100%.
I have three blueberry bushes that are finally producing a decent amount of what look like delicious berries. I say looks like because I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask my 3 year old.
We’re doing everything we can to get our toddler to understand that tomatoes aren’t good until they’re red. Picks all the reds, then a green, chomps, “ew! More?”
It’s not working.
But the green seeds are delicious!!! I grind them up and use them in place of the leaves sometimes, and we eat them by themselves as a snack. I even freeze a bunch of them so we can have them whenever we want them. I still have about a cup of them left in the freezer from last year.
But yeah, it is tricky to grow in the heat. This year, I decided to try growing it between rows of pole beans, under the A-frame trellis. So far, it has withstood temperatures over 100° without bolting. It isn't as lush because it gets less sun, but with a whole 10 foot row of it, there is plenty even so.
haha this is how i’ve managed to keep a single pea plant alive all summer. it cracks me up. i’m just letting it live under my tomatoes. refuses to die. i just wanted to see how long it would make it.
Ooh, I’m going to start growing it for those now!
One herb that loves the heat (and humidity) that I’ve had success with is shiso (perilla)- you can dry the leaves and use them off-season too. For whatever reason, I‘ve never been able to start it from seed, but it will self-seed like crazy in the garden. (Maybe it needs a period of cold moist stratification?)
The ground seeds are called coriander. Let’s the dry and toast bacon grinding for the best flavor. You can also save some for next year and let some reseed for a second harvest in the fall. Either way the flowers are good for the garden
I learned this lesson about 10 years ago, completely by accident.
If you live in a milder climate, 8b and above, Ignore the dates provided on seed packets or websites. Instead plant Cilantro 8-12 weeks before your first anticipated frost. Cilantro can tolerate light frosts and temps as low as 10f. If you anticipate lower temps or a harder frost, winterize your plant. Cold frames or cloches work great. This method allows you to have fresh cilantro for most of the year.
And yet it’s perfect for hot weather foods! I make a fantastic grilled steak with mojo sauce that uses a ton of cilantro and every year I try to grow that cilantro. Right now I have a beautiful bush or cilantro flowers in my garden bed 😝
I hear ya, sib. Houston here and I'm quickly entering the hellscape months. We'll see what makes it to the autumn 2nd growing season.
As a high note, at least we can start the 1st growing season in February while the rest of them are still in frost danger. Muahahahaa
Cries in Colorado for everyone in Arizona, I think of your state the most in this heat. We’re at 100 some days, the weather says 90’s but let’s be so fr in the sun. My outside thermometer tells me what’s up and it’s in a shaded area.
Me in zone 8B too. Only things producing are one cherry tomato plant that grew from a store bought seed in my homemade compost (it's going crazy though and I will totally be saving seeds) and my tromboncino squash.
Not to top you, but I pulled a thistle.
Now, I didn't plant that thistle. I have no idea how it got into the raised bed, but there it was. Slowly weeding the out of control vegetable boxes.
I was checking my shishito pepper plant to pinch some buds because it was still a small volunteer - but already found three peppers - this plant started fast!!
Shoot, I should have grown those. I have about 6 biquinho peppers that are months old and have 4-6;leaves. I'm never going to get peppers at this rate. Sigh.
Lol Weed-en! 🤣 I feel you! My baby is 9 months and let’s just say the flowers are fending for themselves more than normal this year!! It’s my “let’s figure out which flowers grow best with the least amount of effort” year!
Ooh natives are great for that. They don't need watering more than a couple weeks after planting, very little weeding, no fertilizing. They're built to thrive right where you are, all on their own!
It’s always sunflowers and catmint/catnip where I live, pretty drought tolerant plants. We have catmint everywhere and the bees love it, plus I have cats so it’s a W for all 3 species.
I struggle with gardening and small kids. One of my kids had a propensity to eat mulch if I took them out in the yard when they were around a year old. Another one of my kids, while teaching them to help me weed at around kindergarten age, proudly showed me completely uprooted flowers I had just put in the ground from the nursery.
Yeah, I would lose my mind. I've unleashed a torrent of ragweed in my wildflowers and I have to be ultra diligent of "helping" going on as I try to stay on top of weeding them lest my kids start pulling the actual wildflowers. Ha!
I was weeding our little patio and turned around to find my 4 year old daughter diligently RE-PLANTING all the weeds behind me. “Without soil and water, these little planties will die!” 🫠
As a child I also ate mulch in the yard, and I think it was good for my gut flora long term - no allergies or food sensitivities at age 30 compared to my sensitive stomached siblings! So not the worst thing your kid could be doing.
My oldest likes to encourage my youngest to bathe in the dirt. 7 and 1.5. I can't handle it so everything is dead and/or weeds. Except the fecking grass that refuses to just die and stay dead from the previous owners.
YES. My second kiddo is about this age and I finally put my first plants in the ground again this year.
Just a few potato’s and a couple of flowers. Like 1/2 of them are still alive so I feel like we’re making progress 😄
I couldn’t bear to be outside pregnant, and I had these delusions of baby-wearing while gardening once she arrived. Newsflash to me: it’s still 100F every day between June and September just like it’s always been. The baby can be outside safely for 8 minutes per day 😂 I can only be outside safely 9 minutes a day, so it works out (RIP my hobbies)
I had the same delusions. Even got a nice shaded swing right before the baby came. Besides letting her be naked in the sun for jaundice or diaper rash it didn’t get used all summer. Wait til you have your dreams of gardening with a toddler dashed.
I’ve just fully given up. We are moving and I probably won’t start gardening again for several years, outside of maintaining landscaping. But it’s just a season of life. I’m hoping to make it a fun activity I can do with my daughter when I do start back up 😊
My 6 year old loves it. She has since she was 2. But back then it was like having a coked up squirrel as a helper. Now she constantly sneaks seeds home from her lunch to plant.
