How Our Family Gardens In A Small Space, With Littles
When cam and I first got married I decided I would try my hand at gardening. I’d never grown anything before, and we lived in a top floor apartment so I wasn’t sure where to start. I ended up with a container tomato plant that lived on our patio. It was so cute and tiny, and it really did get bigger very quickly, but sometime around when it started getting all those yellow blooms I got a little antsy, maybe a little bored and I kind of forgot about it. I was so shocked when it died, I mean I did so good those first couple of months shouldn’t that have been enough?!
Well luckily from then on I’ve slowly dabbled a little more into the fun world of gardening, from strawberries to potatoes and even a few watermelons, I’ve really grown to love it, and the process of seed to harvest. Currently with 5 kids ranging from ages 1-6, and of course 1 on the way, gardening can be tricky, and messy! We have the biggest yard we have ever had, but it’s not a lot in terms of garden space. In the last year I’ve really wanted to beef up our growing areas, It’s a lot of work to garden and I’d love to grow enough food to actually feed our family of eight, which is no small task, so we have gotten creative!
This last Mother’s Day Cameron got me two of these greenstalk garden towers. I’d seen them around and was so hesitant, how can that house a root system for anything — it looks so small! And it just didn’t feel like “real” gardening to me. Well the previous year Cameron built me two cedar raised beds, we also had one other small in-ground garden, as well as a few other containers In places, so I figured I would give them a try. I have to say I love them! And here’s why, I think they are perfect for these two things especially: small spaces, obviously, and small children. I love that I can grow thirty plants in each tower, we did so much this year! Between the two towers there were strawberries in endless amounts, cucumbers, celery, carrots even in a few pockets! We did broccoli and cabbage, lettuce for our meat rabbits, a few squash, so much in the towers alone, not to mention our other spaces. I felt like I really would be able to produce a good amount, and we had plenty to harvest from July even into October, because the first frost came late this year! I can’t recommend them enough, they go on sale often so keep your eyes peeled around holidays, and you can use my link here for an extra $10 off. Also, I will say this is the absolute best year my strawberries ever had, we were on year five with them.
Here is one part of our garden area the day we got our greenstalk. Look at those sad shocked strawberries 😅 I promise they bounced back!
Okay, so you want to talk about gardening with kids? Here’s the thing, gardening is messy no matter what, but when you add in kids who make mud out of dirt for funsies, you need to be realistic from the start with your expectations. For me my goal was, I want the kids to think this is fun, I want them to want to be out here. I wasn’t as concerned with them doing it “right” or being as neat and tidy as possible, but rather enjoying themselves and developing a love for learning, and nurturing something. being invited to a space that is often reserved for just the parents, kids know it’s special and they are excited. That doesn’t mean they are going to be on their best behavior but it does mean it’s a huge opportunity for learning, connection and fun. I let the kids have their own area. They have a designated spot, for their seeds, and they get to choose what they want to grow. Lucky for me they almost always choose wildflowers and I love it. They will almost always see them grow, even if it gets negelected or drowned, and to watch their little faces light up when they know they are the ones that made it happen is such a joy! I also let them get dirty, and I mean like really dirty. Cameron has hosed children down before they can come in the house on numerous occasions. They are making memories people, and I’ll take that over a show any day of the week.
Here’s my sweet helpers making a playground out of the dirts for our greenstalks 😅
This was a favorite day for Cam and I. The whole fam harvested blackberries and plums, tomato and carrots, onions and more for hours. Everyone was happy, everyone helped, we got filthy and snacked on our harvest along the way. Look at mr one year old with his onion 🥰
Here is where I tell you why I love the green stalk with littles, are you ready? It’s tall! And I mean tall in relation to this five foot two inches mama who has to stand on tiptoes to get into some of the top pockets. Because of this, I’m not worried about my oh so curious two year old picking white strawberries because he thinks they are ready. It also means my 6 year old who is a bit more able and wants to help more in the garden can get a small stool and help with so much of the process. I will say there were a few casualties in the raised beds from the twins, but that’s to be expected.
My favorite part about gardening with the kids, and I think some of you may not love this part, because after all, the best part of gardening is harvest time right? I let my kids do all the picking and gathering, as much as they want. Even if they didn’t help much with my area of the garden, even though I worked so hard on it, I want them to know the joy of picking a fresh strawberry right off the plant and popping it in their mouth. Or digging up those potatoes like they are buried treasure and plopping them into the bucket. It’s so much fun and it’s definitely my favorite part and I love to share it with them. Like I said right now my goal is for them to develop a love for it, we can refine our skills as time goes on, but there’s such a small window to see this as a joy and delight until it just turns into “work” or a “have to”. I never grew up doing any sort of gardening and no one in my family ever did, so I’m glad to be able to open them up to this world, and hopefully develop in them a joy for it.
As I’m writing this I’ve planned out the garden for the year, and I’m eagerly waiting to get the seeds all started in this next week. Every year I try to be rational and set realistic goals for our busy life, but if you know me then you know I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew— it’s who I am, sorry! With baby girl coming in may, right when the garden really starts coming together— I’m not sure what will be possible, but I’ve got plans! Our oldest daughter told me she wanted us to do a big beautiful flower garden this year, so we have been planning where to add a new bed and do some rearranging to make a cut flowers garden, and we are VERY excited. We are adding a second bee hive to our property this year as well, so really the flowers are for them, right? I’m so excited to make some memories with these babes in the dirt this year, and learn how to nurture things that bring forth life and beauty into our world.