Garden Planning, 101

I’m sharing this post at Playopedia. Have you checked out her site yet? If you are a mom of littles, then you will love, love, love the ideas for play that are being shared there! Hope all my friends will check out her seriously terrific resource! You’ll be glad you did.

 

~Planning a garden with help from the little ones.

 

 

It may be hard to imagine planting a garden when there is snow on the ground and a chill in the air.  As my desire for spring is nearing it’s peak, I can’t help but think this is the perfect time for curling up by the fire and dreaming up my grand garden.  Truth be told, it won’t be long before those first seeds can be sown.  Now is the perfect time for ordering seeds and finishing the spring cleaning (so you don’t miss a single moment outside once the weather warms).

Gardening with littles is hard, unless…

You get them involved in the planning.

Gather up those seed catalogs and a piece of brown paper. 

~Oh, Seed Savers, how I adore you…  Such beautiful pictures and rare varieties… 

 

Let them make lists of their favorite varieties.

Sarah is particularly taken with the pink variety of blueberries that are so popular this year…

It just seems wrong, doesn’t it?  Cutting up catalogs that are so pretty.  Give ‘em the scissors.  You know you are going to order online anyway!

Now, let them plant the crops in neat little rows.

Oh, what a pretty little garden!  Look how it’s coming together!

Will it all fit?  Looks like we’ll be tilling up a bit more ground this year. 

Now, if I could just get them so excited about cleaning their rooms….

A Stinky Day

My flower bed is looking nice….

This little guy thought so, too!

Just how old do skunks need to be before they can spray?

And just how do you go about asking his age?

And what would I do if I didn’t have a fearless husband to chase him away?

And what will I do if the skunk comes back? Does it think my flower bed is a cozy home sweet home? What if my honey isn’t here to rescue me?!

Yes, little skunk… Stay in the woods. And tell all your friends to stay there, too.

Ummm…. And just so you know….
Photos were taken with a zoom lens as I squealed and hid on top of the kids’ swing set.
And wondered if skunks can climb….

A Dreaded Chore

The beans and corn are coming up nicely in our garden. So are the weeds. And you know what weeds do. They grow. Fast. Much faster than any good plant!

So, I went out tonight and got the tiller out of the barn. I adjusted the setting so the tiller would just loosen the top layer of soil and weeds. I followed that tiller, row by row, through our garden… Choking on exhaust.

Then I got out the good old fashioned garden hoe and went to work just like my Grandpa Tuck always did, pulling soil up around the good plants, choking off the little weed starts.

I threw countless rocks to the edge of the garden for the kids to collect later. I swatted mosquitoes. I got dirty, sweaty, tired, and sore.

Soon, the plants will be established enough to compete for their own nutrients and sunlight. Soon, they plants will grow big and tall. Because I have weeded them at this early stage in life, my plants will produce good food for my family. Soon, my garden will be worth all this hard work.

The kids getting our corn ready to cook last summer.
They are very motivated to work when it means getting to eat  fresh sweet corn!

I usually end up thinking about life’s little problems while I work. Tonight, I was thinking about the hard job of disciplining my little ones. Though my oldest is quickly becoming very dependable and trustworthy, my youngest three are still at the stage where they need my attention and my correction throughout the day. I spend a lot of my time breaking up arguments, cleaning up messes made by the youngest, and praying that they will all soon have the “sense God gave a goose.”

It’s a lot of hard, hard work. It’s frustrating. It’s often exhausting. I’m praying it will soon be well worth the effort.

Somewhere between the bean plants and the zucchini, it all came together in my mind.

This early part of raising my babies is a lot like growing my garden. My babies are tender, unable to fend for themselves. They need me to keep them safe, provide for them, and help them know the good from the bad.

These early years are my chance to give them a good start. Just like my garden, my little ones need a rich environment. They also need me to do the hard work of weeding the things that will hold them back.

In due time, they will grow. As the years pass, they will become more and more independent.

But right now… Right now is my chance to make a difference in their lives.

It’s hard work. Some days, I wonder if I’m making a difference. I wonder if I’m doing the right things. Some days, I don’t see much progress.