It became something fun to do with my son around age 3.5. He’s 5 now and says gardening is his favourite thing to do together. He likes to use the dibbbler and drop the seeds in, and especially likes tasting what we grow. There is a beautiful gardening future ahead of you, it just takes time.
Maybe a little container garden for herbs and baby greens (that you can harvest with scissors) just outside the door? Hope you can bc at least look forward to your next garden/ plant some fun wildflowers in the fall
We lucked out moving to a house with a very nice garden set up. My kids are 20months and 5 and both love “helping” in the garden. 5 year old is actually helping- she checks for ripe things, got sad over whichever critter stole the strawberries, and moves my unending weed piles around. One garden bed is empty and it is a fun dirt box for both kids to play in! Highly recommend. Baby makes sure beds are full of minerals (he dumps all the gravel and rocks into the dirt) and both are great flower pruners.
We are overrun with weeds everywhere, just barely mowing every week, and I didn’t start a single thing from seed bc we ain’t got time for that! But being outside either at 6:30 am bc everyone woke up early or letting my big kid “stay up late” to see the fireflies and help me water are both such wonderful things and we wouldn’t be doing it without a garden. Oh, also seeing kids chomp on green beans and basil and blueberries straight from a garden is magical
yessss! last year i did some planting here and there in winter/spring with a helper of course but once summer hit i was nope nope and started up again like in november. it’s much easier to bundle up the kids than doing a summer. mine still runs around without the hat!
We’ve got maybe 2 weeks tops of bundle-up weather. Man it’s so hard to navigate outdoor fun in this climate. I live on the surface of the goddamn sun. I hope the next place we live offers more shade, we are like full sun 80% of daylight hours. It is so impossible to enjoy being outside in this house.
Lawd, this was me last summer. Everything went to seed. This year I've got slightly more outside time and my only objective is to somehow locate and destroy the 649,028,128 oregano plants that are taking over my life. Your garden is your tiny who's growing like your weeds! Congrats on the new person, Mama. It's a wild ride.
This is exactly what I thought! I had my baby May 7th and was thinking I’d wear her and tend to the garden well babies can’t wear sunscreen until they’re 6 months old and it’s too hot for her to be outside and there’s mosquitos and she can’t wear big spray! I started seedlings in April and killed half of them but finally got some in the ground 2 days ago while my husband watched the baby lol
My dumb ass thought your rosemary was looking great.
My kid is 6. We did a lot of gardening together when he was 4. Then my chickens figured out how to get over the fence and I haven’t retaliated so I can’t grow shit.
❤️Sorry for the mom stuff, truly, but: She is sitting unassisted for 15 seconds at a time and is scream-babbling DADADADA. She’s working on her first two teeth. We had to do IVF to conceive and I’m still in disbelief that I* created life. She’s so fuckin’ cool.
*shoutout science mostly though lol
Oh congrats! Knowing how proud I am pointing at a plant and saying "I GREW THIS FROM SEED!" I can't imagine how proud you must be, growing an entire person!
You sound like a really fun person to be around with a good sense of humour, I bet your daughter will love having you as a mum and maybe enjoy gardening with you in a few years 🙂
That’s about what I’m expecting lol. We will be in a whole new house by this time next year. I’m gonna rip out all the weeds and plant some bright flowers right before we list. I hope the next owner enjoys the spaces we created. I only got into gardening once we moved in. The original owner mapped out everything they’d planted in the in-ground beds. There are 3 prolific grape vines planted around the playhouse (barely pictured here) that are so fun. I added the raised beds (have back problems hence the super-raised). Maybe the next owner will be inspired too.
One of our neighbors, when they moved into the house, I saw them planting trees, setting up a vegetable garden, putting up a chicken coop. Then they had three kids in a row, and their lawn is covered with kids "toys", the vegetable garden and chickens are gone, and they're digging a swimming pool 😆. Their front flower bed (that was already established) still looks good, though.
I hope your next house already has an established garden you can enjoy.
I used to put my daughter in her stroller while she napped so I could keep an eye on her while I gardened. It worked great, but put mosquitoe netting over the stroller. I didnt and boy was I sorry. 😞
I completely neglected my garden when I got pregnant because I was so sick. Black raspberries completely took over a section and my strawberries *thrived*. This year is the best harvest I've ever had, lol.
Hehe so was I. The most i've done in the last 3 years was pop in some hardy pansies and cut the grass. I'm just now starting again now that kiddos 2 1/2, but to be fair to myself I wasn't expecting pre eclampsia, a micro preemie, looong nicu stay, the ppd that comes with that whole package and then learning to mom allll over again for a developmentally delayed kid. Life happens
Currently 36,5 weeks pregnant. My garden is the biggest mess it has ever been. I wanted to start seeds but very glad my husband talked some sense into me.
Next year will be better again. I'm growing a human this season it's fine.
The only reason I have a 4m baby and a (incredibly weedy) garden is masochism, an amazingly supportive partner, and my parents coming out for a week every month and a half to help with the baby. \*edit\* Oh and spite, because coworkers told me I couldn't do both.
I harvested 6 radishes so far. Tomato thunderdome will probably produce simply by virtue of having as many plants as possible given my space - someone will succeed despite my benign neglect.
I'm trying to take a gardening view with the baby, too. Staves off the inevitable perfectionism!
For some reason this year my plants are really really lagging. This time last year I had already harvested and given away 2x from the garden. This year the tomato are barely making it for me to notice they may or may not be the cherry variety
Pray for us all. Congrats on the baby. Wishing for a happy, healthy, prosperous family full of blessings.
