Gardening with the kids

I've always loved the smell of wet dirt. Outside, that is. I love digging in the dirt and planting new things. I even occasionally like weeding. It can be very soothing. When we were looking for a house when we moved here, one of the things I looked for was a place to plant a garden. I thought I'd be able to have one here, but there were so many tall trees around, that our yard is too shaded, and nothing really grew, so I had to give it up. The extent of my garden now is two pots of tomato plants. It's not great, but it'll do for now.

So yesterday I went out and bought my yearly seedlings. I decided to let the kids help me transplant them into the large pots. I dumped some soil in the pots, then let each one dig out a hole to put the tomato plant in. They had so much fun with it, that I decided to plant some flowers as well. I had a few old containers that I hadn't used in years, and a packet of seeds full of a mixture of flowers that are supposed to attract butterflies. I demonstrated how to sprinkle the seeds evenly over the dirt in the first container, then let Bethany have a turn in the second one. Instead of spreading them around, she dumped a huge pile of them into one spot. Meagan didn't do much better when she had her turn. Oh well. We spread the seeds around, but they are awfully thick in that second pot. If they all germinate, I may have to do some thinning. The kids had fun at any rate, and eventually they'll learn.