This year's garden

This year, I haven't done nearly the planning as I did last year. I decided this morning that during my afternoon holiday, I'd go get some flowers. I didn't know how many, or what I would put where. I did know I wanted another rose and cucumbers.

So, I went to my favorite garden center and found flowers: petunias, daisies, verbena, and a rose. I also got some herbs: cilantro, dill and chives. And of course I got the cucumbers.

When I got home, our neighbor (not Holly) had her normal passel of kids over--her own, her nieces and nephews, and I'm pretty sure a few just come over that are no relation. Anyway, one little girl asked if she could watch me plant. Fine, I said. I was planting the herbs at the time, so I had them smell the leaves of each herb and I told them what they were and how to use them. I was pretty proud of myself. (Oh, and I say "them" because one little girl had grown to two girls and three boys, ranging in age from 5 to 10, most closer to 5).

Then, suddenly, it was not fun any more to just watch. Everyone wanted to help. Which was okay, because at the moment I was struggling with getting my rose planted. Well, before I knew it, the rose was done, as well as all the flowers, and all I had done was enough to show them how to plant. I showed them the proper way to get a plant out of it's plastic pot, how to carefully separate the roots, and how to cover it with dirt. I planted two flowers, and suddenly, each kid is at a different pot, planting "their" flowers however they saw fit. And, they didn't do too bad of a job, I have to admit.

They all begged me for the petunias. They asked how much they were, and could they buy them from me. I told them to ask their mommas to take them to Wal-Mart to get some petunias. I'm sure their mommas will appreciate that. But, at the end, we had a little dirt left over, so I asked each kid to fill one of the little plastic pots with dirt, and I gave them all seeds I had left over from last year's gardening experiment. They planted them and I watered them, and each kid took one home! I hope they have better luck than I did!

So, at first I was pretty proud of myself, able to handle five and sometimes six kids in a garden. Then I got a little frustrated, because I was reminded how self-centered kids are--especially young ones. But I think they had fun, and maybe they'll want to garden a little. And it was pretty cool, all in all.

I hope my plants grow! If not, I'm totally blaming it on the kids. :)