I have a lot of dirty little rubber boots lined up on my deck right now but not because we’ve been busy setting up our garden. Nope. I am really terrible at making things grow. This year when the thought of growing our own garden popped into my head (yet again), I said to myself that I just have to dive right in there, figure it out and see if we can make it work. The boys would love the experience and really it can’t be that hard, can it?

Since this is all new to me and have no clue where to start (obviously) I went to the internet. I happened to be on the Disney Junior site over Earth Day weekend and found a printable on growing a mini garden with Handy Manny. This was the moment I realized that I honestly didn’t have a clue about gardening. WHY was I buying plastic plant trays for our seedlings when I had everything I needed sitting in my pantry? I have TONS of empty egg cartons just waiting to be used up for crafts. Thanks, Handy Manny, for suggesting them to sprout our seeds with! Why didn’t I think of that in the first place! When the seedlings are ready for transplanting you can plant the egg carton directly into the ground!

Our gardening adventure is all about baby steps right now…and we’re really enjoying watching  our “mini tomato garden” sprout and stretch towards to sunlight!

 Until we figure out if we’ll be doing garden boxes or not I’m keeping my boys’ interest by giving them printables about gardening as well as reading lots about how seeds grow. We really like this book right now. We’ve also been incorporating Disney Junior’s Green Planet Activities into our day. Some we’ve already been doing but there were a few new ideas I haven’t tried with my boys yet — such as taking paper & crayons with us on our forest walks to create “Nature Rubbing Books”! Have your child lay the paper on top of different objects (like a tree trunk or sidewalk) and color over top on the paper. Once they’ve finished a few pages, take them home and assemble as a “book” in order of smoothest to roughest! I’m always looking for different ways to change up our daily walks, so I’m loving this printable!

Have gardening tips? Please share below…I’d love to hear!

This post is brought to you by Disney Junior. Disclosure:  I’m part of the Disney Junior Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

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