The garden is full and harvest is upon us! My first batch of tomatoes made approximately 5 litres of tomato sauce. Some say that gardening is a great way to save money, but when I factor in labour, I figure each jar of my sauce is worth approximately $157.00. But it was fun!
Peter loves helping us in the garden, particularly watering. At times I wonder if it's sensible to remove so much of our lawn... after all, shouldn't a child have an open space run around? But I'm not overly protective of the garden - I'm happy to let him trample beds and pick my nasturtiums. I love watching him go inspect the strawberry plants and pick all the half-ripe one he sees. And I'm planning to incorporate some kid-friendly features, like a sandbox and so on.
So although a couple of people have told that we'll likely "rip it all up" in a couple of years when he's bigger and looking for a place to toss a ball, I'm hoping that he can toss the ball at the park across the street, and spend his time in the garden exploring, digging, tramping around, and picking flowers and food. I don't think a garden needs to be a wide open space to be kid-friendly. Who knows, maybe he'll even want his own little plot somewhere inside, and we'll plant kid-friendly things like sunflowers and beans.
Another purchase from the UBC Botanical Garden. I bought four tiny cells and plopped them in the veggie garden as an accent. As they grew, I noticed that each cell contained more than one plant, so I separated two from the tangle and placed them in another corner. They withered a bit at first as I damaged the roots slightly in rending them apart, but soon bounced back and are now about 16" high and 8" wide. I did it again a week or so ago and put one in the front garden to fill a bald patch. The one that I moved hasn't quite bounced back yet and is still rather droopy and sad, but it does have a bud on it, so I am hopeful it too will recover.
So, from four tiny cells grew about 8 or 10 very large plants. Their colour is so vivid and bright too, with the rich burnt orange edging and the sunny centre. Plus, their subtle scent makes me nostalgic, as we used Calendula Bath Gel on Peter when he was newborn. I love a plant that makes me think of babies.
