Growing Up with a Garden

June 08, 2021

 ​It often takes a lot to get kids to enjoy vegetables. Trying times at the dinner table can make for high frustration for everyone involved. But, there might be a simple way to introduce veggies – engage them in the experience of a garden.

I grew up with a magnificent garden – we had a salad garden next to our house and a big garden out back where we grew everything else…green beans, corn, peas, potatoes, beets, squash, pumpkins and more. My mother would often ask me to go pick something out of the garden for dinner. I grew up thinking this was a normal activity. 

I had no idea that most of my friends were eating their vegetables out of the freezer or a can.

Cultivating the garden was a family activity. One year, my mother received a rototiller for Mother’s Day – this was not a gift she was especially excited about. That year, our garden doubled in size. We planted so many varieties of plants! I could not get enough. One minute you were burying potatoes, the next minute you were building a fence for the beans.

We rarely got into a routine of just eating common vegetables – and this paved the way for my love of all vegetables. Fresh from the garden, they tasted delicious and full of flavor. I always ate my vegetables first.

Wait. Does this sound like your kids? Getting kids to eat their vegetables can be challenging. But, getting kids to love them?!

I was involved with planting, watering, and harvesting the garden. I had an appreciation of the work that it took to get that food on the dinner table. As a kid, it felt like work. Work that I did not really want to do.  But, there was a reward – not eating peas from a can. It was many years later that I understood just what a treasure I had growing up.

Having a garden was a financial decision my parents made – nothing more. I imagine that they preferred fresh vegetables but not if that meant twice the price at the grocery store. Seeds cost next to nothing and what we yielded in vegetables from the garden fed us all winter – either through proper storage in our basement or canning.

Now, I know that home canning is not for everyone. Who has time for that? Nowadays, you can freeze much of the excess or give it away. Your neighbors will thank you. Friends will happily take extra veggies off your hands. Having a plentiful garden is a gift.

Start with a small garden. Maybe try some lettuce, sweet peppers, or tomatoes? Perhaps try some hearty herbs to brighten up a salsa or smoothie? Your kids might complain but, get them involved anyway. Let them pick out the seeds. Water the garden. Harvest the vegetables. And then, watch what happens at the dinner table.