Green Thumb

I have been bitten by the gardening bug! I have never been much for growing anything, aside from mold on uneaten leftovers, but for some reason I have this desire to grow a vegetable garden in our yard. We have the perfect spot, a place where the previous land owners raised a garden, so the usual sandy soil is pretty loamy-what joy! I am incorporating this into Josh's science lessons for school, and he loves it so far. Yesterday we started building a compost pile out near our garden site, and we are saving all the fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggs shells, etc. We are hoping the worms come and find us, because we have had no luck finding them.

Marybeth told me that she thinks that the country store down the road sells live worms (only in the south!!), so I'll have to check it out...can you imagine?? Spending money on worms?!? She also reminded me that the best place to find them is to follow the tractor as it tills the ground up at Mom and Dad's house, but I don't think I can justify that far of a "worm run"! (Although I would like to!) I remember going outside in the evening up there, after the dew had fallen. With flashlight in hand, we would sneak up on the biggest, most elastic night crawlers I have ever seen! We would yank and pull until either we or the worm gave up (or it snapped in half...ewww). My kids love worms, and are dying for the chance to harvest some from Nani and Papa's yard! Anyway, back to my garden..

Today we cleared a 6x9 foot garden that the boys will tend. When I asked them what they wanted to plant in their little garden they rattled off their list...keep in mind, they will probably turn their noses up when it comes time to actually EAT these foods, but it's still fun and educational. Jonathan told me that he wanted to plant acorns in his garden...no, not acorn squash...ACORNS! HAHA...just what we need...more oak trees dropping leaves! He also wants to plant corn and watermelon, which he actually might eat! Josh spent time today making cards for his rows of produce. We won't actually begin to plant until the weather turns a little warmer, but they are really excited about it already. I'll post some pictures of the boys shovelling and raking their garden. They are quite the little farmers!