When we found out that our town recently built a community garden at a park just minutes from our house we decided to dig in (pun intended) to a new adventure – growing vegetables.

Though our yard has room for a garden, it is also continually visited by deer, rabbits, woodchucks, etc which would make growing anything edible pretty tough. I haven’t been inspired enough to try to build our own fenced in area, but the offer of raised beds – built, filled with dirt, and fenced in – was pretty enticing!

We were totally overzealous in our purchasing of plants and seeds and I imagine more experienced gardeners might cringe at how much we tried to cram into our four by eight food garden bed, but I’m hopeful that we get at least some of them to grow.

Honestly, for me at least, it’s more about the process and especially about letting Natalie be involved. I want her to experience the excitement of planting something and watching it grow… and, if all goes well, the reward of eating something you grew yourself.

With that in mind, I’ve enlisted her help all along the way, from making labels for each veggie in our garden to planting and watering. And, so far, she loves it!

We made simple labels by collecting rocks around our house and painting them. When the paint was dry I wrote the name of each vegetable on top in permanent marker. She loves painting so this was a big hit!

Last week we spent an hour or so planting. Natalie was very hands on which was fun, albeit messy! Here she is hard at work – plus a bonus picture she took of me, ha!

I’m really curious to see how things turn out… especially those rows of tiny seeds that were sort of just dumped in by little three-year-old hands! And while I certainly hope to be eating our veggies this summer, I’m also thankful simply for the opportunity to do this together as a family and share another new adventure with my sweet girl.

PS I keep meaning to write more often but other things always seem to take priority. Hopefully a few updates coming this month!