Garden Projects with Toddlers

Unrelated picture of Jackson studying "Water! Water!"

Just wanted to report some success employing my one-year-old as an agricultural laborer.

We've been doing some winter planting here lately--our Southern California weather gives us year-round growing opportunities--and Jackson has been an awesome little garden helper. When he sees the dibble he says "Hole! Hole!" because he knows it's used to drill the holes in the soil, and then he asks about "Seeds? Seeds?"

We've had the best success with really big meaty seeds. The kiddo tried to help with planting radishes, carrots and chard, but he just doesn't yet have the fine motor skills to sprinkle anything. On the other hand, he did an absolutely smashing job helping me plant pea seeds, which he could just pinch between his two little baby fingers; fava beans, which are huge, like the size of my thumb; and garlic cloves, which are very easy size for him to grasp.

By the time we were done with our planting projects, Jackson was picking the seeds out of the packet, dropping them in each of the holes in a particular row, and then filling in the holes with soil and tamping them down. Cuteness.

I really hope some of our plantings survive the slugs and the other depredations of the garden because I'd love Jackson to actually enjoy the fruits of his labor!