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Tend
a garden for the joy of healthy food
April 22, 04
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
Do
you recall the childhood thrill of picking backyard tomatoes?
The surprise you felt when you pushed aside the tangle of
vines and leaves and discovered a bright red flash of color?
The smell of the plants and the warmth of a tomato heated
by the summer sun?
If so, that early experience likely instilled in you a lifelong
appreciation for how food is grown and a fondness not only
for homegrown tomatoes but for other garden staples as well,
such as bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers and melons.
It’s an experience a child is not likely to forget,
and it’s one that can foster a lifelong preference for
some simple, health-supporting foods. Foods in their natural
state, unprocessed and free of added salt, sugar, and other
additives such as artificial coloring and flavoring.
As I’ve discussed in earlier columns, children like
to eat foods they’ve had a hand in preparing. Tending
a kitchen garden can have the same result. Learning how food
grows can also help to reinforce lessons learned in school
– about how plants grow and the effects of weather.
It’s also an enjoyable means of cultivating in kids
a sense of responsibility, self-sufficiency and accomplishment.
Of course, kitchen gardens aren’t just for kids. Older
adults – in fact, everyone – can benefit from
stretching, digging, and lifting outdoors.
And now’s the time to get started.
You may need a sunny spot to grow tomatoes and peppers, but
a big backyard isn’t mandatory. If you don’t have
a lot of space, try container gardening, using a few clay
pots, an old barrel or planter.
Get your child involved from the start by picking out seed
packets or seedlings together. Talk about the space and sun
requirements of the plants you’d like to grow. Good
choices for many backyards: bell peppers, lettuce, radishes,
carrots, green onions, green beans and tomatoes. (Garden shops
now carry tomato varieties geared to growing in containers
on patios.)
For larger gardens where plants can spread out, try cucumbers,
zucchini, pumpkins, cantaloupe and watermelon. You can also
tuck some plants – especially herbs – here and
there between shrubs and flowers in the yard. Try parsley,
chives, basil, rosemary and others.
Assist your child in planting. Then assign him or her the
task of watering and weeding.
At my house, we don’t have a good spot for a big garden,
so we take the “here and there” approach. We tolerate
a few unsightly tomato plants in the midst of our relatively
tidy flower garden, and we grow herbs and peppers in pots
and gaps in the landscape.
What we can’t grow, we pick up at the farmers market
and roadside stands. And, of course, we get our weekly supply
of local produce from the CSA (community-supported agriculture)
farm to which we subscribe during the growing season. Last
year, we took the kids out to the farm to see where our food
is grown and to pick tomatoes.
Between growing their own and seeing firsthand how others
grow our food, our kids are learning to value good food. And
they are establishing eating habits that will support their
health throughout life.
And there’s an added bonus.
When I asked the kids what the best part of growing summer
veggies was, 13-year-old Barbara replied, “Being with
my family. And you get to get your hands dirty.”
For 8-year-old Henry, it was, “You get to eat ’em.”
So there you have it.
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