Gardening Toddler

Daddy decided to lift the garden, cleaning out deep growing grass-roots and working in new soil and compost. Being so close to the ocean, also means we have beach sand for soil and it needed to be refreshed. Yesterday an area was done for replanting giving Boeta a great excuse to go play in the sand and help with the gardening. Daddy called him, put his gardening hat on and got his wheelbarrow. He told Boeta to go get his tools as we are going to do some planting. He was out of his skin with excitement.

We started planting and we use the wheelbarrow to put selected plants in, then we push it close to the area and start planting. Initially it was Boeta’s job to bring the plants for daddy as he put them into the ground. He then decided to try a few himself, planting them upside down, roots in the air. Daddy showed him the correct way. The lizard is his favorite ornament in the garden and he helped putting it just right.

The idea of plants having to be covered with soil, stuck, and he then decided to add soil to every plant, just to be sure daddy did not miss some.

The most important thing in the garden is one’s hat and losing it is not a good thing…the problem is to put it back, while one hand is loaded with soil…luckily, daddy was there to rescue the situation.

Boeta really loved the play and learning session in the garden and soon he was walking around like a farmer investigating his crop, even learning the words “aloe” and “tag”.

We decided to end the session after about 2 hours and Boeta sat with daddy as they discussed what they did.

In this period of calm after a hard “days” work, Boeta decided to test the soil too! This was a less than good decision, clearly.

We packed up, ready to go in and have something to drink and eat, having established that soil would not do.

Our neighbors saw us busy in the garden and being very fond of Boeta, they came over to see what was going on. They are Boeta’s favorite neighbors too.

Boeta explained in a language still unrecognizable what we were doing and soon a game developed with the tags we use to mark the aloes.

At the end of this session we went direct into bath mode. He had soil everywhere, but he was happy, very happy. It really is fun to play with your toddler in the garden, while also teaching them about plants and gardening.