As part of my grand experiment to grow all our summer veggies in our backyard, I want to involve my toddler twins in the process. I’d like them to learn first-hand about botany by seeing where their veggies come from, possibly a ridiculous mission given that they’re not even two yet.

I’m never one to be swayed by reason, though, and I’ve been inspired by several toddler gardening websites. So today I embarked on phase one of twin involvement: helping mommy plant two kinds of squash and some spinach and radishes in containers on the deck.

As I prepped the containers for planting, the twins climbed down the deck’s two steps into the garden. While Trevor navigated them carefully, Duncan pretty much rolled down them and face-planted in the grass. He’s not big on caution. Trevor went on to investigate a bean plant, while Duncan tugged vigorously on a weigela bush. They moved on to the gravel driveway, where Trevor gathered rocks and placed them one-by-one in a pot of scotch broom. Duncan mostly just toddled about, stumbling and tripping.

By this point I was ready to plant my seeds, so I called them up to the deck. They eyed me skeptically, but eventually climbed back up the steps.

“Here. See, here’s the squash seed ready for planting,” I demonstrated. “I push it down in the soil and cover it up. Just like that. Want to try the next one?”

I handed a seed to Duncan, who whooped enthusiastically and flung it across the yard.

“Ummmm no….Not like that. See, we need to put the seed in the soil before it can grow.” I demonstrated again, then handed Duncan another seed to try. This time he whooped and threw it over his head. Trevor, meanwhile, had plunged his arm elbow-deep into the soil.

“Ooooooh,” he said. Next he grabbed handful of dirt and dumped it on the deck. “Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh!” Impressed, Duncan followed suit. Pretty soon there was more soil on the deck than in the pot.

Clearly, phase one of twin gardening involvement was not proving very successful—not by adult standards anyway. The twins appeared to be having barrels of fun.

I recruited their father to set up the sandbox in the driveway, so they could toss sand (instead of seeds and soil) to their hearts’ content. This they happily did. I tried to interest them in digging holes, sifting and filling up pails with sand—the usual sandbox stuff. But they had other ideas: Trevor focused on filling up the sandbox with rocks, and Duncan dumped a pail of sand on his head.

Well, the experts suggest lots of other gardening activities for little kids. Maybe I’ll have better luck with phases two and three of twin involvement: watering and helping mommy pull weeds. Any predictions on that?