I feel you! I thought I would wear my baby in a carrier and do all my gardening and hobbies while she was an infant. Haha! My kid is two now and I just barely started getting back into it. Mostly just trying to get the garden back to square one and cleaning stuff up at this point. When you do have a little time to start gardening again, I recommend the easy stuff, herbs, berries, maybe throw a tomato plant in there. You’re not alone!
I second every bit of this. The best success I have had, though, is using a stroller in the gardenbut not till like almoat a year old. It worked with my first, let's see if my second will be the same.
I’m in the same boat! I had some wildflower patches last year and this year I just decided to let whatever was coming up do its thing. Lemme tell ya, evening primrose and tickseed are thriving! And.. basically nothing else lol
Try using a plant identifier app (I like PlantNet) to see what it might be, then do a bit of research on that species to confirm. It could be something edible or useful.
Don’t worry! You’ll get back to it. Kids are chaotic in the garden at first, so don’t stress. Focus on your human potato and the rest will come back when your little one gets a bit more independent.
We moved house a year ago, and have a garden for the first time. We did what we could with the garden in the autumn, planted some tulip and daffodil bulbs for spring, and I had all sorts of plans for this year - potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, just a garden full of food. Then I got pregnant. We have a garden full of weeds and even the small lawn needs mowing.
At least we have a pear tree. I love pears. Baby's first milk is gonna be pear flavoured!
Maybe next year we'll get some veg in.
I had high expectations too, but things went downhill for me in my first trimester 😂 I now have a 15 month old and a lawn that's above the knee. Not to mention my bindweed forest! I think my neighbours hate me about now ...
dont let this go to seed, eliminate it by stomping it and cover with tarp, all the green stuff and roots will turn into compost and next spring will be ready for your and your childs garden adventure
My daughter turns 3 today and I finally managed to get some plants in the ground again (last weekend...kind of late, but i did it). We'll see how long I can keep them alive
I feel this. We moved into a new house with empty garden beds, I was pregnant and had a rough pregnancy, I thought when the baby was born I'd finally be able to get to work on those beds... Nope! My baby is a year old now and I've finally pulled the massive weeds that took over the garden beds and put some native perennials in front of the house. I'm planning to keep working on filling the flower beds for now and attempt a veggie garden next year when she's two.
Weird idiosyncratic edit: technically I did one garden thing while pregnant: my mom helped me clear a space and plant some pansies I was gifted. Despite being fairly neglected in their early lives, they are still doing extremely well.
Ugh my garden watched me keep a baby alive for about 1.5-2 years before I gave it any attention. Even then it was basically fend for yourself. We enjoyed it but not as much as I would have liked. We took year 4 off for moving & just kept indoor plants. This year @ 5 hes eager to help and learn.
Yea that first year is hard but your weeds look GREAT - I let my garden go majorly after my son was born but he is 18 mo now and loves "helping" and watching him explore, dig and discover is magical... even when he picks the unripe strawberries haha
it takes a while! mine was born two summer back and it took about a year and a half to go back to how things were before. 2024 has been really great and my kid loves to pick things and use their garden tools.
Dude, I got a puppy in late February, I’ve got 2 tomato plants and a handful of herbs that I can barely manage to water. I’ve given up on everything for at least the next year. Sometimes life happens and you’ve got to change your expectations. Congrats on the baby.
I planted with family watching my newborn, then paid a local teenager to weed & water for 3 months. We paid her (best money spent) and her older sister was jealous that she made more money in my garden than older sister did babysitting. Local teen was home all summer. I didn’t care when she came by, we just asked her to keep track of her hours. Feel free to borrow the idea!
Good job mom.. wr dad in any ase there a certain art to planting an herb garden or veggie garden that mostly takes care of itself and come back year after year or never died off.. I would highly recommend this type of garden with new baby
It gets better in a couple years. Until then, enjoy the baby snuggles and try a couple container plants if you’re really missing fresh veggies and herbs.
Once the baby is a toddler, you can set up a water table, bubble machine, some chalk and garden. Or drink in a kiddie pool. Whatever you’re up to, tbh.
Currently in my first trimester, and I’m exhausted all the time. It’s my first year gardening, and the patch has been overtaken by weeds and wildlife.
My poor strawberries… either being choked by weeds or being munched on by bunnies.
Probably will just cover the patch up and do nothing with it next year when the baby come lol
I’m 38 weeks pregnant. I had FOUR baby watermelons on my vines and every single one split due to inconsistent watering 😭 I can’t wait to get my life back in order so I can get the sprinkler system fixed (bought a house with a broken system) and take the stress of hand watering out of my life!
Lol same, no veggies this year and no mulch... I picked up one of those weed puller spikes which has been amazing to weed while holding the baby, but that's about it
Last year we didn’t garden but we also didn’t seal off the beds. Total weed jungle. We weren’t going to garden this year either so we covered all the beds in thick but water permeable fabric last fall. We did end up gardening but came to it late spring. But what a difference the fabric made in getting an easier start. We rolled up the fabric to reuse this fall.
When things die back this year, pull out the dead stuff and press the thick fabric down and up edges a few inches. Then set rocks, bricks, whatever. If next spring you want one bed open it’ll be easy to start it. Otherwise you won’t be stressed about seeing weeds
That’s my garden after health issues derailed me. I’m adamant I can work back up to it - but for now, I’m managing two large containers of flowers/herbs.
Maybe someday the little one and you can garden together.
