Gardening with Babies

I just saw this article in mothering magazine about gardening with babies. Somehow it had never really occured to me that you could bring a baby that young in the garden. Of course, I'd already gotten excited about the prospect of feeding K. his first tastes of some vegetables straight from the garden I'd grown myself. He's 6 months now, so we've just started him on solids. And I look forward to getting him involved in gardening tasks once he's a toddler. I already even bought two really cute books about gardening for him.

But, it just didn't occur to me to put a baby in the dirt like the picture in that article! To be honest, it gives me a bit of the heebie jeebies, thinking of all the bugs I've seen in the soil, his hands digging in it, and then his hands in his mouth. Obviously I'm all about gardening, but that's a bit much even for me. I guess if I watch him very carefully with a wet washcloth ready, it would be fun.

I do like the idea of working with him in a carrier though. I have a mei tai and he loves it. So I think he'd really enjoy hanging out on my back in the garden, and I'm sure it would be a great workout!

Anyway, I just thought it was a cute article and figured I'd post it. It was an excuse to post a picture of him eating his first sweet potato last week lol. Soon it will be carrots straight from the garden!

As for the garden, I'm so excited it is coming alive. There is a bunch of mache that reseeded itself that is just about ready for harvest. Radishes, lettuce, and arugula that I planted outside a few weeks ago are all germinated. This weekend I planted carrots, turnips, red & green mustard greens, scallions, more lettuce, and more peas outside.

Inside my seedlings are doing really well! (much better than last year) Under the lights I've got 10 tangerine gem marigolds, 4 swiss chard, 6 lettuces, 6 tomatoes and 2 ground cherries. The marigolds and 3 of the tomatoes almost have their 2nd set of leaves, so it will be time to repot soon.