|
|
Welcome to my gardening rabbit hole I’ve been delving deeper into day by day with my son Tedd. Hi everyone! I’ve got my cup of coffee and I’m ready to visit with you, my favorite people. Last month I told you I wanted to get to gardening again. Do you remember?
About two weeks ago I had the dreaded question asked by my son Tedd. “Mom, I want a job, what can I do for money?”
Too young for a job. I used to feel so bad for my kids that would ask that. Now, I’m like, “let’s put our heads together and figure out just what an 11 year old can do.” I asked, “would you want to clean lawns in town? No one wants to pick up dog poop.” I got the look…no he doesn’t want to do that! “Gross mom!” Well, the rule of thumb is, if the majority of people don’t want to do it, you can really fill a niche” I told him. He wouldn’t budge on the dog poop, not going to do that. He thought mowing lawns would be good. I told him the object of the game would be to put the least amount of money into his business…(kind of like a box of plastic bags and a pooper scooper, but who am I right?) I’m also not going to haul our ancient mower into town each week.
We went through another couple options, but then a light bulb turned on in my head. “Garden with me!” I exclaimed to the boy. “We could have cut flowers and produce. We could try to sell to restaurants as well as farmers markets and stores.” With a solemn, “I guess” and a downward look, he agreed. “It’ll be months before we make any money though, mom.” Yes son…and we’ll have to work for that money. I’m going to date myself a wee bit with this next sentence. ‘That’s what’s wrong with kids nowadays. They want instant gratification.’ It’s kind of true and you know it. Mine are no different and sometimes, I’m the same way.
Now I remember when I was a kid and my parents were so poor living out in the country squeaking out a living having a few milk cows and my dad having his own business. They had a 1/4 acre or so of a garden. Sometimes even bigger. To say I hated gardening as a kid would be an understatement. I loathed it. We spent HOURS per day weeding.
Moving onto my kids, they hate gardening just like I did. But there’s hope. Our oldest daughter likes it. What do you know? I never thought anyone would.
So we had our planning night, Tedd and I. We’re going to do a method called Bio intensive cropping. Where our rows are 30” wide and the name of the game is to put the crops close enough together that they get the airflow they need but the leaves will touch and create a canopy to keep the weeds away. We’ll see how this goes. Also, we’re going to heavy mulch and plastic where we can, to have hours of weeding a thing of the past, so Tedd may actually like this
We’ve started bean plants and peas already. This weekend we are planting 450 radishes, and covering with plastic.
I’ll keep you up to date, but the most important thing is this: from my angle, even if nothing grows, I’ll be spending time with my youngest and as I’ve noticed with all our other kids, time with them is SHORT. I need to make the most of it.
Until next time,
Fairchild Farmgirl
Suzanne Fairchild is a freelance writer who lives on a farm in southwest Minnesota with her husband and children. She can be reached at rmf@itctel.com.
