1. Labeling starter pots with Post-It notes is living dangerously. I hope I remember which are the Romas and which are the Beefsteaks, but if the Post-Its get switched, we may not know until there are actual tomatoes on the vine.
2. 4 yr olds make enthusiastic helpers.
3. Enthusiasm may extend to digging up seeds to see if they’ve sprouted yet.
4. It’s very hard to guess how many of each plant I really should have started. We may not end up with enough pie pumpkins. Or too much eggplant.
5. It’s also possible that 10 sweet pepper plants is overkill, but at least some of those should survive the enthusiastic 4 yr old.
Love talk of gardens.
I pulled out some detritus yesterday and found one of my bird baths had cracked over winter, so have to get a new one. Not a sacrifice, I love shopping for bird baths. Our birds really use them, too.
I would love to have a vegetable garden, but the only options are green house or embedded fence, otherwise it is just critter salad. So, I am just looking forward to flowers, all of which are starting to sprout. 😉
Sam
#2 is very true. My youngest (just turned five) loves to help me garden. The rest of them are like, “Why are you digging in the dirt, exactly?”
Sam, there’s a lot of deer here, too, so we’ll be taking counter measures.
Ellen, at least you got one helper!
Ref: Post-Its
LOL. That brings new meaning to the term ‘surprise garden’.
I am planting extra sweet banana peppers this year. The ones I pickled last year flew out of the pantry.
I need to get more pepper varieties going; I forgot to get anaheims and jalapenos for salsa.
I love this time of year, getting back to the garden with a fresh start. It sounds like you have a solid plan just don’t go overboard with the zucchini 🙂
I’ve got a bunch of seeds that I need to get started this weekend. I’ve got flowers, herbs, and (I think) veggies. This weekend will probably also mark the biannual migration of the house plants. 🙂
Not too much zucchini, and don’t plant it next to the pumpkins unless you want them to cross-pollinate. : O (Yes, I did that one year.)
Sounds fun, Ann! We still need to get the butterfly/hummingbird flower mix planted out, but I want to wait a little longer on planting outdoors.
Sounds like fun. Enjoy!
NJ, I’m getting a few more seeds started today, herbs and squash. Then we can move ’em all out into the cold frame.
Gardening is a terrific way to get kids outside and in the sunshine. 🙂 When my daughter was little and enthusiastic in the garden, I would give her a tray of seedlings of her own to nurture. Often this required me to surreptitiously replace a couple of starter pods that she had kidhandled a little too much, but it was “her” tray. I’ve also germinated some seeds in a ziplock bag with a damp paper towel so she could see them pop without digging up the soil (soup-type beans almost always sprout if you want to try this.)
Oo, the baggie sprout method sounds like the perfect way to appease curious kids and keep seedlings alive! I’ll try that. I’m giving both kids a spot in the garden to do whatever they want with, but they’re fascinated with the whole process.
I’m in favor of anything that gets kids outside and involved in the real world. It’s good for them in every way.