project by mid-summer.

I have my sights set on Wednesday when I have my next day off and a date with my friend Joyce, to go back to Goodes and buy the rest of what I want to plant to round out my vegetable and flower containers.  Add to that my new summer job at a local Garden Center and I think it is safe to say my green thumb is happier than ever.

After a difficult past few weeks trying to get settled and not knowing from one day to the next what our summer would look like, things are finally starting to feel comfortable. All I seemed to need was site # 7 the sun, grandkids coming over and things growing in my containers. It really is the little things.  

Until Next Time…