Talking about gardening again...

We've been getting one last punch of summer weather these last two weeks, so my eyes are turned to our garden once again. I'm cheering for the onions, strawberries and tomatoes that still remain. A young friend of ours was turning five years old recently, and when I asked for gift suggestions, his mom mentioned his love of gardening. We ended up getting him his own set of gardening gloves, and some good quality, child-sized, tools, as well as a storybook called "Jack's Garden".

We bought the spade and rake...


Jack's Garden, by Henry Cole


While at Molbaks picking out the birthday gift, I also stubled upon a little gem titled Sow and Grow - a Gardening Book for Children.

This book will be a great resource, with two chapters at the beginning devoted to the science of gardening - one chapter on botany (plant structure), and one on biology (what they need to survive, and what processes are taking place). I like that the author doesn't skimp on the science, and uses proper terminology. Their are great diagrams and drawings included, as well. The rest of the book is a month-by-month activity guide for gardening projects indoors. Septembers activity is pressing flowers and leaves, which we're really excited to get started on. We're already planning how we could create a notebook of pressed flowers from our yard, and another from around the pond near our house. The vintage drawings throughout Sow and Grow make the book a lot of fun visually, and the spiral binding means that the book will be easy to keep open as we work on the various projects.

I also came across a link to an article titled Ready, Set, Grow: The Benefits of Gardening With Kids, which gives great suggestions for cultivating (I'm so punny) a love of gardening.