My youngest son came home from school one day last spring clutching a tiny cucumber plant in a Dixie cup. His only words were "Don't let this die Mom. It's very special. I grew it."
No pressure! I transferred the plant to a larger pot and watered it diligently for a couple weeks. I knew that I needed to get that poor little plant outside pronto for it to really thrive, but our yard was still a giant mud pit after our big remodeling project last summer.
So I hurriedly created a little bed in a spot that gets some good sun and I tucked that little cucumber plant into the ground. I threw in a couple tomato plants and some basil and called it a garden.
Now that tiny plant is possibly the most productive cucumber plant on the planet! My son has harvested at least a dozen cucumbers already with many more to come.
I'm looking forward to a more elaborate vegetable garden next year but I love that this very special cucumber plant was the catalyst for our tiny garden in a year that we otherwise wouldn't have had one.
Do you have a vegetable garden? Do your kids help harvest what you grow?
That's such a sweet story. I'm so glad the plant thrived-that was a lot of pressure! All three of my kids came home with a spruce tree seeding in first grade. We planted each one-with the same pressure "mom don't kill it". Only one tree survived and it's growing like crazy. The good news is we don't know which child it belonged to so each one thinks it's theirs!
Posted by: Lori Popkewitz Alper | September 19, 2012 at 08:49 AM
Love that story about the spruce trees Lori!
Posted by: Micaela | September 19, 2012 at 09:03 AM
Oh ... that is such a lovely story! And love the photo of your son with his harvest. Thanks for sharing ... definitely put a smile on my face! :-)
Posted by: Small Footprints | September 19, 2012 at 09:24 AM
Thats great it was so productive. Good way to get kids to eat their veggies!
Posted by: Emily@crunchyhousehold | September 19, 2012 at 11:50 AM