Posted by Naomi

I always thought of myself as having a black thumb, since house plants experience a steady decline from the moment they enter our home.

In other words, I kill plants.

So I figured any vegetable garden I planted would face a similar doom under my care. Instead, I discovered that I really enjoyed gardening. The excitement of planting a tiny seed and actually see the thing sprout, then the satisfaction of harvesting tasty organic vegetables in the end was definitely worth the minimal effort on my part (read: I get lazy about weeding). I’ve learned a lot about what not to do and a few things that I found worked well. The kids enjoyed helping me plant and harvest, especially Adelaine.

Ellie’s imagination would take off soon after work commenced and she’d forget that she was supposed to be helping.

And Ethan, well, Ethan was better at stomping on my plants than helping them to grow – at least the plants had to develop strong roots to withstand his trampling!

Adelaine, on the other hand, is a very hard worker when she sets her mind to it and she was a great help with planting my onions, shallots and garlic, and then later harvesting my potatoes. I have no clue how well my garden did – I have nothing to compare it to – but I would say we were at least successful at growing some lovely food and I look forward to another garden next year!