I’ve been visiting my son, daughter-in-law, and 18-month-old grandson in North Carolina, enjoying some warm, sunny, October days. In just the two weeks that I’ve been here, I’ve noticed that the baby wants to spend more time out of doors. “Walk-walk,” he’ll say, or “Go outside,” grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the front door. We put on our shoes and see where adventure leads.
Going outside for a walk includes hunting for fallen leaves and acorns to put in the little collapsible bucket I brought for him, smelling flowers and herbs, and feeling the texture of leaves. The trio of tall banana plants in the side yard is our “forest,” where it’s fun to wander among the big leaves.
I also found a small gardening project for the baby. The blossoms on the lily plants are long since gone, leaving tall, dried stems behind, poking up from the foliage. These are at the perfect height for little hands to grasp and tug, and they pull out easily. Each stem is placed carefully on the growing pile of sticks. The baby might only pull four or five stems on a given outing, but to me this feels like what might be the beginning of something.
Ever since my grandson began to walk this past June, I’ve been dreaming. Dreaming of him visiting us in Kimberton in a few years, and Charlie and I pitching our big tent on the lawn for backyard camping, toasting hotdogs in the chiminea, and reading bedtime stories by flashlight. I have visions of going creek walking and fishing. And of course I also have dreams of that inquisitive, nature-oriented little boy helping in the vegetable garden just as my son did when he was young.
When my son and daughter-in-law asked if I could put my landscape design skills to work in their front yard and told me the main features they wanted, I asked, “How about including some tall containers where the baby can grow some veggies? The day before, I had watched my grandson carefully place fallen willow oak leaves in a neighbor’s curbside raised bed and had seen how easy it was for him to reach over the enclosure—at just the perfect height. Both parents said, “Yes!” to the idea. I can’t wait to get started.
I’m picturing three, maybe four waist-high (for a young child) containers, large enough to provide a toddler-sized harvest. The veggies I’ll suggest are tasty and fairly fast germinating: sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, lettuce. We could plant carrot seeds among the lettuce. Carrot seeds are slow to germinate and grow, but fun to harvest, and lettuce would fill in that gap. Bush green beans are another option.
With their speedy germination time (some in little as three days) and their bright, primary-red color, radishes always make it onto lists of seeds to plant in a child’s vegetable garden. Personally, I find radishes too spicy and it’s hard for me to imagine that kids will like them either. But you never know; my grandson has a surprising palate, even extending to partly cooked onions. (We fished some out for him from the frying pan and he kept asking for more.) A note about green beans: the leaves can be irritating to some people. Long sleeves while harvesting will prevent that.
Here’s a short list of kid-friendly vegetables to grow:
Bush green beans: 7-10 days (Harvest in 50-60 days)
Leaf lettuce: 7-14 days. (Harvest small leaves in about three weeks)
Bush sugar snap peas: 7-14 days (Harvest in 50-70 days)
Cherry tomatoes: 7-14 days (Harvest in 50-65 days. You can shorten that time by growing from plants rather than from seed. Another fun gardening project!)
Carrots: 10-14 days, or longer. (Harvest baby carrots in 30-60 days)
Radishes: 3-10 days (Harvest in 20-60 days)
Pam Baxter is an organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Pam’s new book, Listening to Nature’s Voice, is now available on Amazon. For more information or to sign up for her newsletter, visit her website: pamelabaxterbooks.com.
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