Starting them early

Evening all.

I thought I'd share this little tale with you because I was both amused and impressed at the same time.

Today I thought I'd make a start on clearing the ground where I'm going to build the patio. For some reason there was a large mound of earth there, presumably some unfinished project of the last owners. This had to go so that the ground was level.

Knowing that my 2 year old son always wants to copy what I do, and loves being outside, I got him all wrapped up to come with me. He has his own spade, a kiddie one but it is a metal one as opposed to the plastic ones that kids take to the beach, so it can dig mud reasonably well.

So the lad and I went off to tackle this mound. I was expecting him to just poke about in the soil while I did the actual work, but no, he was determined to help. After watching what I was doing for a couple of minutes, he took his spade and started digging the mound. At first he was just putting the soil he excavated wherever he saw fit but I showed him where I wanted it and lo and behold, the determined little mite dug from the mound, and then very carefully carried each spade full to where I wanted the soil putting, before coming back to the mound for another spadeful.

I was amused and impressed at his determination. Granted the job took a lot longer than it would if I'd been on my own, because we had to keep stopping to carefully examine each and every earthworm we exposed, but at least he enjoyed himself.

Who knows, maybe in ten years he'll be teaching me how to do the garden

 

Lovely tale mate. He won't go too far wrong if he gets interested in gardening that young.

Chopper.

 

me too. Every year they grew Gourds. And they were heaped up in the hall all through the winter becoming more mouldy by the day, but couldn't be thrown out ...

 

Start em young... always a good thing

 

My boy was the same at that age. Now its,"Can you give me a lift/cider/beer" etc.

Willow still likes to grow stuff though.

 

My dad tells me I was the same at a very early age. I once asked my dad how come I was a master with the pick axe and the spade, while all my mates that occassionally come to help me require endless coaching just to get a half decent rythm going. My dad's reply was simply, 'cos you use to help me since before you were even big enough to lift a pick'.

Sadly though, for years I lost all interest, favouring bmx bikes, skateboards, then later women and beer instead of gardening.

If only I had lost interest for so many years, maybe I'd have been a good gardener now, and I could have still done all the teenager/young man stuff as well

I half expect my son to be the same, except he has one major advantage over me. I grew up in a house without a garden, so all my early gardening stuff happened down the allotment across town, in a location that was out of sight and out of mind. Whereas my son will grow up with a garden, and then there's our own little plot in the countryside, so he'll always have easy access. Of course all that said, the last thing I want to do is mold him. If he wants to be green fingered, fair play. If he has no interest at all, then that'll be his choice too

 

I'm with you there Dave, you can lead a badger to linux, but you can't make him install it.

Fortunately, even going thru the wine, women & song bit of youth, I never stoped growing stuff. Not all of it legal mind, but growing is growing.

Got my first allotment when I was in my early 20s & moved up to a field by early 30s. Approaching 50 now & still learning new stuff every year, so don't worry about any gaps, you'll soon catch up And yes, I still get things wrong. I'm lamenting the loss of my globe artichokes, with a bit of forethought, I could of still had them, even with the snow. I was just too late getting the protections on.

You've got all of us lot now too:D We'll give you loads of conflicting information:WINK1:

 

How sweeeeeeeeeeeet, especially the bit about studying each and every earthworm :D and lovely for you to have a willing recruit.