In the past I’ve set myself quantitative goals for our garden. I’ve tried to save us £250 in groceries by benchmarking my harvest against the prices charged in our local supermarket and I’ve tried to grow certain foods in abundance. This year, gardening with a toddler is going to mean slightly different goals:
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| This kind of pottering is what it is all about |
1. FUN: I want it to be a fun experience that we enjoy together. I want GarlicBoy to experience the joy that comes from watching something you nurture grow. Watering the garden is already one of his favourite activities and I hope to add “picking his own food” to that.
2. FOOD: I want us to grow a wide variety of foods. I’ve deliberately chosen unusual varieties of things where I can. I want him to appreciate what a lot of the vegetables and fruits that he eats on a regular basis look like when growing.
3. HARVEST: I do want to supply as much of our food as I can, including a pumpkin for halloween and ideally some parsnips and carrots for Christmas Day. But I am conscious that my garden is tiny and that I’ll be limited in what I can have. So I’m calling this a trial run for when we have somewhere larger in the country and an experiment to see just how much produce you can wring out of a small urban garden when you make every inch count.
London to Land Girl 