Gardening 101

With spring here I LOVE to spend my time out in the yard. This weekend was no exception. We got the bunny fence put up to protect our lettuce and beets. We chopped down a tree with pine wilt. We bought an edger and edged the driveway. I trimmed the front Ewes and blew the leaves out of the rocks. I am sure there was more I have forgotten. Anyway, Vern enjoys this probably the best of the 3 kids. He wants to learn how to mow!

Step one of leaning how to mow is safety followed by maintenance. So the other night he helped do spring maintenance on the rider. We cleaned the air filter and changed the oil. We have to sharpen blades and change spark plugs yet but that is another day. He was very interested in this and paid attention.

Vern also enjoys gardening. He loves his sunflowers that grow HUGE. He has helped me plant in the past and I am sure he will again this year. In honor of spring and gardening Vern did another short survey for me :-)  Enjoy.

1. What kinds of things do you grow in your garden?
Answer: Vegetables and I guess fruits and flowers too.

2.  Where do you garden the most?
Answer:  Home

3.  Do you garden with your parents or a teacher?
Answer: Parents

4.  Do you like to spend time gardening with your parents, teacher, or friends?
Answer: NO (this makes it sound like its aweful...)

5.  How many other children garden with you in your garden?
Answer: Zero

6.  Do you share the fruits, vegetables, and flowers that you grow with other people?
Answer: Yes

7. Gardening can sometimes make you feel better about yourself in many different ways.  Tell us which of the things listed are important ways in which gardening has helped you. (I am only listing the ones Vern chose.)
Answer: Growing fruits and vegetables for food
              Learning about plants
              Making my home better with plants and flowers
              Exercising outside

8.  Do you think that you've learned about natrue and the environment through gardening?
Answer: Yes

9.  What kind of things have you learned about the garden that you can remember?
Answer: Don't plant a bunch of seeds in a clump. You must plant in a row.
              Don't step or pee on the flowers. (You just knew Vern would slip in something like this in a survey. I forgot all about it until I was typing this and it made me laugh all over again.)

10.  Do you live in the city or in the country?
Answer: Country

11. How old are you?
Answer:  9-12 years old

12. In your own words, what is the best thing about your garden?
Answer:  Food. My sunflowers I have in the garden. They are big and I like them and they are cool! Like 7 foot tall!!!!

The Garden Guru

There maybe hope yet. One of my children has shown an interest in gardening. I love to garden. It's therepudic, relaxing, a great workout, not to mention the great food you harvest.

Last year Vern was showing some spark in gardening and this year it has really kicked in.  He brought home a cabbage plant from school. He said he was going to grow the BIGGEST cabbage ever and win $1000.

Tonight he ran to check on his cabbage.
D
E
A
D
as can be. He is holding it and comes running out to me crying so hard that his cabbage is dead. I told him he could pick out a few things and plant and help me tend the garden.

That helped some. He wants to do sunflowers and cantelope.  I planted my beets tonight and he was right there helping. He even took the hoe and did some weeding. He was excited about it all. It made DA MOM smile.

Here is to a growing garden.