Please excuse my orange clay-covered knees if you saw me out and about yesterday - I was (finally!) able to get in a good bit of gardening. Virginia's Tiniest Gardener and I planted about fifty square feet of our backyard garden with spring vegetables and some strawberry starts. He had a blast out there raking, digging, and poking around. My hope is that the garden will teach my kiddos some of the more admirable character traits, like patience ("Whaddaya mean, these don't turn into fully-formed carrots overnight?") and humility (because as all gardeners know, we may be bigger than cutworms, Japanese beetles, stinkbugs, and tomato hornworms, but they will still defeat us handily).
I also hope that the experience of growing his own fruits and veggies will give my son, who currently subsists on noodles, buttered toast, and yogurt, an appreciation for foods with colors outside the continuum between white and ecru. To that end, he ate, with a little prompting, a lettuce leaf straight from the garden, which is a minor miracle. He did tell me almost immediately afterwards that "lettuce is green, and green is icky, like sausage that has skin on it," but I'll take what I can get. Today lettuce leaf, tomorrow broccoli rabe? A girl can dream.
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