My gardening journal, day 1

A mothers oldest trick LOL

Photographic evidence!!




Nothing like a big woven collection basket to make "Vegetable Shopping" more fun.


Kale and spinach smoothie face


Actual dirt on my son, the dirt-o-phobe

Never, ever tell your helper that pea flowers taste just like peas. Now I seldom get pods for stir-fry and almost never get real peas to eat.

Smart Red said:

Never, ever tell your helper that pea flowers taste just like peas. Now I seldom get pods for stir-fry and almost never get real peas to eat.

Click to expand...

It's True!



Steve

This is officially the best garden I have had, the most productive, and the most valuable. I am never going to be without a garden again. Value of my garden peas: $1,000 a pound. At least it feels that way! I'm sure you guys know why from the last photos, but let me show you:

This year I planted enough pea plants for our entire family, for about 6 months. A lot of peas. Everyone in my neighborhood has commented on how many pea plants I have. Well...well...its not enough!

This is all that came out of the first picking:


This is a serving for one person, maybe two. That's it. That's all.

And why is this a good thing?

Because someone is eating them almost as fast as we pick them. There are still many unripe ones on the vine, and I suspect we'll get at least two more bowlfuls as time goes on, but it certainly isn't enough to feed a pea loving monster.



We also decided to chop up the shells and feed them to the chickens so nothing got wasted. Boy did they like it!

Well aren't peas for eating? I am so jealous. I can't grow peas! I love sugar snap peas and have tried growing them several times. I can't grow sweet peas either. You would think I would have the perfect climate for them but nope. But I will keep trying. I've already bought another pack of sweet peas for the fall and just planted another 6-pack of sugar snap peas.

I'm so glad they are doing so well for you.

Mary

Well, it is a cold weather crop, and you are in California.

I found this link on growing peas in California. It has some variety recommendations:
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/sep/04/home/hm-6715

Alexii and I had another marvelous gardening session. We pulled up all the dead pea plants, and he picked all of the peas off them. We found a spider with a strange yellow backside and watched it crawling around, and then Alexii decided it was snack time, so we ate some peas.

He asked me if eating too many peas would be greedy. Um...no. You can have all the peas you want. You can eat peas until you turn green.

Anyway, when we brought them inside, I told him he could play with the pea pods, tear them up, chew on them, do what ever he wanted, and we had the most marvelous time ever playing with the peas. (Nothing was wasted in the end. We ate the peas and the massacred pea pods will go to the chickens.)

I can't wait for everything else to grow. This is so fun!

I wonder how much work is too much for a 4 year old?

After we got done ripping out the peas, and picking all of them, Alexii decided to build his own garden. We dug rocks to make a border by the chicken pen (safely out of reach) and probably dug/found at least 50 rocks to do it. Then we took the pea plants to the chicken pen for them to eat (easy) and then I helped him load a bag of steer manure into his wheelbarrow, and push them one at a time to his garden. Steer manure was in the front yard, his garden is in the very back of the backyard.

It felt like we were in one of his little einstein adventures.

The red wheelbarrow was kind of like "Rocket" from the show, and we were yelling instructions to each other at the top of our lungs. (Oh no! We have to close the gate before the dogs get out. HURRY!! Oh no, swings are in the way! We gotta center the wagon!)

It was extremely over dramatic, and lots of fun. Also, lots of work. We then spread the manure (fun!) and I told Alexii the last job could only be done by him, and he had to do it all by himself. *Dramatic Music*

He had to get the seeds from the oat barrel, which is what he plans to grow, and spread them, then rake it. Then he set the waterer up all by himself, and we called it a day.

It sort of makes me wonder if all these kids shows are trying to simulate the feeling of adventure we had today. I think kids are really missing out on the fun and excitement of building things because they're busy watching someone else do it on a dvd.

It also makes me wonder if children are having so many behavioral issues these days because they're not allowed to get dirty and really work.

In any case, I got pictures this time:

How much work did your little guy do? If you asked him he'd say none. . he just played with you all day and started a garden of his own. All fun.

Children learn more from doing than reading about or watching others do things. People used to live more on farms and used to have more extended families. G-mom or G-pa would watch the little ones when parents were busy. Helping around the house, yard, or farm can be done as fun -- like you did today -- or as a chore. It all depends upon the attitude of the adult.