Gardening with kids gives them so many opportunities to learn things. There are obvious subject areas such as science and nature studies of course, but there are also life lessons to be learnt. What you grow can teach a lot about your attitude to life – to creativity and challenge and risk taking! Here’s why in amongst the carrots and onions we always grow a wild card.
Why you should always grow a wild card :: life lessons from the garden
Every year we grow the kinds of food we love to eat, things which are especially nice to eat last-minute-freshly-picked from the back garden, and things which are more costly to buy in the supermarket. So, lots of herbs, salads, and more unusual varieties of tomatoes and potatoes. But we always, always also throw in a wild card – something we’ve never grow before.
{definition} wild card :: low-probability, high-impact events
In the gardening world, our wild card is:
:: something we have never tried before
:: something a little unusual
:: something a bit risky
:: something that will have a wow-factor if it does grow well
Last year we grew peppers in our little mini-greenhouse – and just about raised one although it never really ripened in our miserable summer. The year before we tried to grow melon, with even less success!
This year, given the blessing of extra space at the allotment we’re excited to be trying a pumpkin patch, and our wild card pick is this beautiful Turk’s Turban winter squash (catalogue image and seeds from Thompson and Morgan). Isn’t it gorgeous? Have you ever grown them?
Life lessons from the garden
Growing a wild card with the children – and just for myself – is about much more than a fondness for pumpkins.
:: it’s about being creative – using our existing knowledge and skills to try something different
:: it’s about taking risks – breaking out of a comfort zone and being a bit daring is a lesson gently learned in the garden, that pays dividends as we grow up and head out in to the wide world
:: it’s about celebrating the wonder of nature – embracing the amazing richness that nature {or God or Mother Nature…} offers us and welcoming that into our life
:: it’s about enjoying the process – because we don’t know if our wild card will grow, but we do know we can enjoy picking the variety, planting the seeds, watering the soil, seeing the first leaves appear…..
So, wish us luck! We planted our seeds last week, and the girls wrote out our seed labels.
And look what’s popped up this morning. We’re off to a good start!
Congratulations on becoming allotment holders! We’ve had ours for 2 years, they are hard work but lots of fun. I love the idea of growing a wild card.
Thank you! We’re so excited about it as we’ve been on the waiting list for years.
Our wild card this year (it’s never been called that before but will be from now on) is corn. We tried jerusalem artichokes one year and they didn’t even sprout. We had some strange squash seeds – I think they may have been acorn squash – that some one gave us last year, they turned out big and delicious. Pumpkins are a bit of a hit and miss with us, some years they are huge and other they just rot.
Will definitely be doing our pizza (herb) garden again this year.
Enjoy your allotment.
we love growing squash… turk’s turbans are great 🙂 our wild card this year is aubergine!
We have an allotment too, my favourite thing to grow are squashes 🙂 we will start doing this wild card this year!
We grew Lemon Drop peppers. The nursery didn’t even know anything about them. They look like a cute little tree with tons of tiny yellow peppers. However, they will light your mouth on fire!!! I plan on planting them again and give them away(again).
Also, some heirloom tomatoes. The Black Prince was delicious, but we only got 1 tomato.
Great choices Shelley. We are planning on growing tomatoes again this year. Roll on spring!