1KHO 625: Childhood Grows Best in a Garden | Sharon Lovejoy, Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Parenting, Kids & Family

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Beloved author and illustrator Sharon Lovejoy returns for her third appearance on The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast, and this conversation feels like stepping into the kind of childhood we all hope to create. Sharon and Ginny explore why the garden remains one of the most powerful places to raise a child and a parent. From babies whose tiny hands brush over mint leaves to 96-year-olds planting their very first sunflower house, Sharon shows that it is never too late to begin. Her timeless books like Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots, Camp Granny, Sunflower Houses have introduced generations to the simple miracles of seeds, soil, and slowing down. This episode is a reminder that you don’t need expertise or acres of land; you just need a pot or two and some seeds to nurture. Together, Sharon and Ginny share some reasons gardening changes families: it pulls children away from screens, fills them with curiosity, and gives them a world of textures, tastes, and small adventures—zinnias buzzing with life, lamb’s ear soft as felt, corn that comes in stunning colors, birdhouse gourds that become toys, and tiny discoveries waiting under every leaf. Sharon explains how a garden becomes a child’s first classroom, a parent’s pause button, and a generational legacy that ripples outward—just as her own grandmother’s influence shaped thousands of families around the world. If you’ve ever wished for a slower, richer, more connected childhood for your kids or for yourself this conversation will give you the courage, inspiration, and practical starting points to begin today. Explore more: Sharon Lovejoy’s books: https://sharonlovejoy.comRoots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: https://amzn.to/43GtvOa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast. My name is Jimmy Eurich, and I am beyond thrilled. So thrilled to let you know that Sharon Lovejoy is back for the third time. Sharon, thank you so much for being here.
0:13.2	It's great. I forgot that it was the third time. That's wonderful. Yes, your books have changed my life and truly changed my life. And I know you talk about that people send you letters from all over the world. You were just saying how you got a letter from Tasmania. And it was your book, Roots, Shoots, Bucats and Boots. And I talk about your book when I travel. I speak sometimes. And I always say it's a book. I believe every family should own every family because if you're an adult you will
0:39.5	just get drawn in if you are a child the pictures are so whimsical and I started down the road with
0:45.8	root shoots buckets and boots but I also have a blessing of toads I have running out of night
0:50.9	I have toad cottages and shooting stars I have root shoots buckets and boots I have sunflower houses which sadly is out of night. I have towed cottages and shooting stars. I have root shoots buckets and boots. I have sunflower houses, which sadly is out of print, but you can still probably get a used copy somewhere, which it was reprinted 10 times. I have trowel and error. I have Holly Hawk Days. And then I have your kids book that has all the colors in it, but that's in my kid.
1:10.9	What's that one called? That's in my kids' room.
1:12.9	Little Green Island with a little red house, which was based on our house on an island in Maine.
1:18.6	Yes, we have that one too. These have been a treasure, a treasure of my adult life. And I started gardening because of you. And our garden is such a mess.
1:31.2	But it brings so much joy. You were the catalyst for me. And I know you're the catalyst for so many
1:36.0	people. I'd love to kick it off. You know, this is going to be coming up in a time that's not
1:40.6	technically gardening season. But I think you have to give yourself time and
1:44.9	space to dream. And these are the months to do it. You start to dream about what's going to come
1:50.5	so that you can plan and prepare. One of the things that you talk about a lot is that gardening
1:56.0	is for every age. So can we kick it off? You know, you talk about, you've got people that will
2:00.1	write in, they'll be like, I'm 96 and I'm about to, I'm about to get started or I'm three year, you know, you got a three year old that's joining in. There is not much else in like in life like that, is there? No. And you know, when you said that about 96, one year I got a letter from a woman who said, if it's indeed true what you say,
2:20.2	that you're never too old to be a child at heart, this will be my best year ever. I'm home
2:25.7	my first sunflower house. I'm 96 years old. I just, I cried when I got that letter. I thought,
2:31.7	that's great. And I think, you know, even starting at age
2:34.7	three is too late for children. My son Noah, I started taking him out when he was just a few days
2:42.9	old. And I would talk to, I think we all know how important it is to talk and have conversation
2:49.6	with children,
2:53.6	what builds their literary skills, their speech skills.
	...

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