Yesterday morning, for example, I asked the kids to come help me plant the last remaining garden plants that have been waiting patiently for the past month to be placed lovingly in a garden box. I figured that I have done everything else up 'til this point, the least they could do was help me plant 7 measly plant-lings. Berlin couldn't wait to help, but Finley was a different story. Oh, the tears, the yelling, the screaming. Finley angrily kicking the floor shouting that it was my job to do all the work, not theirs. Sigh.
I held my ground and calmly listened to it all as I shoved their little hands into gloves and forced them outside. Ryan built these planter beds for mother's day. I painted them a few weeks ago and lined them with outdoor weed cloth to help keep the soil from seeping through the board cracks. Filled them with way more dirt than I thought it would take and we are good to go!
The kids planted zucchini, squash, pumpkins, cantaloupe, and watermelon plants. I figure these are fairly hardy so hopefully they will thrive under the kids watchful eye. Once the cantaloupe and watermelon start growing I have a trellis system I will set up to keep them off the ground.
My reward for such patience came in the form of 6 little words spoken from Finley's mouth: "I was wrong. This IS fun!" Yep, thank-you, thank-you very much. It was a small victory for me, though I am sure we will go through the exact same process the next few weeks when I ask them to come help water these plants by hand every morning and evening. These two garden beds will be their responsibility and it has already gone on their daily chore chart.
In response to Finley, I have my garden jobs too, one of which is the container garden which already producing lots of fruit and veggies.
Container plants:
2 yellow tomatoes, 1 yellow pear tomato, 1 red juliet tomato, jalepenos, sweet peppers, string beans, bell peppers, butternut squash, yellow squash, strawberries, cucumbers, and red onions.
Herbs:
Mint, Apple-mint, Citrus mint, basil, thai basil, cilantro, dill (we already lost the dill to aphids. Oh well).
In-ground:
Yellow raspberry bushes by the barn
With all the time I've been spending out in the yard, I have to say that most days I love our yard, especially the new stuff we've been planting - red bud trees, zelchova trees, peonies, lilac bushes, hydrangeas, japanese maples, etc.
But I have to admit that on hot Summer days, when I look out the window and see this, I think BLEH! I hate it! Just looking at all the dryness makes me hot. The field sprinkler just isn't cutting it. Correcting this might have moved up a couple notches on the "to-do" list. Even the chickens hate chillin' out in the field.
They prefer the kids play-set, which isn't working for me. So #1 on the to-do is putting a fence up in the middle of the field. Always something to do :)
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