This is a picture of me helping in my grandma’s garden when I was young. My mom always had her kids in the garden with her from the time I was a small child, just as her mom had her in the garden when she was young, and her mother before her did also.  I always took these gardening roots for granted.  It didn’t seem all that special to me, it was just something that was normal in our family.  We were always outside doing something and a good share of it was in the garden.

Now, that I’m a mom I realize how special it was that I got to spend time with my mom, my grandma and my great grandma in the garden.   My great grandma Ruth would take me around each spring and patiently show me each type of flower until I knew the difference between a daffodil and tulip and a hyacinth.  My grandma Nan would take me on hikes in the woods and show me Flowers like Dutchman’s Breeches and Bloodroot.  My mom would take us out to the veggie garden and let us eat sweet pea pods from the vine and we would pick Zinnia flowers.  We would go for hikes in the woods and pick wild phlox.

I want to carry on this great legacy and love for the earth that the three generations of women before me instilled in me.  I want to pass on their love for flowers, for growing things and all the beauty and joy that growing plants bring each day.  My daughter Brooke is now a year and half old and we have been spending a ton of our time together outside in the yard and garden. Some of our best days together have been spent outside in the garden.   She loves exploring and helping me in the garden, this makes me so incredibly happy.

Brooke helped me plant Lisianthus plants in the garden this spring (one of my absolute favorite  plants in my garden it is great for cut floral arrangements and lasts forever).  She loves getting her hands dirty and digging in the dirt. Finding a rock or even a weed is a new discovery which always brings joy.  It’s a great reminder to marvel at the little things in life because sometimes they are the most fascinating.

Brooke wants to do anything that I do, so if I’m watering I had better have a watering can ready for her too.

Wherever Brooke goes her dog Maggie is sure to follow.

Brooke and I have spent quite a bit of time this spring walking around the yard looking at what is blooming in the garden and smelling the flowers.  This is something Brooke loves to do, she is just starting to talk and will say Flower in her toddler talk whenever she sees one.  Then she’ll put her little face full into a flower and give a deep sniff.  This was one of the first days she decided to actually go for it and pick a flower.  Actually several flowers.  So worth it, I loved seeing her little face full of happiness when she realized she had a handful of beautiful petals.

I put in new cucumber trellises in the veggie garden this year so they will double as a playhouse for Brooke once the vines kick in.  She loves to run under these wooden tee pees and peak up at me.

If you have fun gardening activities to do with kids, please share them with me, I’d love to know what has brought your family fun times in the garden.