MEET JOEY! Gardening w/ my 8 year old :)
I have been living in the same house for close to seven years and each and every year I tell the kids we will do a garden. In previous year, I have begged my husband to dig up the space but fail to get any further than that. Last year, he grudgingly dug it up because I had seedlings ready to go but we had a busy hot weekend and they fried on the deck. This is my first year of having a pretty good selection of successful seedlings. My oldest and my husband went off to basketball practice, it was a beautiful day and I don't think there is a chance at a freeze at night- it was time to plant "our" garden.
My sweet girl and I set out to the back yard to dig, pull and plant! Dirty yard shoes- check! Gardening gloves - check! Bluetooth speaker - check! Ready set go!
It didn't take long of my little one to get tired of my "please don't do that" or "can you help me with ..." she was on a journey to find bugs (of course)!
Meet Joey! While pulling up boards under our deck (which she knows she's not supposed to do she found the biggest spotted leopard slug that I have ever seen. She was so intrigued. I told her over and over to put it down so it won't die, but after checking him out I realized how photogenic he was. Joey was truly and awesome subject.
He would climb our fingers and slowly glide his way around our gloves. Nature is pretty cool. After a few photos I told her to put him back so he could live his life.
We then found Elise, the caterpillar. She wasn't "as cool" as Joey but still "a joy"! She was all into making a jar home for her, until her dad returned so he could find the butterfly home we owned (we donated it last month to goodwill but I didn't have the heart to tell her PLUS no one wants their kid mad at them, PLUS we have had it for 5 years and no one, NO ONE has ever needed it). She found sticks and rocks, we poked wholes in the top and she was pretty entertained with her caterpillar. As much as we like Elise, taking good photos of her was tough and I gave up and tried to stay focused on the garden.
Off and on for about an hour, she went on about how much Joey loved her, how good his personality was and how much she wondered what he was up to. Shortly after, she went to go check on him and he appeared to be sleeping. :(
After a few more checks, she came to the conclusion that we may have held him too much. She used my plant marker popsicle sticks to make him a tombstone. Bless her heart! She did add after burring him that he did accidentally cut his head off but since he was already dead he didn't care because the love she showed him while he was on earth (it was a total of 2 hours that she knew of Joey -HAHA)
Anyway, my garden- which my daughter gets a little hot headed when I call it "my garden", she thinks it's "our garden" BUT she didn't do any work at all. She will work to eat :)
I planted potatoes, red & yellow onions, lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, sunflowers, watermelon, pumpkin, hot peppers, green peppers, carrots, celery and a few types of flowers. I also filled potters to decorate my deck. All smiles. :)
I will share more photos and updates with progress.
Who knew you could be sore from gardening! I worked till dark in the yard. It was relaxing and as of right now my project.