Gardening

Yesterday afternoon, we put in our flower garden and our vegetable garden. Our vegetable garden is never big enough for all that we try to cram into it. This year we're trying tomato, cucumber, broccoli, green pepper, green beans, squash, basil, and cilantro. Ellie insisted on the squash, and she campaigned desperately for watermelon and pumpkin, but we don't even have room for what we already did!

I have absolutely no eye for design in flower gardens. I love looking at other people's, but when it comes to mine, I always plant the flowers in straight rows because I don't know what else to do. This year, I had my mom sketch out a design for us to follow, and we tried that. I think it will look a lot better - thanks, Mom! (I also feel like I should apologize to my poor neighbors who had to look at my old "design" for the past seven years!)

Isaac and I discovered that Ellie is actually a big help for yardwork this year. Not only does she love to run errands for us ("Go get the spade from the backyard," "Can you drag the hose over to the pots?" "Run into the front yard and bring us the seed packets!") but she's strong enough to handle the sprayer hose!

Disclaimer: When allowing a preschooler to use the sprayer hose, follow these rules:

1. Hand over the hose and turn the water on.
2. Stand far away.
3. No, farther away.
4. Keep going! You never know where that spray will end up.
5. Quickly run into danger to rescue the pile of gardening gloves and tools from getting soaked.
6. Patiently point out all the spots that are getting missed while others get drenched.
7. Politely say, "Okay, honey, that's good! You can stop now."
8. More insistently: "All right, sweetie, it's all watered. We're done."
9. Somewhat frantically: "That plant is drowning! Stop watering!"
10. Turn off the water at the hose.