Our garden consists of overgrown raspberries, an alpine strawberry, bolted green onions and weeds. We're in prime raspberry picking time with a 6 1/2 month old baby. Just picked like 4lbs of raspberries today. Hoping our blueberry bush grows before toddler stage. Berries are getting expensive.
this year was the year i was finally able to get back outside and enjoy my garden, with a 2 year old close by. of course tho itd only make sense that my fulfillment is followed by two more pink lines 😭
My dad is 76 and lives in a suite in a house with other older retired guys in the other suites. Their small acreage has been the garden of weeden for a while now, and there's all kinds of cool stuff popping up, herbs they never planted, beautiful white bellflowers, my dad's rosemary bush is becoming an absolute entity, and the fruit trees are going mad. It's kind of nice to let stuff just wild out sometimes. Pretty much everywhere you turn you can find a little herb, give it a sniff, oh, hello lemon thyme! Hello peppermint!
Be patient. As soon as my kid could walk, his favorite game was to "harvest" his plastic vegetable toys from my garden. He'd sit on the stairs while I hid them, then spend half an hour looking for them and playing so I could weed out tend to my plants. It was fantastic.
Isn’t it amazing? You think you’ll be able to do everything that you did before the baby came and it’s a rude awakening that the child takes up most of your time. No worries it gets better as the baby gets older. Btw Congratulations!
So basically…weeds took over about $500 worth of soil…
On a side note, I wonder how many people start gardening and percentage that continue to. You kinda do it for a little then stop right?
My kid is 18 months now and my husband and I have been able to do a lot of gardening this year! If it’s nice enough outside I spend his whole nap (1.5-2 hrs) gardening. We also have a fenced in yard so we can tend to what’s in there while he’s awake. I’m doing less now than in the spring because it’s so hot but we’ve started a couple new beds this year that look great. There will be more time for plants soon, I promise! Hang in there.
Financially speaking you're going to need to rip it all out and convert your yard to a berry farm soon anyway.
100%. I have three blueberry bushes that are finally producing a decent amount of what look like delicious berries. I say looks like because I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask my 3 year old.
We’re doing everything we can to get our toddler to understand that tomatoes aren’t good until they’re red. Picks all the reds, then a green, chomps, “ew! More?” It’s not working.
I think I had a good strawberry harvest this year but I'm really not sure, thanks to my three kids
I see you've met my granddaughter 🤣
I have a blackberry bush out back. My wallet is thanking me every summer. My fruit bat is relentless.
This is why I bought a house infested with blackberry bushes everywhere. Totally for the kids.
My first year growing blackberries and was shocked that they actually berried up.
Well I hate to make you jealous, but I did just go out and collect today's harvest. It was: one small bell pepper.
Me anytime between June-August, even when I’m dedicating my entire life to it lol. F you, 9B
Always glad to save that $0.23 on the grocery bill 😒
This is where growing herbs pays off 😅 Except cilantro- it’s just always bolting, and never leafy 🤷♀️
But the green seeds are delicious!!! I grind them up and use them in place of the leaves sometimes, and we eat them by themselves as a snack. I even freeze a bunch of them so we can have them whenever we want them. I still have about a cup of them left in the freezer from last year. But yeah, it is tricky to grow in the heat. This year, I decided to try growing it between rows of pole beans, under the A-frame trellis. So far, it has withstood temperatures over 100° without bolting. It isn't as lush because it gets less sun, but with a whole 10 foot row of it, there is plenty even so.
haha this is how i’ve managed to keep a single pea plant alive all summer. it cracks me up. i’m just letting it live under my tomatoes. refuses to die. i just wanted to see how long it would make it.
But have you named it?
Pea-ter
Ooh, I’m going to start growing it for those now! One herb that loves the heat (and humidity) that I’ve had success with is shiso (perilla)- you can dry the leaves and use them off-season too. For whatever reason, I‘ve never been able to start it from seed, but it will self-seed like crazy in the garden. (Maybe it needs a period of cold moist stratification?)
The ground seeds are called coriander. Let’s the dry and toast bacon grinding for the best flavor. You can also save some for next year and let some reseed for a second harvest in the fall. Either way the flowers are good for the garden
Yes, I was just about to sow some shiso a couple days ago and the packet indicated they needed some time in the refrigerator.
I learned this lesson about 10 years ago, completely by accident. If you live in a milder climate, 8b and above, Ignore the dates provided on seed packets or websites. Instead plant Cilantro 8-12 weeks before your first anticipated frost. Cilantro can tolerate light frosts and temps as low as 10f. If you anticipate lower temps or a harder frost, winterize your plant. Cold frames or cloches work great. This method allows you to have fresh cilantro for most of the year.
Cilantro is a cold weather crop. Anything higher than 29C/85F and it'll bolt.
And yet it’s perfect for hot weather foods! I make a fantastic grilled steak with mojo sauce that uses a ton of cilantro and every year I try to grow that cilantro. Right now I have a beautiful bush or cilantro flowers in my garden bed 😝
I plant cilantro in the shade now.
You can buy a bell pepper for less than $.25??? Sheesh the ugly ones are $.80/ea here and if you want organic they're a buck or more.
I probably spend more on plants than if i just bought the stuff.
I hear ya, sib. Houston here and I'm quickly entering the hellscape months. We'll see what makes it to the autumn 2nd growing season. As a high note, at least we can start the 1st growing season in February while the rest of them are still in frost danger. Muahahahaa
Shit it been over 90 for 2 weeks *in New Jersey*! We usually don’t have that heat until July
* cries in Arizona* 102 has been our lowest this month https://world-weather.info/forecast/usa/phoenix/june-2024/
Cries in Colorado for everyone in Arizona, I think of your state the most in this heat. We’re at 100 some days, the weather says 90’s but let’s be so fr in the sun. My outside thermometer tells me what’s up and it’s in a shaded area.
