A lot of families will be going out for this Memorial Day Weekend, to beaches, parks, and BBQs, but many families will dedicate at least one day of their extended weekend to stepping out and digging in to their gardens. Finally getting those summer annuals and vegetables cleaned up, or in the ground even. Don’t let this be a “Dad chore”, let the whole family, especially the kiddos go outside and get down and dirty.

Someday I want to buy a house. I don’t have a clear picture in my mind of the house itself, but the garden I can see perfectly. The most important part of my dream garden is the vegetable patch. I think this comes from so many summers, so many loving hours spent outside with my grandmother planting and tending her vegetable patch. There were zucchini, carrots, radishes, one year we even had corn, and always there were the sweetest strawberries I have ever had in my life. Coming outside to pick the little red jewels on summer mornings to pop into my mouth with juicy fingers... I want to do that again. I want my daughter to be able to do that. There were the great “Tomato Worm Hunts” trying to spy the fat green rascal out of the greener tomato leaves. There were the lady bugs, and butterflies, and the birds. There was the rhythm of nature felt in the bones that gets lost to us as we get older and stay indoors more.

Gardening is a gift that you can give to your children. It’s time spent learning hands-on about how the world works, time spent hand-in-hand with you. There is not much as satisfying to a young mind as plucking a huge zucchini from the vine that you planted and watered yourself... that you protected from the snails (those buggers!). Don’t get caught up in the “chore” of gardening. Remember it’s not a chore, it’s a rich and grounding experience. Don’t deny that experience to your kids. Get them their own little gardening gloves and watering cans and send them out smiling. They’ll thank you for it.