Life Lessons from Gardening
The first long weekend, in Ontario anyways, with decent weather is (hopefully) the Victoria Day weekend. It's sort of an unofficial kick-off to summer, even though summer is actually another month away. It's also a huge weekend for gardening. I'm not sure if it's because the temperatures are all but certain to stay above that bloody frost point or because the only shopping people can do on the holiday Monday is at a nursery/garden centre. Either way, I don't care. I went to our local nursery this long weekend and picked up some flowers and a couple scotch bonnet pepper plants. At first I wondered if it broke the mission of not buying new, but plants are perishable items, kinda like food. I've never really heard of someone buying pre-owned annuals. They die. Every year. Circle of life. Perennials, I suppose, you could buy second hand, but I've never heard of someone digging up someone else's garden to transplant it in their own garden. You'd risk root trauma and killing your plants without even knowing what you've done until it's too late. I've had a plant, or two, perish doing just that. I'm not going that route (Dad pun for the win) again. New plants it is.
I was amazed how my sons took to 'helping' dad out. I guess I shouldn't have been. My oldest has been helping me Garden for the last three summers. Every year he does a little more. First he just sorta kept me company and made a mess. Then he'd water and dig. Now he digs, turns over soil and plants. He's just turning four and he's already gardening better than some adults. My youngest, in the top portion of the picture above, is just happy to dig and make a mess in the presence of his dad and older brother. That was his job last year too. You could say he's progressing slightly slower. I'm not sure either of them even like gardening, or if they just like doing what dad's doing. I guess it does't matter at the moment. They're absorbing wonderful life lessons - looking after their home; caring and nurturing for a life other than their own (the plants); spending hours doing something (gardening in this case) as a family. What more can you ask for from a trip to the nursery? Sure, I bought something. I bought plants, but what a return on investment. In exchange for a couple bucks on plants, I got family time and life lessons for my boys. As long as this stays habitual - the learning and the loving - this is a parenting win.
Next year I'll buy them some second hand spades. I am not using a child's play spade next year too!
Coco out.
If you look closely, my oldest swapped our spades. 😒
I was amazed how my sons took to 'helping' dad out. I guess I shouldn't have been. My oldest has been helping me Garden for the last three summers. Every year he does a little more. First he just sorta kept me company and made a mess. Then he'd water and dig. Now he digs, turns over soil and plants. He's just turning four and he's already gardening better than some adults. My youngest, in the top portion of the picture above, is just happy to dig and make a mess in the presence of his dad and older brother. That was his job last year too. You could say he's progressing slightly slower. I'm not sure either of them even like gardening, or if they just like doing what dad's doing. I guess it does't matter at the moment. They're absorbing wonderful life lessons - looking after their home; caring and nurturing for a life other than their own (the plants); spending hours doing something (gardening in this case) as a family. What more can you ask for from a trip to the nursery? Sure, I bought something. I bought plants, but what a return on investment. In exchange for a couple bucks on plants, I got family time and life lessons for my boys. As long as this stays habitual - the learning and the loving - this is a parenting win.
Next year I'll buy them some second hand spades. I am not using a child's play spade next year too!
Coco out.
Comments
Post a Comment