Roman planted some beans in a cup in his preschool class, after reading Jack and the Beanstalk. He’s been taking very good care of them at home, while they’ve been sprouting up…watering them and finding just the right light for them. He was so excited to help me plant them in the garden this morning…
The boys helped me plant some bulbs in our garden this morning…daffodils and tulips!
Jonas asked me why I wanted to plant bulbs, and I told him…after a long winter, it’s my favorite thing in the world to see those first flowers of spring coming up. They remind me…in much the same way as a hard season of life easing up a little bit…that no matter how long or how cold the winter…there will always be that day when spring comes. To me, those beautiful spring flowering bulbs represent faith and hope.
I’ve really enjoyed our garden this year…especially all of the wildflowers and the zinnias.
Roman and I worked in the garden this afternoon. Â He helped me: Â pull out the Zinnias that were on their way out (cutting some to put in a mason jar to enjoy indoors and saving the spent blooms to dry and replant next year); plant some cool weather vegetables…Broccoli, Kale, and Red Romaine Lettuce; and cut back and replant a clump of Black-Eyed Susans. He even found a worm friend that he put in a bug catcher with some dirt (it’s “sleeping” in his room at night on the dresser and spending the day hanging out in the garden. Yay for a beautiful fall day, digging in the dirt with Roman!
Here’s Roman beside one of the sunflowers he planted in our garden!
A few weeks ago, I noticed that the flower beds in front of the library could use a little sprucing up. Â So, I talked with the head librarian and got his okay on everything. Â Then, we were off to the races! Â The boys went with me in different configurations and I went by myself a few times over the course of several days to do some weeding, pruning of the crepe myrtle and roses, and cutting back of the dead monkey grass. Â The Mulch Stop donated 2 yards of mulch, and The Southbranch Nusery donated 6 small pots of lantana to put in the flower pots out front!!! Â I talked with another instrumental mom in our moms’ group, and she suggested putting it down as an event on our calendar and inviting moms and kids out to join us for a work day. Â She also suggested rotating with each other playing with the kids in the library (reading, coloring, etc.) and working outside. Â We brought snacks to share, and we had a great time! Â Laura brought the mulch in her truck, and it was amazing how much we were able to get done. Â There is no way it would have gotten done without everyone coming together. Yay for community!!! Â Here are a few pictures of the boys hard at work…
The boys and I spent most of the day outside today…we planted our corn, bean, cucumber, and carrot seeds and our tomato and sweet pepper plants and painted pavers for our garden. Here they are…hard at work on their creations:
Xander, Roman, and I love Fridays…it’s a day of rest for us from a long week where we don’t have anything planned and often times even stay in our pajamas. Today we ended up deciding to go to Home Depot and hit up their herbs/fruits/vegetables sale…we picked up some basil, cilantro, parsley, lavender, and rosemary to round out our herbs and a few more strawberry plants. When we got home, we put on our rain/snow boots and enjoyed figuring out where we wanted everything to go, digging holes, planting, and watering everything in. It’s so exciting to see the garden taking shape and to share the planting of it with my little guys.
The boys enjoyed getting super muddy again, making mud pies!!!
As a nice ending to spring break, Tom had the dirt delivered for the new addition to our garden!!! Â We all enjoyed helping out. Â Tom shoveled and wheelbarrowed dirt, I tried my best to spread it out with a rake, and the boys amused the workmen with their little boy antics and got their hands and clothes as dirty as possible.
The boys and I took advantage of the first warm day in a long while…playing in the treehouse, picking up in the backyard, and working in the garden. Xander tromped into the kitchen in his muddy boots for some chewing gum “to plant a gum tree” (inspired by a book he LOVES called “The Gumdrop Tree”). With Jonas and Roman joining in, it soon morphed into even more muddy attempts to plant a cup tree and a bowl tree. While they were hard at work, I rescued some bulbs to force indoors…as they were already coming up and I was afraid the coming snow and ice would nullify all of their hard work. We all got super muddy but had a lot of fun doing it. Here’s to spring and more days working in the garden with my boys!!!
Xander and Roman had fun starting some Columbine and Delphinium seeds indoors for our garden this spring!!!
Roman helped me pick out and plant some beautiful fall flowers for our back porch this morning!
Xander helped me pick another round of fresh ripe vegetables from our garden this afternoon!
The boys and I dug up some of our carrots from the garden this morning. (Some of them weren’t quite as ready as others…see the ones in Xander’s hands…but we’re still learning which ones to pull up and which ones to leave in the ground…Xan-Man loves “the baby ones” anyway, so no loss.) As I was digging them out (I love the look of them fresh from the garden with their green tops and clumps of dirt), Jonas said, “Mommy, maybe that’s why we have rabbits in our garden because we have so many carrots!” True, true…we have a little furry friend who has made a home under our huge rosemary. Yay for carrots fresh from the garden and yay for little boys who love to hold, wash, and eat them!!!
Jonas and I were toodling around in the backyard this afternoon, watering the garden and checking out the growing things, while Xander and Roman were taking an afternoon nap. I showed him the chamomile that came back from the seeds we planted last year. He was SUPER excited and said, “Like chamomile tea…like Peter Rabbit?” and wanted to know if we could make some chamomile tea. So, we did. He loved cutting the flowers, putting them into the tea infuser, steeping it in a cup of hot water, adding some of MeMe’s spiced apple cider honey, and taking sips over and over again. Who knew I’d have a fellow herbal tea enthusiast in my four and a half year old son? Love it…love him.
The boys and I have been working hard in the garden, and I think we finally got it all in!!!
Last year, I tried to plant as many perennials as possible, so we had a good start already with our rosemary, lavender, sage, oregano, thyme, Black-Eyed Susans, yarrow, strawberries, blueberries, and bulbs (hyacinths, muscari, anemones, and daffodils).
We decided to add a few more herbs (chives, cilantro, and basil), vegetables (squash, zucchini, green beans, and cherry tomatoes), flowers (hollyhocks, foxgloves, lupines, and delphiniums), and fruits (raspberries) this year. And we also started a little shade garden under the steps with hostas and impatiens. So, we’ll see how it goes…how it grows.
