Garden Therapy

Morning garden reflections with coffee

My garden is my therapy

It is my children's play ground

My garden is my grocery shop

It is my children's snack bar

My garden is my science experiment

It is my children's exploration

My garden is my venting space

It is my children's change of pace

My garden is my quiet space

It is my children's nap time

My garden is my creativity 

It is my children's discovery center

My garden is my morning reflection

It is my children's sand box

My garden is my exercise

It is my children's make believe

My garden is my get away

It is my children's safe space

Snack time!

You know, you can bury a lot of troubles in the ground. I don't remember who told me this years ago, but it has certainly stood true for me.  Whether it be frustration that I "work out" as I pull weeds or the sense of accomplishment I get as I watch things grow that I planted or started from seed, I always feel mentally lighter. Whatever the reason it seems to sooth my soul. 

Little Ma looking for
sugar snap peas

My garden has brought so much joy; to my children; and to myself. It has given us a reason to go outside on a regular basis where we may have otherwise stayed inside. I like that. Each day my littles look for snap peas  (which they gobble up as soon as they see one - ripe or otherwise) and that makes them excited. Their excitement is catching. Their eyes light up when they find a "baby mato" or "accidentally" find a carrot. They have a miniature grocery cart they push around the "grocery store" aka garden. I can always tell when they have found the ripe blackberries... that purple juice sure is telling and gets everywhere. They giggle as they find them. These moments are precious to me. Just about everything in my garden is edible and so it naturally lends itself to curiosity and lots of sensory exploration.

Baby Toad

We watch the bumble bees working hard going from flower to flower and dragonflies zooming around. We have learned about baby lady bugs (weird looking little creatures) and about ants... lots of ants... I like that they are learning that these are normal things. Not icky, not scary,  just a normal part of outside.  We found a bunch of baby toads the other day after a hard rain the night before and that brought excited hands and squeals of joy. We watch all the different birds; cardinals and hummingbirds are a regular sight.

Excited fingers eager to hold the toads

The other day my littles helped me turn the compost pile and we learned (well they learned) about worms. There were probably 200 worms in that pile (yay!!!) and it was quite the source of fascination to them. There were lots of high pitched squeals and giggles between them.  Oh I can't even tell you how happy they were!  We were all sufficiently dirty after that day. It was lovely. Truly. Nothing makes this momma's heart more full than to see my two little kids dirty from playing outside together.

My garden is love.