Day 3: Grow the Biggest Zucchini In Your Neighborhood

Okay! So maybe you don’t want to grow zucchini. Can’t blame you. Don’t like the stuff myself. But what better way to learn the basics of science and how things grow than to plant your own garden? You can start with seeds or small plants. Talk about what plants need to be hardy: air, water, sunlight and nutrients. Vegetables are especially fun and educational to plant because your child will learn where food comes from and will also get to eat the end product.

My wife loves planning her garden right about this time. She takes her seed catalog and some graph paper, sits down with a nice cup of tea and draws the backyard. With the graph paper, she draws the plots in her garden and plans where she will plant her food. We don’t have a huge garden but in the fall, when all the food comes in, it is so nice to be able to eat locally grown food that seems to taste so much better than when you buy it in the store. And your kids will love eating food they’ve grown themselves. It doesn’t even take that much time weeding when you just have a few small plots. We even grew potatoes in large planters. In the fall, we up-end the dirt out of the planters and shake the dirt off the spuds!

So start now and get planning that garden. Even a field trip to the local store for seeds is a fun time!