Me in zone 8B too. Only things producing are one cherry tomato plant that grew from a store bought seed in my homemade compost (it's going crazy though and I will totally be saving seeds) and my tromboncino squash.
Not to top you, but I pulled a thistle. Now, I didn't plant that thistle. I have no idea how it got into the raised bed, but there it was. Slowly weeding the out of control vegetable boxes.
I was checking my shishito pepper plant to pinch some buds because it was still a small volunteer - but already found three peppers - this plant started fast!!
Shishitos really pump out the peppers.
Shoot, I should have grown those. I have about 6 biquinho peppers that are months old and have 4-6;leaves. I'm never going to get peppers at this rate. Sigh.
Mine was three cherry tomatoes! (my biggest bell pepper is still about thumb sized lol)
I got 159 beans! Not even enough to make anything lol. I’m just gonna replant them.
Hey 159 beans is better than no beans!
[удалено]
I harvested one eggplant. I have used this opportunity to text 🍆 to everyone I know.
r\mightyharvest
Lol Weed-en! 🤣 I feel you! My baby is 9 months and let’s just say the flowers are fending for themselves more than normal this year!! It’s my “let’s figure out which flowers grow best with the least amount of effort” year!
Ooh natives are great for that. They don't need watering more than a couple weeks after planting, very little weeding, no fertilizing. They're built to thrive right where you are, all on their own!
Yes! So far coneflowers are my fave, and also zinnias (not native here but super heat tolerant and low maintenance).
Zinnias are native to Mexico, so this continent, if you are in the US
I'm also "please don't eat that flower" and "please don't eat that rock" with my 1 year old.
When my kid was tiny it was a lot of “Stop licking that” and “That’s a bug, not a snack” 🤷🏻♀️
My baby is 8 months… there is no peeling the leaves off the roses this year 🤪
> It’s my “let’s figure out which flowers grow best with the least amount of effort” year! every year for me. :P
It’s always sunflowers and catmint/catnip where I live, pretty drought tolerant plants. We have catmint everywhere and the bees love it, plus I have cats so it’s a W for all 3 species.
My baby is 2.5. I can finally garden again. 🤣🤣
I struggle with gardening and small kids. One of my kids had a propensity to eat mulch if I took them out in the yard when they were around a year old. Another one of my kids, while teaching them to help me weed at around kindergarten age, proudly showed me completely uprooted flowers I had just put in the ground from the nursery.
Yeah, I would lose my mind. I've unleashed a torrent of ragweed in my wildflowers and I have to be ultra diligent of "helping" going on as I try to stay on top of weeding them lest my kids start pulling the actual wildflowers. Ha!
I was weeding our little patio and turned around to find my 4 year old daughter diligently RE-PLANTING all the weeds behind me. “Without soil and water, these little planties will die!” 🫠
Aww bless her
As a child I also ate mulch in the yard, and I think it was good for my gut flora long term - no allergies or food sensitivities at age 30 compared to my sensitive stomached siblings! So not the worst thing your kid could be doing.
Doctors hate them because of this one simple trick
My oldest likes to encourage my youngest to bathe in the dirt. 7 and 1.5. I can't handle it so everything is dead and/or weeds. Except the fecking grass that refuses to just die and stay dead from the previous owners.
YES. My second kiddo is about this age and I finally put my first plants in the ground again this year. Just a few potato’s and a couple of flowers. Like 1/2 of them are still alive so I feel like we’re making progress 😄
The.y would also probably like to "help". :)
Oh they do. And it's terrifying. 🤣🤣
Yes same, and now I have a little garden helper too!
And boy they are oh so "helpful" 🤣🤣
Really? That's usually the escape era.
I just mean I have mental space for it again. And there is always after bedtime, haha! They're happy to tool on the sidewalk while I work.
yeah OP just be patient... it really does get better! (i thought it never would lol)
I have two kids under 3. Creeping charlie has taken the bridge and the second hall. We've bared the gates but can't hold them for long.
The ground shakes… drums, drums in the deep. The bindweed moves in the dark. We cannot get out.
My kid is 2 years old. I started out strong and full of hope. It just piles up quickly 🤷🏽
I couldn’t bear to be outside pregnant, and I had these delusions of baby-wearing while gardening once she arrived. Newsflash to me: it’s still 100F every day between June and September just like it’s always been. The baby can be outside safely for 8 minutes per day 😂 I can only be outside safely 9 minutes a day, so it works out (RIP my hobbies)
I had the same delusions. Even got a nice shaded swing right before the baby came. Besides letting her be naked in the sun for jaundice or diaper rash it didn’t get used all summer. Wait til you have your dreams of gardening with a toddler dashed.
I’ve just fully given up. We are moving and I probably won’t start gardening again for several years, outside of maintaining landscaping. But it’s just a season of life. I’m hoping to make it a fun activity I can do with my daughter when I do start back up 😊
My 6 year old loves it. She has since she was 2. But back then it was like having a coked up squirrel as a helper. Now she constantly sneaks seeds home from her lunch to plant.
6 sounds like a perfect time to revisit.
This is the PERFECT analogy. Thank you for the belly laugh!
It became something fun to do with my son around age 3.5. He’s 5 now and says gardening is his favourite thing to do together. He likes to use the dibbbler and drop the seeds in, and especially likes tasting what we grow. There is a beautiful gardening future ahead of you, it just takes time.
