(I thought about saving the post until Earth Day, but then I thought, “Why wait?”)
A few days ago I was in Other Tiger, one of the wonderful New England bookstores I work with. They had a display up for a kid’s picture book that immediately grabbed my eye: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. I started flipping through the book which tells the story of a young boy who lives in a dreary city with no gardens or trees. One day, while exploring, Liam discovers a small tree and a few flowers growing in between some elevated train tracks. Every day he waters, prunes, nurtures and even sings to the plants and they grow, filling the train tracks and beyond.
At the back of the book, a note from the author tells the story of the disused Highline elevated railway on the West Side of Manhattan that is now covered with plants. It got him wondering, “what would happen if an entire city decided to truly cooperate with nature? How would that city change? How would it all begin?”
In a truly brilliant bit of marketing, the publisher sent out packets of seeds to be given away with book purchase. After reading the book to my three-year-old I told him we were going to plant some seeds so he could take care of flowers just like Liam.
He had so much fun planting the seeds and he checks every few hours to see if they have started growing yet!
For other ideas on things to do outdoors with your kids, I highly recommend I Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature. It’s a four-seasons guide to outdoor adventures that can be done in the city or the country.
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(all information is for the U.S. editions).
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How wonderful!
This brings back memories… As children, my sister and I planted our first garden and then insured it would never grow by digging the seeds up almost hourly to see if they’d started to sprout yet. We had so much to learn about the nature of growing things.
Have you tried putting popcorn kernels between damp paper towels yet and letting them sprout? (They will). You can lift the top paper towel every day to check on progress and when they’re large enough, grow the seedlings in Dixie cups. He’d probably LOVE that.
Thankfully Miles just looks at the soil to see if they’ve sprouted…
I didn’t know you could sprout popcorn kernels… thanks for the tip!
This is too good. Our new neighbors have a 4-year-old named Liam and they’re teaching him about gardening. He waters the plants so much that they’ll never need the in-ground sprinkler.
Dave- What a fantastic bit of serendipity!
Thanks for the suggestion, Michael. This will be a great Easter gift for my 2 year old niece (and for her mom & dad who are landscaping this spring!)
I always give books for baby gifts – and this little Liam book is perfect, the baby’s name is Liam! What a find, thank you for the recommendation!
What a fun idea for a book! I hope your son’s flowers do well. Any idea what kind they’ll be?
The packet that came with the book were Forget Me Nots, We went to the store and bought zinnias and a few others I don’t remember. Hopefully we’ll have a nice big cutting garden!
Seems to be a lot of babies being named Liam. Glad I could bring this book to everyone’s attention!
For your next gardening project, look at Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy, we tried several projects with the kids. One summer we had the most beautiful crop of sunflowers right outside the dining room window.
I just threw away a bag of stale popcorn, I’m going to dig it out and start some seedlings, what fun!
Kim-
I literally JUST looked at Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots a few hours ago at the bookstore I was in! I flipped through it, thought it looked cool, but put it back. Now that I’ve gotten your recommendation, I’ll check it out again!
Hi Michael!
Nice springtime post–not sure which part of me likes it better, the gardener or the kid’s book lover.
Your Forget-Me-Nots will give you and Miles years of pleasure!
It really is a great book, Kate… you should check it out!
I trust you would not mind if I posted a part of this site on my univeristy blog?