May 9, 2013
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Gardening with the Girl….
Our day together started with burritos at McDonalds- a typical place for us to plan the rest of our day. We talked about buying plants for Mother’s Day and what she wanted. For Momma it was tulips, or daffodils, or irises- mostly red irises, she decided. For MeeMaw it was an eggplant plant. “It’s a vegetable,” she explained, “and it’s purple.” We decided we needed to buy dirt to make the old wooden sandbox into a raised garden bed and it was off to Home Depot. It may be her new favorite place with shiny big lawn mowers to sit on, water to splash in, bugs to hunt, and flowers everywhere.
We found a clerk and she asked him about the flowers for her mom. In spite of her doing the talking, he answered me. I tried to get him to tell her the response, but he never quite got the concept that the tiny kid talking to him was his customer- that she was the one making the decisions. We finally figured out the right stuff and got it loaded in our car. On the way home, we stopped at our favorite toy store where I had spotted high quality children garden tools last week. She had never seen a hoe before and was happy about owning one for her garden.
After cleaning out the sandbox, we started dumping in the dirt- or rather- I dumped and she worm hunted. Using her rake and hoe we spread it around (or rather I spread it around while she hunted for grubs). Having under estimated how big the sandbox was, we needed to go get more dirt before we finally got to planting the tiny cherry tomato starts we’d started a couple of weeks ago. I had seeds for more plants, but we were both done once the tomato plants were in.
She spotted a grub among the tomato starts but it escaped from her fingers. I look at how dirty she is and laugh. She points out my own dirt and declares me gross! Lunch, a video, and a nap and all too soon our day is done. One day together isn’t enough! There are lots of seeds still to plant, bugs to hunt, flower pots to paint, and Mother’s Day gifts to replant. None of this will get done today. She’s out and down for a long nap…
Comments (5)
Gardening is not rocket science but a few things from experience is good to know.
1. Over watering of house plants is a killer, just like underwatering.
2.Too much sun or not enough sun is usually told by the plant label where it says some shade or plant in a sunny spot.
3.Using “tired” soil needs fertilizer. Tired soil is soil used for a long time growing stuff. Fresh “virgin” soil is usually good for anything once.
@PPhilip - I am the non-gardener in my family! my dad will laugh when he hears I did this, but I think playing in dirt and growing food is a child’s right and part of the ritual of growing up healthy and wise! All that to say, thanks for the advice! I need all I can get!
My daughter had ZERO interest in gardening, which was hard for me. I guess that just skipped a generation; my Mom was never into it, either, but HER Mom was known for her Green Thumb.
Sounds like a lovely day!
@suzyQ_darnit - it was and when her father asked what we did she said, “We played outside all day!” Not a word about the garden! We could have spent the whole day playing in the backyard and she would have been happy!
@jerjonji – aw, that’s cute! But I am sure you sowed a seed for gardening somewhere, it may just take a while longer to germinate.