GARDEN DIARIES

It's been a long time since I've sat down and written something for a Garden Diary entry. What can I say? Summer came along and I got busy with other things. Between keeping up with travel plans, a relationship and work, I've been lucky to just keep the yard mowed. I let all of the lettuce go to flower and the squash plants have really just taken over. I've been pulling one to two squash a week and lucky to eat them. There's three sitting my fridge right now. I'm thinking of making them into a dip like babaganoush. Last weekend I'd had enough. I told Michael that I had to rework the garden and plant things for the Fall. I had ulterior motives when I told him this. First, I needed help hauling new bags of soil to my back yard. Secondly, I wanted the Cabbage involved. I wanted her to dig in the dirt and plant some seeds. I am a firm believer that one of the best ways to teach kids about good food is to get them involved with where their food comes from. Plus, playing in the dirt is just fun. The Cabbage turned out to be a great helper. She pulled up the old lettuce and spread out new soil. She diligently dropped seeds into all the wholes I poked into the new soil and then spilled a tiny handful of seeds into one corner. I didn't care. I was just thrilled that she was having fun planting, but it wasn't just her. Michael planted one whole square with green onions, carrots, and radishes. Then he asked me every day for a week if anything had sprouted.

By Thursday, I could gleefully reply with a yes and that the first sprouts to pop up out of the ground were the radishes he had planted. He spent the weekend eyeing the garden for more sprouts and pointing out all the things coming up and eating radish sprouts right out the garden. It reminded me of my first garden and how exciting it was to see the seeds I had planted turn into dinner. I love that I get to pass that on to someone new.

But my favorite part of the garden has to be that small corner where the Cabbage dumped a bunch of seeds. Nothing grew well in that squar this year. All summer it remained a dead zone of barren soil. I worried that new dirt and nutrients wouldn't even make a difference. But there they are. A small cluster of sprouts from seeds planted by tiny little hands. I have no idea what seeds she planted, but I'm sure it will be the sweetest of veggies.