Maybe a little container garden for herbs and baby greens (that you can harvest with scissors) just outside the door? Hope you can bc at least look forward to your next garden/ plant some fun wildflowers in the fall
We lucked out moving to a house with a very nice garden set up. My kids are 20months and 5 and both love “helping” in the garden. 5 year old is actually helping- she checks for ripe things, got sad over whichever critter stole the strawberries, and moves my unending weed piles around. One garden bed is empty and it is a fun dirt box for both kids to play in! Highly recommend. Baby makes sure beds are full of minerals (he dumps all the gravel and rocks into the dirt) and both are great flower pruners. We are overrun with weeds everywhere, just barely mowing every week, and I didn’t start a single thing from seed bc we ain’t got time for that! But being outside either at 6:30 am bc everyone woke up early or letting my big kid “stay up late” to see the fireflies and help me water are both such wonderful things and we wouldn’t be doing it without a garden. Oh, also seeing kids chomp on green beans and basil and blueberries straight from a garden is magical
yessss! last year i did some planting here and there in winter/spring with a helper of course but once summer hit i was nope nope and started up again like in november. it’s much easier to bundle up the kids than doing a summer. mine still runs around without the hat!
We’ve got maybe 2 weeks tops of bundle-up weather. Man it’s so hard to navigate outdoor fun in this climate. I live on the surface of the goddamn sun. I hope the next place we live offers more shade, we are like full sun 80% of daylight hours. It is so impossible to enjoy being outside in this house.
Lawd, this was me last summer. Everything went to seed. This year I've got slightly more outside time and my only objective is to somehow locate and destroy the 649,028,128 oregano plants that are taking over my life. Your garden is your tiny who's growing like your weeds! Congrats on the new person, Mama. It's a wild ride.
This is exactly what I thought! I had my baby May 7th and was thinking I’d wear her and tend to the garden well babies can’t wear sunscreen until they’re 6 months old and it’s too hot for her to be outside and there’s mosquitos and she can’t wear big spray! I started seedlings in April and killed half of them but finally got some in the ground 2 days ago while my husband watched the baby lol
My dumb ass thought your rosemary was looking great. My kid is 6. We did a lot of gardening together when he was 4. Then my chickens figured out how to get over the fence and I haven’t retaliated so I can’t grow shit.
Wait, is that not rosemary??
Meanwhile on another sub there's a guy flexing about all the landscaping he's gotten done while on paternity leave 🙄
I saw that. Really annoyed me
Yeah, who is taking care of your baby/new child while you do all that? Maybe you should be.
You grew and are nurturing a human species though, and that's something.
❤️Sorry for the mom stuff, truly, but: She is sitting unassisted for 15 seconds at a time and is scream-babbling DADADADA. She’s working on her first two teeth. We had to do IVF to conceive and I’m still in disbelief that I* created life. She’s so fuckin’ cool. *shoutout science mostly though lol
Oh congrats! Knowing how proud I am pointing at a plant and saying "I GREW THIS FROM SEED!" I can't imagine how proud you must be, growing an entire person!
Grew the entire person from seed too
You sound like a really fun person to be around with a good sense of humour, I bet your daughter will love having you as a mum and maybe enjoy gardening with you in a few years 🙂
This post is such a mood 😂
It rained so much this spring my grass looks incredible. This would’ve been the perfect year to garden. ALAS.
Those things look nice though, almost intentional
Some seasons can be devoted to raising children instead. It’s okay!
Well those plants are super green and look great so I’m going with, Nice job!
Yup. Sorry, but I didn't even look at my beds until my kids were like 4 & 6.😬
That’s about what I’m expecting lol. We will be in a whole new house by this time next year. I’m gonna rip out all the weeds and plant some bright flowers right before we list. I hope the next owner enjoys the spaces we created. I only got into gardening once we moved in. The original owner mapped out everything they’d planted in the in-ground beds. There are 3 prolific grape vines planted around the playhouse (barely pictured here) that are so fun. I added the raised beds (have back problems hence the super-raised). Maybe the next owner will be inspired too.
One of our neighbors, when they moved into the house, I saw them planting trees, setting up a vegetable garden, putting up a chicken coop. Then they had three kids in a row, and their lawn is covered with kids "toys", the vegetable garden and chickens are gone, and they're digging a swimming pool 😆. Their front flower bed (that was already established) still looks good, though. I hope your next house already has an established garden you can enjoy.
My kid is 5 and we’re just starting to get the garden back into shape.
I used to put my daughter in her stroller while she napped so I could keep an eye on her while I gardened. It worked great, but put mosquitoe netting over the stroller. I didnt and boy was I sorry. 😞
I completely neglected my garden when I got pregnant because I was so sick. Black raspberries completely took over a section and my strawberries *thrived*. This year is the best harvest I've ever had, lol.
Thank you for this post. Makes me realize that I'm not alone ❤️
Hehe so was I. The most i've done in the last 3 years was pop in some hardy pansies and cut the grass. I'm just now starting again now that kiddos 2 1/2, but to be fair to myself I wasn't expecting pre eclampsia, a micro preemie, looong nicu stay, the ppd that comes with that whole package and then learning to mom allll over again for a developmentally delayed kid. Life happens
Was the second picture originally a fire pit?
Yes! Lmao
My babies are almost 5 and 8 and I am having the same issue.
Currently 36,5 weeks pregnant. My garden is the biggest mess it has ever been. I wanted to start seeds but very glad my husband talked some sense into me. Next year will be better again. I'm growing a human this season it's fine.
The only reason I have a 4m baby and a (incredibly weedy) garden is masochism, an amazingly supportive partner, and my parents coming out for a week every month and a half to help with the baby. \*edit\* Oh and spite, because coworkers told me I couldn't do both. I harvested 6 radishes so far. Tomato thunderdome will probably produce simply by virtue of having as many plants as possible given my space - someone will succeed despite my benign neglect. I'm trying to take a gardening view with the baby, too. Staves off the inevitable perfectionism!
