This whole gardening thing is new to me, to us. So when we had some seeds sprout and others didn’t we didn’t understand why. We had done the same thing to each seed, they all resided in the same location and were treated the same way. So why didn’t they all sprout? My days have been filled with work recently, so I didn’t spend long contemplating the why, but I did ask the kids what they thought we should do if we didn’t get any more seeds to sprout. My husband had already gone and bought enough soil to fill both planter boxes, so we were going to have a garden somehow! We all agreed that we would just buy plants. This conversation occurred on the way out of town for a night, and when we returned, we were delighted to see that overnight we had three more seeds sprout. We now have cucumbers, bell peppers, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, and onions.
The plants that we transplanted two weeks ago were getting pretty big and really needed to get into the big boxes out front. But there wasn’t any soil in those big boxes, and the bags looked pretty heavy. With my work deadline looming, I avoided all things garden most of last week. Thankfully, my husband and kids were proactive. Here’s an update from the kids:
Last week, I (Kaden) saw Daddy hauling the bags of soil from the garage to the front yard and I went outside. I asked him if I could help and he handed me a shovel. He told me I could break up the soil after he dumped it out of the bags. It wasn’t long before I (Kambria) came outside and then Mom even took a break from her work and checked out what we were doing. Dad broke open a bag of soil by hitting it with the shovel. It smelled like poop! Dad emptied the first bag to show us how, and then we got a turn to try it ourselves. The bags were heavy, and more than half the size of us. Dad broke the bags in the middle and folded them in half so we could empty each side out. I (Kaden) spread the soil out with a shovel and I (Kambria) got my gloves on and spread the soil with my hands at first, then I used the rake and a shovel.
It took almost a half hour to get all of the soil out of the packages and into the boxes, and smoothed out ready for plants. The first plant to go in was spinach. I don’t even know what you make with spinach, but Kambria says Mom puts it in her potato and sausage soup. Eww! We pulled out the plans and found where the spinach was supposed to go. Actually, Dad put some plants in the boxes while Mom was in the house and then when she came out she got a little crazy. She told him we had to follow the plans. Mom likes things neat and she usually wants to make a plan. After we moved the spinach where it was supposed to go, we added the lettuce, and cucumber. We put the regular tomatoes in a different box (after Mom came out with the plans), a smaller, silver one because they will need more space. Then, we moved the sprouts that came up overnight into planter cups.
I (Kambria) think it will be a couple of months until we get any fruits or vegetables out of the garden. I (Kaden) think it will only be one month. And I, Mom, am still hoping for salsa!
Uncommonly Common Mom 