This afternoon my daughter and I were out in the garden doing a few tasks that needed tackled: we planted potatoes and filled in a raised bed with soil. We brought a bucket of water with us and stuck newspapers in the wet water before laying them over the grass clippings in the raised bed (you can see a picture of that in this post about lawns). Then we filled the bed with soil. At four she’s old enough to do many of the garden activities I do and old enough to ask a lot of questions along the way!
Here’s a few garden questions from my daughter that I can remember.
Q. Why are you wetting the newspaper before you put it down (on the grass clippings)?
A. Wetting the newspaper holds them down long enough for me to cover with soil and helps to add moisture to heat up the layers underneath.
Q. Why are you leaving the leaves in the dirt?
A. Because leaves enrich the soil as they breakdown.
Q. Are leaves good for the soil?
A. Yep. They add organic matter that is good for the soil.Q. Do we have any more potatoes to plant?
A. No ten is enough for us, we’ll have plenty of potatoes (‘Yukon Gold’) with 10 plants.Q. Is this a weed?
A. Yes that’s chickweed.Q. What about this plant with the pretty purple flowers?
A. Yes that’s a weed too, called henbit.Q. We are going to have lots of strawberries this year! (OK that’s a statement not a question).
A. I hope so!Q. [When in the front yard] Ewww, what’s that smell?
A. That’s just the smell of the Bradford pears in bloom! Great isn’t it? [Yet another reason not to plant one – the odor is awful!]
There were many more questions that I can’t remember, you know how 4 year olds are!
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My HUGE 50-year old BPs have no scent at all. I'm always baffled when people refer to this!
Oh, Dave you brought back memories. The pear trees smell really bad and they are so pretty. It sounds like your daughter is asking all the right questions to be a great gardener.
Eileen
Love the questions from kids. Cherish this time, it goes quickly.
That's how they learn.
cute. it always bothers me when kids ask questions and adults, often too busy to slow down, dismiss their question without any real explanation. i like your answers. at four years old, those questions never seem to stop coming. but as janet says, cherish the time, soon they'll be teenagers and won't want to talk to you! 🙂
That's adorable.
Soon she'll be a pro and will be answering the questions in the local gardening column.
Precious….you just don't stop about the Bradford Pears do you? lol…everytime I see one I just smile and think of you…
She is getting to be a big smart gardening girl! What fun you are having with her. Tell her I think the Bradford pears are terrible smelling, too! gail
and they don't even realise that they're learning through the process.
Here is a gardening question from my son: "Why can't you write about something interesting?"