Then suddenly, they grow. Just like my garden does, they grow.

And finally, I begin to see the good my labor has brought. And I know that the hard work I have done has been well worth it.

So, I’ll go on doing the hard work of weeding my garden and raising my little ones while praying they will thrive and go on to produce much good.

Signed,

The Gardener/Momma

Mushroom Hunting!

We took a few hours to go to one of my favorite places, today.

My mom and step-dad’s farm.

This cute little mushroom was NOT what we were looking for…

But this trillium caught our eye and we just had to stop and take a closer look.

The may apples were a good sign that we were looking in the right place.

 

And, well… This log just struck my fancy. I loved the textures of the peeling bark.

When you’re looking for teeny, tiny mushrooms, you see teeny tiny flowers like this one.

And suddenly, you see it! The first mushroom!

But don’t move! Look around first, ‘cause there’s bound to be more!

I guess if you stand on a log, you don’t have to worry about stepping on a mushroom.

Once you start finding them, it’s awfully hard to stop.

See it?

And while you’re taking the time to do some looking, you start seeing all kinds of wonderful, amazing things.

Great beauty in the everyday, simple things.

We went hunting for mushrooms but found so much more.

Garden Planning, 101

~Planning a garden with help from the little ones

 

 

It may be hard to imagine planting a garden when there is snow on the ground and a chill in the air.  As my desire for spring is nearing it’s peak, I can’t help but think this is the perfect time for curling up by the fire and dreaming up my grand garden.  Truth be told, it won’t be long before those first seeds can be sown.  Now is the perfect time for ordering seeds and finishing the spring cleaning (so you don’t miss a single moment outside once the weather warms).

Gardening with littles is hard, unless…

You get them involved in the planning.

Gather up those seed catalogs and a piece of brown paper. 

~Oh, Seed Savers, how I adore you…  Such beautiful pictures and rare varieties… 

 

Let them make lists of their favorite varieties.

Sarah is particularly taken with the pink variety of blueberries that are so popular this year…

It just seems wrong, doesn’t it?  Cutting up catalogs that are so pretty.  Give ‘em the scissors.  You know you are going to order online anyway!

Now, let them plant the crops in neat little rows.

Oh, what a pretty little garden!  Look how it’s coming together!

Will it all fit?  Looks like we’ll be tilling up a bit more ground this year. 

Now, if I could just get them so excited about cleaning their rooms….

 

 

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This Year’s Top Crop

This is broom corn.  As in, the stuff they use to make corn brooms.  I bet you always wondered about that, didn’t you?

 

I’m not sure what possessed me to order the seeds from Seed Savers.  It must have been some really good marketing on their part.  Or, maybe I’m just a bit strange.  Yeah, I’m thinking I’m a bit strange.  Anyway, you can discuss that amongst yourselves…

 

So, I tilled up a five or six foot long row in the garden and threw the seeds in.  I didn’t give them much care beyond weeding them one time.  The plants popped up and grew so fast that weeding wasn’t really an issue.

 

And, this is what I ended up with.  A row full of plants that were at least 10 feet tall.  This one was easily 12 feet tall.  Danny looks so small next to it.

 

 

Seems rather silly to say, but I almost hated to harvest this pretty little row.

I’ve really enjoyed watching it grow.  It towers over the tomatoes and seems to guard the peppers…

But the day had come to harvest my pretty little crop.

 

 

 

Broom corn is a type of sorghum.  I think it’s pretty.

 

 

My chickens think it’s tasty.

 

 

 

This praying mantis thought the bugs that were living on the plants were tasty.  I think I surprised him when I pulled this stalk down to cut it…  He sure surprised me!  I made sure he got to the ground safely, though.  These little guys are valuable in the garden. 

 

Curious and Slick were very interested in the harvest.

 

 

 

 

My short little row provided me with an overflowing basket of broom corn.

 

 

 

It looks kind of neat, mixed in with some fall flowers. 

It would be fun to make a broom, but I think I’ll settle for using it to decorate for fall and then feeding it to the chickens.  Any good decorating ideas? 

 

 

I’m linking up today at Blue Cricket Design.