Our "Garden"

I realized for the past 2 years now that kids in this age group really do like to do adult things. "Helping" me do chores around the house makes them happy and they really like to "grow" things in the yard. Nevermind that it takes me double the time to clean the house even with 2 extra sets of hands, but it keeps them busy and not fighting so we do it. A garden...maybe that will be a great project for us...

So that's when I said "Ok, we will start a garden." I thought, how hard could this be? There's dirt in the ground already, step 1 done. Then I just shove some seeds in there, step 2 done. And add water and watch it grow! This will be a cinch and I'll be saving money by not having the landscaper do it, sorry Frank. And my life as a "gardener" begins...

So the first year I bought some annuals and put them in a planter, it was a really big planter so we had to buy extra dirt and I had the kids scoop all the dirt into the planter, took a while and kept them busy. Then I put the flowers in and BAM! How beautiful! The kids stood back and admired their work and they both were so excited to have "pwanted the bootiful fowers." So sweet. We would water it and watch it grow and admire it whenever we left the house and came home (it was at the front door). Then I noticed, boy the plants aren't looking so hot anymore why? Oh only because they were drowning...argh! The planter did not have holes in the bottom to drain so it was just not going anywhere. Note to self, be sure to plant stuff in pots with holes.

Now in the back yard we planted a bunch of stuff that would just eventually shrivel up into a brown pathetic little thing once it realized that they are no longer safe with someone who knows how to care for them, but they were not at the my house where theya re guaranteed to die. What's more sad are my kids! They didn't realize that the shriveling up and turning brown so early on in the game was not a good thing and bless their little hearts they would still get so excited..."Mommy! Look at the fowers growing!!!" and I would have to play along, "I know! You guys did such a great job planting them" and they both go off running so excited to tell someone who would listen. The poor things...admiring their dead plants. So I gave up for the rest of that year.

Now THIS year was going to be different. See that last year we had also planted some phlox and those grow under ANY condition! You can't kill them...so you think! So this year I was expecting a whole patch of phlox to bloom and some daylilies to grow back and bloom. Here we are, mid-June and NOTHING is blooming. So I drive through the streets and looking at homes and their landscaping and EVERYONE else is not only blooming, but their plantings look like explosions of colors! Then I come home to my brown pathetic looking things.

We also tried planting strawberries. I got some bulbs and the kids dug up holes and uh oh....which end of the bulb is up? So after consulting the kids we just decided to throw them in and hope for the best. After a few days, there was nothing obviously, then a couple of weeks go by and still nothing...but some weeds. "OMG! The strawberries are growing!!!" My precious babies think that we have managed to grow strawberries, how do I tell them that no there are no strawberries coming out of there? So I pray that they forget and so I divert their attentions to something else. Tomatoes. So now I have 2 tomatoe plants and they are still green. That's all I can ask for. Tyler brought home a beautiful bean plant they started to grow in school, now yellow. Is my thumb really THAT black? My poor children just wants to be able to grow something in our yard...please help me goddess of gardens!!!

As I pray that something grows so I can see the my kids' excited little faces I look out the window into my yard...and there's a dead bird in front of my window. Oi vay!