Volunteering at a community garden one summer transformed our family by introducing us to the joy of gardening.

Our hearts and minds were forever changed. Fast forward, we now have our own kitchen garden with 14 raised beds and lots of family time together planting, harvesting and bonding.

Giving Children a Valuable Summer Activity

Four years ago, our family spent the summer in Seattle.  Our oldest daughter needed to find some community service opportunities for school.  Up until this point, we had exhausted her with cleaning the lost-and-found closet, volunteering at day camps, and helping teachers staple things. We wanted something bigger.

The beauty of Seattle is that most neighborhoods have their own community gardens, where residents can rent a plot and cultivate their own gardens (the waiting list is years long).  I immediately called the director of our neighborhood ‘P-Patch’ to inquire if our oldest daughter could provide a helping hand.  The director invited our family (including twin 6-year olds) to a weekly Monday night harvest party, where volunteers would work together to tend a plot of raised beds, many of which were dedicated to growing food for the local food bank.

Children Find Gardening Satisfying and Magical

Our Monday evenings quickly became our favorite evening of the week. The excitement of pulling up a beautiful beet quickly overshadowed the fact that we were actually doing work.

Over the course of six weeks, we learned about the benefits of raised beds, composting, companion crops, pest and weed control, and even rabbit control.  We were poked by thorns, covered in band-aids and had the dirtiest nails in all the land.  While the work was satisfying, the real magic was happening inside our hearts and minds.

Digging in the soil proved to be extremely therapeutic.  Perhaps it’s a clearer connection to the Earth or maybe it was because it was just a simple, beautiful experience.  There were no cell phones, no texts, no emails to worry about.  It was just a time to feel grounded and let our minds work out whatever they needed to that day.  It left us all feeling tired, happier and calmer at the end of our shift.

Taking A Risk and Installing Our Own Garden

When we returned to Houston, we all missed tending to the gardens.  The real seeds had been planted in us~ to attempt our own raised bed gardening in a completely different climate!  After installing a few 4’ x 6’ beds, we put what we learned to the test.  Even though we didn’t expect much, we were completely blown away when we produced more collard greens, swiss chard, bok choy, carrots and beets than we knew what to do with!

The thrill of planting something that starts as a delicate little seed is watching it grow and knowing that YOU made that happen.  In a world where everything revolves around instant gratification (Alexa, give me the answer!  Instacart, deliver my groceries!), it’s nice to slow down… plant some seeds… and let them develop in their own time. Kind of like raising children.

Want Garden Girls to help your family start a kitchen garden?