Before. A blank canvas, waiting to be painted.
For more than a year now I’ve had a vision of a little flower garden. A butterfly garden. With a bird feeder. Something kind of wild, kind of tame.
Today we made it a reality.
Weed guard. I want wildflowers not creeping charlie.
I know it’s a little late in the season. The summer is half over. But I think we’ll get some nice flowers anyway. And better late than never, right?
Poking seeds. We weren’t too careful about depth or coverage. This is a garden planted by a busy mom with four kid helpers. What will be will be.
Imagine this space bursting with blossoms!
We planted lots of seeds: sunflowers, daisies, lavender, morning glories, and a butterfly mix. And so that it wouldn’t look bare while waiting for the seeds to sprout, I let each of the big kids choose a flat of flowers. Ben and Sophie picked purple petunias. Bella chose begonias.
She was really good at getting the seedlings out of the flats, separating them out, planting them in holes I dug for her. She might have a knack for gardening.
Carrying a seedling. Carefully.
Ben did help with seeds and seedlings both. But his forte seemed to be watering.
Recently someone somewhere made some quip about the boys not being interested in flowers. Au contraire, Ben loves pretty flowers. He was very proud of his petunias.
So very careful. He didn’t want to stop.
But he did let Sophie have a turn too.
It was a lot of hot, sweaty, dirty work. But I’m pretty pleased with how it came out. There is something so satisfying about making a garden. And even more satisfying is making it with children.
And of course, I have to say thank you to Dom, without whose hard work it would never have been done.