Gardening with toddlers

I used to do lots of gardening back in the day.  I had my own little house with a garden which I spent ages developing, and it was just getting established when I met and then moved in with The Daddy.  He had a much bigger house, but the garden (both front and back) had been 'bachelorised' to within an inch of it's life, with black membrane and gravel!  We knew we were going to move though, so I left it and when we got to this house it was a blank canvas.  And then I got pregnant.  And the following summer I had two small babies who were being weaned.  And this year I have my hands rather full with two toddlers, and one of the wettest summers (so far) on record.   It's a little frustrating, but as they get older I know I'll be able to get gardening again, and get them to help.  

Last week we were given some tomato and mint plants by a friendly neighbour.  "They'll need to go in bigger pots," she told me.  Ok.  Well I don't have any pots, so on Saturday we went to the local garden centre and bought a tomato grow bag and one pot for the mint.  It rained all day, and again on Sunday, so when the sun came out on Monday we finally got into the garden for the first time in ages.  It was gloriously hot and I even had to take the children's vests off (well, you never know how warm it's going to be at the moment!!)  I had hoped to do this when I had an extra pair of hands, but it wasn't meant to be.  The tomatoes needed to go out and so did the children!

I've done things like this with 3- and 4-year-olds a million times, but never with 19-month-old toddlers; it really is a whole different ball game.  Trying to make sure they didn't eat the soil was interesting, and Little Miss has decided that plants exist for her to pull the leaves off...   

She already has a leaf in her hand and we haven't even started yet...

I gave them the job of putting some stones in the bottom of the pot to act as drainage for the mint.  They spend ages moving these stones around the garden so this was right up their street.  Then I just had the little issue of getting them to stop so I could actually get some compost in...

They were then fascinated when I filled the watering can up to give everything a good drink!  They kept wanting to put stones in with the tomatoes though, and Little Miss tried to put the empty plant pots back under the tomatoes.  But of course, that's where they came from!  Next shopping trip I must get some children's watering cans, and I'm planning a little digging area in the garden which will be just for them.  Hopefully by the time I get round to it Little Man will be less inclined to put everything in his mouth!

Here's everything all planted up and finished.  I had to grab this shot quick as they'd had enough and wanted a snack!

Fingers crossed we'll get some tomatoes, and I put some of the mint in my Broad Bean Risotto - yum!

Have you had any experience of gardening with small toddlers?!

I'm linking this up with 'Country Kids' at Coombe Mill.