Super Zanman's Adventures in Gardening

Have you ever heard of a six-year-old who likes plants more than toys? I have.

When we first moved to Texas, my son, who we affectionately call Zanman, was two. He was often my little helper as we planted flowers each season. We had come from an apartment and were excited to plant flowers and palm plants in our flower beds. Besides digging for worms, Zanman loved to dig the hole in the flower bed for the flowers to go in. As he got older his gardening interest increased. His favorite library book was an A to Z book of flowers. He memorized all their names and he and his older sister, BooBoo, would have races to see who could name the flowers the fastest.

My husband was surprised when he took Zanman to the store one time and he begged and pleaded for Brandon to buy him a plant. When Brandon offered to buy him a toy instead, Zanman insisted on the plant. It was a small pine tree that we kept indoors all winter. Later in the spring, we planted it outside. When it died in the summer due to the lack of rain, Zanman was so sad that we hadn't taken better care of it.

Now that he is six, my Zanman has quite a collection of plants both inside and outside of the house. He knows how to repot plants and waters them religiously every day with his sister's old pink watering can. For his sixth birthday, all he wanted was plants and gardening tools. He was so excited when he got a little greenhouse for growing vegetables, a grow-your-own strawberries kit, and gardening gloves. The kid definitely has a green thumb!

His room itself is a greenhouse, sheltering many plants that friends give us or that he takes from outdoors. Our front porch is full of four or five potted plants that he has collected. His favorite Texas plant that has been thriving are his Impatiens, a tall, bushy plant with purple or white pansy-like flowers. He is learning through trial and error which plants grow best in our tropical climate.

One Monday night during our weekly Family Home Evening lesson, we were reading scriptures and talking about the Parable of the Sower from the Bible. The story is about seeds planted in different places and how it affected their growth or their decline and represented people's spiritual growth or spiritual death. When Zanman realized it was a story about plants, his little ears perked up and he listened very intently. Then I got a mustard seed to demonstrate Christ's teaching that all we need is a small amount of faith to do great things. Zanman got so excited and I was pleased that he understood the message. Following the lesson, he planted, and watered the mustard seed, taking care of it and watching it grow.

While I do not know if his green thumb will develop into a future profession, I am learning many life lessons through my son and his gardening. First and foremost, I am learning that as we nurture our children and their talents, they bloom into the people they were meant to become.