Gardening

Not too long ago, we decided that it might be fun for the girls to have a little garden in the backyard. Something they could help plant, watch grow and then even eat! We talked with Brandon's mom (since she has a BEAUTIFUL garden in her backyard and plants all through the house) and she decided to come the weekend of April 10th.

The week before, there was a gardening playdate scheduled. PERFECT timing. I figured this would get the girls excited about it. (And it did). So the girls planted beans, basil, and lettuce in pots at a friend's house. This was the only picture I got because they kept dumping dirt on the ground.
So then Grandma came in on Saturday. On Sunday, we loaded everyone up and headed to Lowe's. The girls picked out some Sesame Street seeds (Oscar's Green Beans, Abby's Pumpkins, Big Bird's Sunflowers), a tomato plant, 2 pepper plants and marigolds. They also got some Disney Princess gardening gloves. (We also stopped at Target and got some $1 bin tools). When we got home, it was naptime, so the girls slept while we did the hard work. (Well, Brandon and his mom did the hard work. I took pictures).

Here's our tomato plant (see, it's already got some tomatoes on it - look at the bottom left). Bev picked this one since it had fruit already. She wanted something the girls could see right away.

Our pots from playgroup, the marigolds and the pepper plants.

Digging the hole

Ta-da!

The planted tomato. We decided to do this one while the girls were still asleep.

Jordan woke up first. She she helped us "plant" some bluebonnets and Texas wildflowers (more like scattering seed for the birds, but oh well).

As you can see from the pictures above, Jordan was OBSESSED with her gardening tools. (Thank goodness for the $1 bin at Target!). You'll see more about her digging skills in a minute....

Allison woke up and so now it was time to get to work! Here's Grandma explaining to the girls what we're going to do

Planting beans

Covering them up

This took a while with Jordan. She kept trying to dig them back up. We ended up hiding the trowels a couple of times. We also planted carrot seeds. Bev brought these really cool seeds that are in tissue paper evenly spaced (since carrot seeds are TINY). You just dig a trench, lay the paper/seeds and then cover it. Then you keep a 2 year old from digging it back up.

Taking a break!

We didn't really have room in our garden for the pumpkins and sunflowers, so we just dug holes along the fence for those. I have NO idea if they'll take or not.

Hooray for Grandma!!

Bev picked things that grow pretty quickly. She thought this would help keep the girls interest (same reason the mom who did the gardening playdate picked the things she picked). This also helps ME because it keeps my interest. ;) (I'm not known for my green thumb!!) Hilary, Heather and Annie could tell you some funny stories about trying to teach me to pull weeds when we moved into the house with the awesome garden area our sophomore year.

So here are the beans on 4/15 (they were planted on 4/8):

Allison's

Jordan's

Now today (the 17th)

Allison's

Jordan's

Here's our garden on the 15th

And again, today

Jordan's side:

(You can't see it very well, but between the beans and the sidewall, there is a sprout. No telling what it is because I have NO idea that anything was planted there).

Allison's side:

(You can't see it really well, but there is also a tiny little carrot sprout about halfway between the beans and the pepper)So that's our little garden. I'm really looking foward to see how it does. I hope I can stay excited about it! (And I hope the girls can too). Maybe next year, we'll add another box!

PS - We have to do raised beds down here because the regular ground dirt is bad and because of all of the rain.