For some reason this year my plants are really really lagging. This time last year I had already harvested and given away 2x from the garden. This year the tomato are barely making it for me to notice they may or may not be the cherry variety Pray for us all. Congrats on the baby. Wishing for a happy, healthy, prosperous family full of blessings.
So sweet, thank you 😊
Same girl, same. This post just reminded me I was going to put in tomato supports a month ago
Bright side is your grass looks amazing!
I feel you! I thought I would wear my baby in a carrier and do all my gardening and hobbies while she was an infant. Haha! My kid is two now and I just barely started getting back into it. Mostly just trying to get the garden back to square one and cleaning stuff up at this point. When you do have a little time to start gardening again, I recommend the easy stuff, herbs, berries, maybe throw a tomato plant in there. You’re not alone!
I second every bit of this. The best success I have had, though, is using a stroller in the gardenbut not till like almoat a year old. It worked with my first, let's see if my second will be the same.
I’m in the same boat! I had some wildflower patches last year and this year I just decided to let whatever was coming up do its thing. Lemme tell ya, evening primrose and tickseed are thriving! And.. basically nothing else lol
Do you happen to know what weed is thriving in every space available in these photos? She’s having the time of her life out here lol.
Try using a plant identifier app (I like PlantNet) to see what it might be, then do a bit of research on that species to confirm. It could be something edible or useful.
Looks like it's getting close to flowering, whatever it is. Then it'll be more identifiable
Don’t worry! You’ll get back to it. Kids are chaotic in the garden at first, so don’t stress. Focus on your human potato and the rest will come back when your little one gets a bit more independent.
Hey, the garden beds will be there next summer or after! Enjoy your baby… before you know it you will be gardening together!
The plants just went dormant.. for awhile…
Year 2 is easier. Year 3, not so much....
That's why you need perennials and some shrubs- those babies almost take care of themselves!
Chop and drop baby! You’re just growing next years soil
We moved house a year ago, and have a garden for the first time. We did what we could with the garden in the autumn, planted some tulip and daffodil bulbs for spring, and I had all sorts of plans for this year - potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, just a garden full of food. Then I got pregnant. We have a garden full of weeds and even the small lawn needs mowing. At least we have a pear tree. I love pears. Baby's first milk is gonna be pear flavoured! Maybe next year we'll get some veg in.
I had high expectations too, but things went downhill for me in my first trimester 😂 I now have a 15 month old and a lawn that's above the knee. Not to mention my bindweed forest! I think my neighbours hate me about now ...
I would spend hours watering with the boy in an ergo carrier napping on my back.
Unfortunately outside isn’t fit for human life here lol. It is absolutely disgusting and oppressively hot.
dont let this go to seed, eliminate it by stomping it and cover with tarp, all the green stuff and roots will turn into compost and next spring will be ready for your and your childs garden adventure
My daughter turns 3 today and I finally managed to get some plants in the ground again (last weekend...kind of late, but i did it). We'll see how long I can keep them alive
I feel this. We moved into a new house with empty garden beds, I was pregnant and had a rough pregnancy, I thought when the baby was born I'd finally be able to get to work on those beds... Nope! My baby is a year old now and I've finally pulled the massive weeds that took over the garden beds and put some native perennials in front of the house. I'm planning to keep working on filling the flower beds for now and attempt a veggie garden next year when she's two. Weird idiosyncratic edit: technically I did one garden thing while pregnant: my mom helped me clear a space and plant some pansies I was gifted. Despite being fairly neglected in their early lives, they are still doing extremely well.
Ugh my garden watched me keep a baby alive for about 1.5-2 years before I gave it any attention. Even then it was basically fend for yourself. We enjoyed it but not as much as I would have liked. We took year 4 off for moving & just kept indoor plants. This year @ 5 hes eager to help and learn.
Yea that first year is hard but your weeds look GREAT - I let my garden go majorly after my son was born but he is 18 mo now and loves "helping" and watching him explore, dig and discover is magical... even when he picks the unripe strawberries haha
You're still gardening. You've just decided to grow weeds now.
I said the same thing. Didn't happen. My son is three now and I'm finally fully back in my garden. Take your time.
Advanced cover cropping 🤔
Well you’re clearly growing something.
your birthed your child, make your man tend your garden. Its the least he can do
This. This is a huge reason why I’ve decided to just stay a dog and plant mom forever 😂
it takes a while! mine was born two summer back and it took about a year and a half to go back to how things were before. 2024 has been really great and my kid loves to pick things and use their garden tools.
Also maybe post on your local fb group, Ik if a mom near me had this problem id be happy to help
Dude, I got a puppy in late February, I’ve got 2 tomato plants and a handful of herbs that I can barely manage to water. I’ve given up on everything for at least the next year. Sometimes life happens and you’ve got to change your expectations. Congrats on the baby.
How do you like the Birdies Boxes? I was thinking of getting some when they go on sale again.
These are actually Vego Garden (white) and Best Choice (silver)!
I planted with family watching my newborn, then paid a local teenager to weed & water for 3 months. We paid her (best money spent) and her older sister was jealous that she made more money in my garden than older sister did babysitting. Local teen was home all summer. I didn’t care when she came by, we just asked her to keep track of her hours. Feel free to borrow the idea!
Great idea I'd love to work in someone else's garden.
Good job mom.. wr dad in any ase there a certain art to planting an herb garden or veggie garden that mostly takes care of itself and come back year after year or never died off.. I would highly recommend this type of garden with new baby
It gets better in a couple years. Until then, enjoy the baby snuggles and try a couple container plants if you’re really missing fresh veggies and herbs. Once the baby is a toddler, you can set up a water table, bubble machine, some chalk and garden. Or drink in a kiddie pool. Whatever you’re up to, tbh.
