Our Grand Adventures in the School Garden

I’ve been busy lately dreaming about and planning the garden I’ll be planting with my kiddos in our backyard come spring. To whet our appetite for what’s ahead, we spent this morning helping to clean up my son’s school garden.

First, a little about the garden: It’s huge! And what an amazing place it is! There are raised planter boxes for each classroom, pathways that meander about the entire garden, plants intended to attract butterflies and trees creating nice, shady spaces.

Although the garden is owned by the school, budget cuts have meant that the responsibility for its upkeep has fallen to a few dedicated parents (myself included). Tons of rain combined with busy families translates into a garden neglected for far too long. We had our work cut out for us!

What we did: For the parents, there were gynormous weeds to be pulled (really, they were beyond huge), grasses to be mowed, edges to be edged and so on.

But more important for the kids, there were overgrown pathways to explore, bugs to discover and future gardeners looking to get in on the action.

My five year old wanted to pitch in and help me pull weeds – until he found his first ladybug. Then he was off from one planter box to the next searching not just for ladybugs, but for worms, rolly polly bugs and whatever else was moving in the dirt. And the other kids were eager to join in on his quest.

The kids were also fascinated with all the tools involved – gloves, shovels, trowels and of course, the lawn mower.

My 21 month old – who usually doesn’t stay in the same place for more than a second – was a fixture in the dirt with us. He loved the bugs — perhaps a little too much for this poor worm …

He also enjoyed trying to help dad with the big shovel he was using to dig out weeds and loved pulling out the small ones mom was tackling.

What I learned: Watching the kids in the garden was inspiring.

I saw countless displays of teamwork, heard tons of shrills of excitement at the discovery of a new bug or the yanking of a huge weed, and witnessed an eagerness to try new things unmatched in other environments.

Older kids watched out for younger ones, younger ones found ways to help older ones and no one felt left out.

Watching my littlest find pleasure in the dirt, the bugs, the weeds – all of it – was heart warming. This is a kid who’s favorite word is “go” and is always looking for an escape route no matter what we’re doing. To see him engaged and enjoying himself so much just felt good.

My oldest nearly cried when it was time to head home for lunch. Which in our world means he had a really, really good time.