WHAT I GROW IN MY GARDEN: SMALL BOYS

The garden is just not for me. It is not just a place to grow organic vegetables. It is not just a place for the chickens to roam. It is Jarvis's place to play, to explore and to learn. He loves the garden. As a baby, taking him out to watch the trees would calm him down. Now as a toddler, the garden offers so much more.

Every afternoon, Jarvis wants to go up and water. Even when it is raining. 

Every experience counts! Babies and young children are learning all the time, with most learning taking place in relationships. The best place to find challenge, wonder, beauty, wisdom and pure joy is in the garden. The easiest way to do this is to provide experiences that will appeal to toddlers while allowing you to be close enough to keep an eye on things.

Jarvis enjoys digging, weeding, moving things in his wheelbarrows and watering plants.

So when we dug, and replanted, the garden for winter crops, much to Dad's dismay (he believes in planting as much as possible to produce a huge range of food) we left a Jarvis patch.

The Jarvis patch. 

Jarvis helped Dad and I dig the soil, then his favourite thing is to poke seeds into the soil. Dad is more than a little OCD like me, and we both would have liked rows of the same seeds. But Jarvis was in charge of the seeds, so this winter they have been planted with wild abandonment. I can't wait to see how and what grows.

So not only is the garden a place for Jarvis to learn and grow. But, also to Jarvis's it is a place to dig and get as muddy as possible. So I guess in my garden I am also growing a small boy. 

We have had to net the garden, the chickens think it is just for them. A wonderland of seeds and seedlings to consume.