Livin' the Dream: Of gardening and little boys

For those of you who didn't know, gardening is one of my great passions. There is something about watching a hard, dead looking seed become a beautiful plant, burst into flower, and then bear fruit, and then eating it.

(Ok, so seriously? I just like playing in the dirt. ;-))

Not being able to wait until the garden was ready, I consoled myself with turning all my flower pots into veggie pots.

May 14 - green onions, spinach, herbs, and one lonely squash that I didn't know what to do with. :-P

Spinach, spinach, and more spinach! A friend of mine said she grows a plot of spinach really thick, and then 'trims' it whenever she needs spinach. So, that's what I'm doing. :-D

This is what they look like today....

Peter is much more of a help this year than he was last year. That being said, I am still needing to work on my patience and modulated tones with his exuberant running across my little plants. I have found a few methods that are helping me in this aim...

1. Find something he CAN do and enjoy doing (like watering my raspberries - I'm gonna have the juiciest raspberries ever this year)

2. Practice "stop" other times when my plant lives aren't at stake. He now thinks it is fun to stop on command, and it works sooo much better than yelling "PETER DOUGLAS SHONWISE GET OUT OF MY GARDEN" and "DON'T STEP... on the plants..." (sigh, I know, I'm a bad mother) Once he's stopped, he's pretty good at looking at his feet and walking around the plants to get out of the garden.

3. Remember that plants are actually pretty durable, and even if he does kill them all, my relationship with him and his long-term love of gardening are far more important...

Still working on it, but I AM doing better this year (or, maybe he's just better...)

It was a lot of fun to have him involved in the planting - the best part of children is having someone to share my awe at the incredible design of our Creator.

Covering them up for me...

Planting out my broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbages

Now, fast-forward a couple weeks to today, and here's where we're at!

Rhubarb, almost ready to be made into delicious things

Little romaine plants, needing to be thinned...

Cabbage!

This cat was chosen to replace our previous chicken eating cat. For the last few weeks it has been gun shy of us, but it suddenly decided we were ok, and is now a royal pest. It literally curls its way around my legs/shovel/camera anytime I'm out there...