Real life offers all sorts of teachable moments, no classroom required! As little bits of greenery started to peek through the brown Iowa landscape, one of my kids asked if it was time to plan for our vegetable garden. It was a a great suggestion and offers the opportunity for some creative learning too!

If you’ve never gardened before, you have a bit more work to do. If you need some tips on how to determine the most appropriate spot, prepare your soil or how to build garden boxes, you can find a lot of information by searching “beginners vegetable garden” on the internet.

I love any opportunity to get out some graph paper, so I sent my son to measure our garden with a tape measure, and draw it to scale. Then, I planned for too many plants in too little space every. single. time. This year will be no exception. It’s just too hard for me to narrow down all of the options for amazing homegrown produce.

Next, I asked the kids to make a list of which veggies and herbs they’d like to plant (and eat). Everyone got at least one pick and many of them were wanted by all. Here’s what we came up with:

Now is a great time of year to look into ordering starter plants. I struggle with getting tomatoes to grow from seeds, so I turn to my friends at Coyote Run Farm who do starts of tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. I’ll select from a list of dozens of heirlooms and they’ll be ready to put in the ground just after Mother’s Day. We will plant the rest from seeds around the same time. Ideally, I think everything has a proper time to get planted, but one planting day works better for our crew.

Once in the ground, I will be extremely grateful for whichever child keeps everything alive and growing by watering and weeding throughout the summer. It’s no secret that I do not have a green thumb, but really enjoy fresh produce, so I’m very appreciative of the help. Whatever we don’t grow, I’ll get on my weekly trips to the Farmer’s Market.

Now, time to start dreaming of those summer tomatoes! Happy gardening!