To me, a family garden is an outdoor landscape (if even a balcony, windowsill or community park or school garden) that has something for everyone in your family, and a space you take care of together throughout the year: planting, weeding, watering, and planting again, but also a space where you notice what happens as a result of your work together.  This weekend, my family and I enjoyed our outdoor landscape in many ways.

My friend, garden designer and writer, Starla J. King, reminisced on my blog about a pot painting party with her niece, and I decided to give it a go with my boys, ages five and seven.  Having done many family planting parties in pots, a pot painting party sounded like so much fun.  So, I did it – gathering all of the paints and brushes for our “study/craft/kids everything room” with some newspaper, paper towels, a small bucket of water, and a trash bag, and we started painting outside on plastic pots we had in the closet.  My five year-old had taken a week-long art camp this summer and loved it – he has always loved art at school – but I wasn’t affording him much creative space with our art supplies.  So, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  The weather was great all weekend – so we had a weekend outdoor art studio, painting four or five pots, and even painting a friendship pot for my boys’ friend who is moving in a month, with each of their hand prints and signatures. 

Sunday morning, my husband and the boys’ grandfather played touch football in the cool morning air while I weeded.  I went on a bike ride with my older son, and then a walk with the dog, and the kids were playing soccer with their dad.  Then my five year-old and I planted some cool season vegetables in pots:  scallions, radishes, and spinach and then we checked on the seedlings popping up from the pea, mesclun, and swiss chard seeds that we planted two weeks earlier in the raised garden beds on the side of the house.

Next, I offered for my five year-old to decide what to do.  “Let’s play ‘I spy’,” he said.  We sat in Adirondack chairs that I have in the front perennial garden bed, and watched the three purple aster plants bursting with color and countless butterflies, in all sizes and colors.  One of the reasons I love aster, native to North America, is how it fills up your garden bed with green in the spring and summer, and then bursts into show in fall.  In late May or early June, you cut back the foliage by as much as two thirds (mums too by the way), to have a fuller, sturdier base for the blooms.  For the last three days, we’ve even had three orange monarchs enjoying the aster.

 

Just as catmint (nepeta) and salvia are butterfly-loving staples for the full sun and part sun spring and summer garden, aster is a butterfly-loving staple for the fall garden.  All can be planted now.  Have your kids design their spot (meaning, just put them in charge and let them create).  On occasion, I love going to the garden center with my kids after I pick them up in the evening.  During the week, the garden center is not crowded, there is someone to help you, and you could even have a picnic dinner back at home while you create their garden.  Low on time? You could even go buy the plants for your kids during a lunch hour and they can get started right away at home.  If you want to influence where they dig, you can even pick together a ‘secret garden’ spot where you feel more comfortable giving them creative control and it has a cool name.  That’s what I did   If you have some perennials in your yard that are outgrowing their space, you can divide them (literally split them in half with a straight shovel) and not even have to go out and buy new plants.

This weekend, I even taught my kids how to prune the aster.  Pull off the faded blooms (the ones that are shriveled up and brown); it helps new flowers grow.

As a family, we’ve seen so many cool things year-round in our yard like skinks (a lizard with a black upper body and electric blue tail), praying mantis, grasshoppers, and frogs.  Why?  Because we have done simple things in our yard that attract these beneficial creatures, giving them food, water, shelter, and places to raise their young.  For example, a small water feature and native plants: perennials like aster, trees like

 

evergreen foster holly, and shrubs like deciduous Virginia sweetspire that have beautiful fall color.  You can even certify your back yard as a wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation and they have more information on how to get started.  Also search the internet for your local native plant society for more suggestions.  Even without doing more research, you can do one thing:  go to the nursery and start with fabulous, butterfly-attracting aster.

Rebecca P. Cohen is a gardening coach and a mom who believes time outside transforms our lives for the better.  For her trio of quick-reference guides to the longest-blooming perennials, easiest vegetables, and best tips for designing your landscape, visit http://www.rebeccaplants.com/gardening.asp

Tags: a family garden, Adirondack chairs, aster, fall activities for kids, fall vegetables, fall vegetables in pots, family gardening, gardening for beginners, gardening help, kids gardening, monarch butterflies, New York aster, painting pots, vegetables in pots, virginia sweetspire

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Get Out of the House, fall gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.