sowing the seed

i love to grow plants. 

i love that you can plant a tiny seed and in a matter of days it has germinated and in a matter of weeks you can be eating the produce from that seed.

i hope to instil that love of growing to my children.

recently, my eldest daughter daisy, who lives away from home, has rung excitedly to say she has just eaten the first snow pea she has grown. that makes me happy.

my older daughters never seemed all that interested in gardening while they were growing up. they saw me spend plenty of time in the garden pottering around and would sometimes join in but often they were just happy playing their own games nearby.

during their early teenage years they thought i was a real drag... always gardening! they certainly never wanted to join in then.

but now i see a change. daisy has a few pots on her balcony where she grows a few things to pick and at school this year eloise has taken on the school garden as part of her studies. they are often asking questions along the lines of 'how and what to plant'. even if they didn't always garden with me in their younger years they both seemed to have picked up something. they will both know that if it comes down to it they could produce their own food. both the older girls can recognise the difference between the taste of supermarket produce and that which comes straight from the garden. they know the names of fruits and vegetables. that may seem a strange thing to say but i don't know how many times, at the supermarket checkout, a young assistant has asked me the name of a fruit or vegetable (sometimes even the common ones!)

at two and a bit its too soon to say whether jessica will have a love of gardening. she likes to help plant seeds, to harvest and certainly loves flowers but whether it will become a passion or not remains to be seen.

at the moment, if asked 'what did you do today jess?' she will answer with 'gardening' even if we haven't done any!

in the meantime i aim to give her lots of gardening opportunities, to talk about plants with her, to teach her their names and to let her see me enjoying my passion.

i hope to sow the seed!

tomorrow i will be over at rowan and oak talking about where my passion for gardening comes from. pop on over and take a look around this lovely blog.