Garden Kids

Decided this year to give 4 ft. plots in one of the beds to O and Bubs. I used that cheap wire bed edging to fence them off.
O and I sat down with the seed packets and once she understood that she could only pick FOUR, she thought it out carefully and chose sunflowers, cucumbers, mini-zinnias and cosmos. Her one request was for "pink, orange, red and yellow flowers". Liliput zinnias- the perfect solution. I gave her the tiny redwood trellis for her cukes and we had the lesson about waiting to plant things at the right time.
We selected corn, pole beans, marigolds and radishes for Bubs. He won't actually eat a radish, but they grow so fast and are fun to pick. Speedy results matter, when you're not quite four. I think he will get a kick out of the bean teepee, as well. He's happy, as long as he can dig in the dirt.
He helped me plant everything but the beans today.
I'd like to get Sissy to help me make little signs for their plots that we can put on stakes.
I'll have to keep an eagle eye on these, though I intend to let them do as much work as is practical.
And of course, they'll be helping me in the rest of the garden, as well.

Progress So Far...

The back yard

What got dug up

Mimi and helpers

Ready to plant.

Starting to plant.

Journal Feb 14

Cool, partly cloudy. HI: mid-50's
Sis came over with the children and O and Bubs helped me set the bed in place.
We had a little lesson on using a level. It's not perfectly straight, but it's better than the first one.
We carted several loads of dirt to fill in the trenches and the bed.
O helped me rake it smooth. I need to get them a small shovel and hoe or rake.
Made one grid for the new bed. Only need one, as half the bed will be devoted to corn and cowpeas.
Mesclun is just barely up.
Next projects: resetting the pavers in the Bird Garden (its new name), using some of the dirt and moving the bird bath out from under the feeder.