Last year I had a huge garden. I started my seedlings inside and by the time I transferred them to my garden plots, they were healthy little plants. I had yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beets, carrots, green beans and sweet peas. I even started a small strawberry patch on the side of my house. Unfortunately, due to a freak hail storm early in the summer of 2013, my plants were badly damaged and they spent a lot of time and energy regrowing broken and ripped leaves instead of producing a lot of food. In the fall, when I should have been harvesting what little my garden did produce, we experienced the 100 year flood here in Boulder. The four days of non-stop torrential rain effectively rotted what I had spent all summer tending after the damage from the hail. But at least, during the height of the summer, we were able to enjoy green beans, peas, and some tomatoes. And it looked good. For some reason that mattered to me. I took pride in the lush, leafy greenness that was exploding and overflowing over my little fence.
This year my garden suffered at the hands of another force of nature, even before I could transfer my precious sproutlings to the ground. It was not the destructiveness of a hail storm or too much rain. It was not searing temperatures and drought-like conditions, nor vegetation flattening gale force winds, but the complete and utter annihilation by a menace so fierce, so willful and so naughty, that even time-outs and scoldings couldn’t stop him. He goes by the name of Cooper and he can take corners on his scooter like Dale Earnheardt Jr. rounding the final bend of the Indy 500. And Cooper, much like the fans of car racing, really enjoys the crashes more than the smooth turns around the track.
My garden starts, set out on the patio, so that the early spring sun might coax the green buds from the awaking seeds, were a very gratuitous victim. He seemed to love the way the soil would jump out of the little pots and spread out into a black dust on the concrete. Then he’d drive over and over again through the black soil, admiring the patterns his tracks made. I’d run screeching from the house, trying to salvage the few survivors that I could. Cooper would rest his hands on his handlebars and survey the scene with an amused grin on his little face and say “Thowwy Mommy, it wath an athident.” Who can stay mad at a chubby three year old with a charming lisp?
By the time my second round of starts of had been destroyed, partly by Cooper and partly by the cats who loved to chew the heads of the new plants off, I gave up. I decided to just throw my leftover seeds straight into the garden and consider myself lucky if anything came up.
My garden this summer, due to it’s late start and less ambitious tending, looks like something that was planted in a vacant lot in the middle of the city and then left to live or die on it’s own. My peas are wimpy, my green beans are patchy, my swiss chard is filled with holes and my cucumber plant is runty. If this garden was my sole source of food, I could very well starve to death.
I’m hoping that next summer Cooper will have a better understanding of gardening and will become interested in tending it rather than trampling it. Do you have a garden this year and if so, do your little ones like to help you with it? Or, like me, do you have to deal with two-legged garden pests?
I dream of having a garden. I am a super black thumb, but I think I could get a few things to grow with my husband’s help. Baby #3 was born in April at the very beginning of gardening season and it just didn’t happen this year. But next year hopefully although I will probably be struggling with some of your same problems. Haha!
My garden has unfortunately gone through some similar things this year! The poor little thing is definitely suffering. It doesn’t help that I’m due with baby number #2 in a few days and my daughter (almost three) loves to pick the “flowers” off of what would be veggies. 😉
My husband cherishes his garden, he says it is his preparation for taking care of our first little one…I have a feeling this is going to be an issue with ours next summer!
I would love to have a garden or even just flowers out front. Right now my son plucks most of the flowers he sees so I don’t think gardening is in our immediate future.
With a baby born in Feb… I planted my garden, but couldn’t get to it…. Now it’s just weeds! Orwell, there’s always next year!
We have the worst soil, but I always helped my mom garden growing up, and I hope I can encourage my little girl to get into it as well.
I didn’t plant a garden this year, and last year, due to being pregnant and having morning sickness the entire time, my garden was a disaster. I planted, and then just let it go wild. Hopefully next year I’ll have a nice one… but then I’ll also have an 18 month old, who, if he is anything like his older brothers, will have fun digging everything up. 😉
We left for a vacation happy with the prospect of ripe tomatoes when we got back, only to return and find that a tomato blight has ruined most of them. I’m so bummed.
We love garden fresh veggies!
No garden for us here, but with twins I can only imagine the damage they’d do. They are young though and I do dream of a sweet family garden for us in the future. I don’t have the most green thumb though so I might actually do more harm than my toddlers.
This is too funny! My problem is kids eating/ picking before anything is ready…oh joy!
My lovely container garden suffered this same fate a few years ago. Haven’t been brave enough to try again!
Our garden is looking pretty sad this year too. My kiddos did like to help at least, but the weather really has not cooperated.
Oh I always say I’m going to put a garden in but we are military and we move around and rent places and i still haven’t done it. Also I’m not sure how green my thumb is but my mil has a super green thumb!
Better luck next year!
Haha. While I was reading the title of the blog post, I was envisioning that you came across some bug with two legs. Of course- kids! LOL. I hope to have my own garden next year!
i have a garden- it’s mostly compost garden (surprise plants pop up from my winter compost to give me food every year. I also planted cucumber, carrots, peas…. Baby bear helps me water it- she loves bringing over buckets of water 🙂
I have a pretty huge garden that my 17 month old loves to “help” with. I planted the seedlings and seeds when he was just 13 months and even then he loved to dig in the dirt and water the plants with his own little watering can. He also has his own set of little tools that he uses to dig along the edges. The biggest problem we have is that he likes to harvest his favorite times, namely blueberries and figs, before they are even ripe. Can’t blame the little guy though, they are very tasty. I’m hoping that by starting him out with gardening so early we won’t have problems with a destructive older toddler later on.
Oh no! Your poor garden! My garden gets trampled on by our dog that loves to race through it 🙁
I have a largely neglected garden, due to being preggo & having a 1-yr old. The only thing that has thrived is my rhubarb, which got established early enough to survive on rainfall, and some very impressive weeds. Unfortunately, rhubarb is an annual this far south…. Maybe next year. Jr. doesn’t even register the garden yet.
At first I thought my basil was getting eaten by the birds, but when I spotted my toddler attacking it I found the true culprit. It seems to be thriving now that I’ve directed her energies to the copious weeds in the yard.
My garden got washed out this year too!
Thanks for the laugh! Between my 3 dogs and almost 3 year old daughter, I can only imagine a similar scenario if I even *tried* to start a garden!!
I wish I would have been able to do my garden this year but it just didn’t happen. So maybe next year!
I love the idea of having a garden. They just require so much time & lots of hard work! What a fun activity to get kids involved in though!
My son is constantly eating the dirt in my garden and pulling the leaves off the plants. Not so helpful. Very cute, though.
we know this well! having my LO help in the garden has been fun though
We had every intention of having a great garden this year and planned to keep up with the weeding, mulching & watering. But then life caught up with us, including a longer-than-expected business trip for my husband. Our garden consists of a few short rows of tomato plants that have not been adequately supported & are hard to see, due to the rampant weeds. I guess there’s always next year.
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