This Father's Day, we invited my parents around for a celebratory lunch with the family. During their visit, we shamelessly took advantage of my dad's horticultural talents and sent him into the garden with grandson Freddy to plant up some seeds using our gardening starter set received as part of the Brit Mums #KidsGrowWild campaign in conjunction with moneysupermarket.com. It was a delight to see 4 year old Freddy and 80 year old Grandad cultivating their green fingers and having some outdoor fun together.
With the addition of a bag of compost and a few pots, they were ready to get planting the Pansies, the mixed flowers and the Sunflowers, hoping for a pretty display of colour that will attract the bees into our garden over the summer months.
Freddy loved the feel of the soil and enjoyed scooping it into the pots with his hands, the trowel and while wearing his gardening gloves. He explored the colours, textures and smell of the soil as he worked. It is such a wonderful, multi-sensory activity.
Once the pots were full, they were ready to plant the seeds. Grandad told Freddy all about the different seeds and how they will grow. Freddy was taking in all the facts about flowers and what colour, shape and size they will be. Freddy really wants the pansies to be light blue...we shall find out when they grow!
We had potted up some sunflower seeds into a small pot the week before, and they were now little seedlings ready to be planted in the big pots. Grandad showed Freddy how to gently prick out the seedlings. He told him all about the roots and showed him how to make a hole in the soil with his thumb to gently plant the seedling in. freddy was amazed to hear that sunflowers can grow even taller than Grandad!
Once all the seeds and seedlings were planted up in their pots, Freddy watered them using rain water we had collected in a bucket in the garden. Freddy loves watering plants and his new watering can was a big hit.
He finished up by using the plant labels so he could remember what was planted in each pot!
Freddy was so attached to his new gardening gloves he wore them for the rest of the afternoon!
It was so lovely to see Freddy spend some quality time with his Grandad doing something together out of doors. My dad loves gardening and if can pass on some of his enthusiasm and knowledge to his grandchildren it is time well spent! They had a wonderful time pottering about, happy in each other's company.
After doing the gardening with Grandad, we all sat down to watch Dr Suess's The Lorax which is all about the importance of plants and growing seeds. Freddy's favourite song is "Let It Grow!" which seemed very appropriate!
“This post is an entry for BritMums’ #KidsGrowWild Challenge”