Gardening

The boys are in a local 4H group which I love. It allows all three boys to do the same thing at the same time which saves me from having to run them hither and yon to various "age-segregated" activities. This is our second year in 4H and the opportunities they continue to have are amazing.

One thing our group is doing is a Kids Can Grow program (our program is based on the one linked, but is not run the same way). This teaches kids about gardening using a square-garden/raised bed method. Our group of kids were broken in to four teams and they each planted a bed at our county extension office where we have our meetings. We have two Master Gardeners who live close by who have been helping us which is great since most of the adults in the group (myself included) don't have a lot of gardening experience. I should say I do have a lot of experience, but it was mostly the "weeding" and "harvesting" experience from the huge gardens we had when I was a kid. If I ever find a photo of them I'll post.

The kids were also able to plant home gardens and then used the techniques they learned at our meetings to create them. It's been a bit of a hit or miss for us. We were also able to get all the materials we needed including wood, soil, and seed to create all the gardens for all the kids. What a blessing!

Here is what the gardens looked like today - a bit overgrown and full of long grass. You can barely see the containers I have near the bed which hold squash and pumpkin plants.

And here it is mostly weeded with sawdust spread to kill the grass making it easier to maintain the garden. (Still need to figure out what we planted in all of J7's squares. I have a list somewhere!)

I had B14 haul over all the bags of sawdust from my inlaws next door. My FIL has a portable sawmill and we've been milling lumber for our addition. I used about six or seven bags here and will need another 4-5 to complete it. I may break down and buy some bales of shavings to finish it up. While I would have like to have thought ahead and put something down (like a tarp or plastic) I didn't, so I'm making do with what we have on hand. 

We certainly are having fun with the gardens and the boys do help as asked. Their favorite thing to do - of course - is water. Any excuse to use the hose!