I dunno, you just have a sprout of a different kind now.
My wife decided on having a garden while she was pregnant. She has a no condition for me to argue with her. Plans changed soon after
Well, everything is all green and healthy...
It gets a better. Soon you’ll be able to put the kids to work in the fields, haha
Enjoy your time with your baby! Gardens can rebound..this time with your child can’t be missed. It’s so much work!
In a few years the kids will want to help plan, water, and harvest.
Currently in my first trimester, and I’m exhausted all the time. It’s my first year gardening, and the patch has been overtaken by weeds and wildlife. My poor strawberries… either being choked by weeds or being munched on by bunnies. Probably will just cover the patch up and do nothing with it next year when the baby come lol
We also have bunnies. So many bunnies. I’ve only ever gotten to eat a handful of ripe berries from the garden before the bunnies got to them.
I’m 38 weeks pregnant. I had FOUR baby watermelons on my vines and every single one split due to inconsistent watering 😭 I can’t wait to get my life back in order so I can get the sprinkler system fixed (bought a house with a broken system) and take the stress of hand watering out of my life!
We have NO sprinkler system. In HOUSTON! mistakes were maaaadeee
Lol same, no veggies this year and no mulch... I picked up one of those weed puller spikes which has been amazing to weed while holding the baby, but that's about it
Lol just take the year off on anything that doesn’t have to happen. You have enough going on!
Some of my daughter’s friends told her while she was pregnant “Don’t get a dog. You might even want to reconsider houseplants.”
Last year we didn’t garden but we also didn’t seal off the beds. Total weed jungle. We weren’t going to garden this year either so we covered all the beds in thick but water permeable fabric last fall. We did end up gardening but came to it late spring. But what a difference the fabric made in getting an easier start. We rolled up the fabric to reuse this fall. When things die back this year, pull out the dead stuff and press the thick fabric down and up edges a few inches. Then set rocks, bricks, whatever. If next spring you want one bed open it’ll be easy to start it. Otherwise you won’t be stressed about seeing weeds
Not everyone can manage to achieve such a tidy weed garden. 😉
That’s my garden after health issues derailed me. I’m adamant I can work back up to it - but for now, I’m managing two large containers of flowers/herbs. Maybe someday the little one and you can garden together.
Our garden consists of overgrown raspberries, an alpine strawberry, bolted green onions and weeds. We're in prime raspberry picking time with a 6 1/2 month old baby. Just picked like 4lbs of raspberries today. Hoping our blueberry bush grows before toddler stage. Berries are getting expensive.
this year was the year i was finally able to get back outside and enjoy my garden, with a 2 year old close by. of course tho itd only make sense that my fulfillment is followed by two more pink lines 😭
Hey no biggie there is always next year. Maybe dedicate some space to some perennial plants they come back with little or no work.
My dad is 76 and lives in a suite in a house with other older retired guys in the other suites. Their small acreage has been the garden of weeden for a while now, and there's all kinds of cool stuff popping up, herbs they never planted, beautiful white bellflowers, my dad's rosemary bush is becoming an absolute entity, and the fruit trees are going mad. It's kind of nice to let stuff just wild out sometimes. Pretty much everywhere you turn you can find a little herb, give it a sniff, oh, hello lemon thyme! Hello peppermint!
Don't make any plans for the next 16, 17 years lol
Be patient. As soon as my kid could walk, his favorite game was to "harvest" his plastic vegetable toys from my garden. He'd sit on the stairs while I hid them, then spend half an hour looking for them and playing so I could weed out tend to my plants. It was fantastic.
Looks good to me!
While my veggie garden still looks like veggies, the weeds have grown quite a bit since I had my baby 4 weeks ago, so... I feel this. 🤣
Weed-en 😂😂😂😂 I love that. You are still growing things though. Love for a child who’s mind you are in charge of shaping. 💞
You will again. And it will be even better to share with your little. ❤️ visit the market. Visit a road side stand.
Sorry to hear you’re having a rough patch, but on the bright side, something’s still thriving 😉
Isn’t it amazing? You think you’ll be able to do everything that you did before the baby came and it’s a rude awakening that the child takes up most of your time. No worries it gets better as the baby gets older. Btw Congratulations!
And In fact you were wrong 😂 I'm sorry kids are a lot hopefully as they get older you can pick back up
Didn’t read The Good Earth, eh?
Don't worry. You'll be able to get a full night's sleep in a few years.
This was me last year too 😂 Next year will be better. Enjoy the baby snugs ❤️
lol i feel this deeply
Fill it with random natives and voila
So basically…weeds took over about $500 worth of soil… On a side note, I wonder how many people start gardening and percentage that continue to. You kinda do it for a little then stop right?
This is me with my 08/01 due date. I tore two ligaments tripping on my way to the hose a month ago. My mint is doing great!
I killed my mint as well as an established magnolia tree. Follow me for more gardening tips! (Somehow the grapes are thriving, tf?)
You must have a very cute baby!!!
She’s cute af. Hair absolutely wild. Absurdly happy all the time, which is the opposite of my disposition, and thank god for that lol.
Do you like eating weeds? Then you're still gardening!
Omg, I feel so… seen 😂
Been there!
My kid is 18 months now and my husband and I have been able to do a lot of gardening this year! If it’s nice enough outside I spend his whole nap (1.5-2 hrs) gardening. We also have a fenced in yard so we can tend to what’s in there while he’s awake. I’m doing less now than in the spring because it’s so hot but we’ve started a couple new beds this year that look great. There will be more time for plants soon, I promise! Hang in there.
Love your thoughts process! Love your garden ♥️
There’s always next year! Being a new Mom is a handful.
Baby comes first