Perhaps my favorite summertime activity with the kids is working in our garden — and just generally mucking around in the yard. I’ve loved growing fruits and veggies since I was a kid, tending our family garden with my mom, walking through Grandma’s garden in the summers, and I imagine I’ll be THAT old lady mucking about in her garden when I’m 80.
Lucky for me, the kids (and by kids, I mean Widget) love it too. So far this year, we’ve planted cherry tomatoes, minature yellow pear tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, garlic chives, bell peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers, and zucchini. And when I say, zucchini, I mean, like one plant. Because who really needs more than one zucchini plant?
But my new favorite plants in the garden are the blackberry and blueberry bushes over against the wall. They produce FABULOUS fruit, and they’re so very easy to tend. Really, all you have to do is prune them at the end of each season, make sure they don’t die of thirst, and they produce yummy yummy snacks all summer long. Starting in late June, we’ll have a dozen or two blueberries every day, and then in July there will be at least as many blackberries.
Widget loves his fruit, and now, in the garden, he’s learning where it comes from.
Now that I’m home, I prefer THIS kind of blackberry….

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June 6, 2007 at 1:21 am
We took our boys out of school for the day on planting day just to give them more of a feeling of ownership over our garden, and it’s working already.
Have fun with the summer gardening!
June 6, 2007 at 1:38 am
[...] can’t pick fresh fruits from their [...]
June 6, 2007 at 4:06 am
I love gardening and both my kids loive it too – thanks for the reminder to do more of this this summertime.
June 6, 2007 at 8:33 am
WHEN I get my back fence fixed I really want some fruit bushes across it!
June 6, 2007 at 9:15 am
Great idea! we planted our first blueberry bush this year
June 6, 2007 at 11:28 am
Oh, mucking around in the yard is the best!
June 6, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I would love to do this! I just gotta get me a yard big enough to have a garden! LOL
June 6, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Great idea
Rachel xxx
June 11, 2007 at 10:08 am
[...] presents Berries in the garden posted at Toddler [...]
June 11, 2007 at 9:18 pm
There’s nothing nicer than sharing gardening and nature with kids. My daughter and I picked wild columbine today and noticed a raspberry bush that we’ll be back to pick from in a while, if the black bears don’t get to it first. But then, they’re sharing their “garden” with their cubs and they’re Maine mamas too. LOL.
Shine On,
Lill
June 11, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Lill,
Are you Sal’s mom?
(Sounds like “Blueberries for Sal” come to life. What a wonderful picture!)