The best gardening task for a two-year-old

Today I discovered the best gardening task for my two year old. My daughter, Cavan, decided (after a long afternoon of running errands) that she did not want to take a nap. Fantastic. The tedious job of filling hundreds of starter seed pots I had planned for the afternoon was on the verge of derailment (and I'm already weeks behind schedule for having blooms as soon as the cold weather breaks).

Cavan is not quite at the age where she can just occupy herself in the yard, and she still needs to be monitored loosely. So that meant she would be hovering in my work zone, begging for attention. Brainstorm: I set out my bag of soil and the rows of seed pots and asked her to fill them up with her little yellow trowel.  She loved it. Other than having a more-than-usual amount of stray soil all over our deck, she helped me accomplish a necessary task, and I got to spend quality time with her (while nurturing her baby green thumb).

But then, she wanted to put in the seeds too. Eek. This resulted in a no-nap meltdown. I barely have the dexterity to manage some of those teeny-tiny seeds, so relying on her fine motor skills would be begging for disaster. (By the way, portulaca seeds are about the size and consistency of dust, so I probably put about 500 seeds in each one-by-one pot).

But all in all, it think it was a successful pre-season planting day. I now have marigold, zinnia, portulaca, four-o'clocks, candy lily, and gaillardia flower seeds started, as well as my herbs for the season—rosemary, dill, cilantro, basil, mint, chives, lemon balm, and parsley. This is the first time I have diligently tried to grow from seeds. (It can't be that hard, right? Aren't plants designed to propagate via seeds?!) Oh yeah, and 12 begonia tubers. These are also a new experiment this year—I am hesitant to plant tubers or bulbs that require lifting and winter storage (that seems like a whole lot of maintenance), so more on this at the end of the season.