Summer Revue

It has been awhile since I caught up with you all here. I hope someone will read this and that you haven’t given up on me since my last post a couple of months ago!

‘Twas a busy summer, and Bradley has kept me running for most of it. When he took off walking at 8 1/2 months old, I knew I was in for trouble. Not the way I’d planned to spend the summer, but no complaints here. It has been an enormous blessing to watch him grow and learn.

Instead of me writing a novel to catch up on the past few months, lets do it in pictures, shall we?

Went to Sioux City to celebrate Reese’s first birthday,

and Taylor’s third birthday.

Took Randy’s kids to Little Diggers:

Greg built a new swingset for Bradley:

We took a field trip to the Lincoln Children’s Zoo:

There was blue rock shooting (Ben, Alan, Nick),

and target practice:

Of course there was swimming!

(Brad and Jess)

(Taylor)

(Taylor, Grace, Reese)

and Abbie stayed a few weeks.

We took Abbie home to Texas where we enjoyed our first visit to Joe’s Crab Shack…

At the county fair, Bradley fell in love with the baby chicks in the FFA animal tent:

At home, he LOVED sweet corn!

We got to know Scott a little better.

Let’s not forget the flowers

and the vegetables in the garden. Bradley has become an accomplished tomato-picker!

So there you have it, a glimpse into what has been a fun and busy summer around here.

I have several projects planned for this autumn, and there will be fun galore with the grandboy as we prepare to celebrate his first birthday in a few weeks. I hope you’ll stick with me as I get back into the blogging groove!

Little Diggers – May

Saturday was Little Diggers again! The morning began with clouds and a cool breeze, but by the time we got done, the sun was coming out.

The first thing the kids did was wander through the garden, checking out what they planted in April. There were mulched paths to walk on so they didn’t compact the soil where the plants were, nor did they step on any plants.

The markers reminded them of what they planted last time.

 

The bowling ball lady bugs keep watch over things when the kids are gone.

Wyatt posed with the orange bowling ball caterpillar. All of the bowling ball creatures have been named, but I only remember that one is “Brunswick”.

Time to get down to business. The kids were divided and one group planted head lettuces, the other group did kohlrabi. Here’s Garett putting his kohlrabi in the ground.

I’ve never eaten kohlrabi, but was told it tastes like turnips. We like turnips, so I may try some in my own garden this year.

While Garett did that, Grace and Wyatt were in a third group and helped with the big tomato plant. We all learned about taking the bottom leaves off the tomato plant and making the hole nice and deep. This encourages lots of root growth along the stem, making it strong and able to withstand the seemingly constant prairie winds.

Garett puts a bell pepper in the ground.

While they were at that end of the garden, they planted a little bed of zinnias.

Then they went to the far end of the garden and put in some giant pumpkin plants. These pumpkins should end up as big as some of the smaller kids who were there!

Now that the planting was finished it was time to pull radishes!

Wyatt tentatively tried a bite and said he liked it…

Grace ate a whole one with no hesitation…

Garett didn’t even want to pull them because he said he didn’t like them. When he was reassured that he didn’t have to eat them if he didn’t want to, he was fine. He did eventually decide to take a tiny bite. He said he liked it, but I’m not convinced that either of the boys really did.

Before we left, the kids checked out the goldfish in the pond that is in front of the store. They wanted to just stay there while I went to the greenhouse to look at plants.

Of course that wasn’t happening, so they came with me. They asked if they could have a packet of seeds to plant at home.

Garett chose morning glories, and the other two took sunflowers. I explained to them how the sunflowers would be eaten by the birds when they got big. The kids just seem to be fascinated by seeds and plants and the garden.

We look forward to next month when they’ll still be planting! Sweet corn and watermelon will go in the ground in June.  They’ll harvest more radishes and who knows what else will be ready? I did hear someone saying they would learn about pulling weeds…

Little Diggers – April

There is a children’s gardening program at a local nursery, and I was able to sign up Wyatt, Garett, and Grace to go. They loved helping their mom with her big garden last summer, so I thought they might enjoy gardening with lots of other kids, too. They liked the idea when I asked them, and were very excited to go today.

It was a little cloudy and temps were a brisk 40-something with a fairly good breeze, but they had a great time! Here they are at the entrance to the garden:

Today they sowed seeds for carrots and radishes. Stephanie is showing Grace how to spread the tiny seeds. (Stephanie is the Little Diggers coordinator.)

Next up, they planted seed potatoes. Wyatt has his fists together – this is how they told them to measure the distance needed between each potato.

Onion sets came next.

Lastly they planted broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kohlrabi plants.

After all the planting, they got a tour of the greenhouses and were encouraged to touch and smell all of the plants. Before we left, each of the kids was given a packet of seeds. Then we headed to the greenhouses where they each picked out a pack of flowers to take home.

It was so much fun that we all look forward to going again next month when they’ll plant more of their garden. During the summer they’ll take care of the plants and then will get to harvest the fruits of their labors as they’re ready.

I think it’s just awesome that they’re learning to garden at home and at Little Diggers. Their enthusiasm was so catching that after I delivered them to their Grandma, I spent a few hours working on my own garden. Today I prepped the raised beds. Tomorrow I plant. Stay tuned…