Passing the Knowledge to the Next Generation

Ryan Smartt tells us about gardening with his family!

Passing the Knowledge to the Next Generation

We have a three-year-old. And Lyla wants to do EVERYTHING my wife and I do. There are some obvious things I won’t let her do (mow the lawn, drive our car, do our taxes) but every now and then, I definitely have to say YES when she wants to help.

A perfect example is working in the garden. Lyla’s at the age now where I’m comfortable allowing her to try a few things on her own – and then I’ll show her the correct way to do it. Like watering the plants. The first couple of tries, she simply poured as much water wherever she wanted. But after showing her how to use her little blue watering bucket to slowly pour the water near the roots of the plant…she got it!

Picking tomatoes was definitely a problem last year. If there was a tomato – ripe or unripe – she was going to pick it. This year, however, Lyla knows not to pick it until it’s red (or a color closer to red than green.) So far so good.

When I grew up in Kansas, my parents had a vegetable garden in our backyard every summer (tomatoes and peppers, of course!) And they taught me a few tricks of the trade. So when I share the gardening experience with my daughter, I feel like I’m passing something on to the next generation. And hopefully, in about 30 years, she’ll do the same with her kids. (But as I’ve said before, she’s not allowed to date until she’s at least 30.)

Check out this week’s Garden Wars! And feel free to vote me.