Digging in the Dirt

I'm not much of a gardener, but my friend, Katie, and my Grandmother are, so I attempted to channel them today as we planted a couple of annuals into a pot.  (Katie's idea.)

This activity actually started on Tuesday afternoon when the three of us went to Lowe's.  The real reason we were there was to purchase a water filter for the refrigerator, but that's boring, so we made it a little more interesting by seeing the ceiling fans (ceiling fans are like baby crack) and picking out flowers.

Our supplies:  We chose a six-pack of white begonias and one slightly larger light purple impatiens.  That's about $3 worth of flowers, so even if they don't grow or die quickly in the Georgia heat, it's no big deal.  We had a green pot out in the garage that hadn't had anything planted in it this year and some leftover potting soil from my husband's tomato plants (he's the real aspiring gardener in our family).  I bought the two little watering cans from Target for $1.99 each.  The kids have also played with them on the water table.

And so this morning I began filling the green pot with soil.  My daughter, Susannah, took interest in this.  Max remembered rolling around in the yard yesterday afternoon and quickly plotted how he was going to get off the patio and into the grass (there's a pretty big step down). 

Keep an eye on your little ones at this stage because it was as I was putting the camera down from this shot that Susannah picked up a little of that soil  and put it in her mouth.  Yucky.

Max was interested again when I began putting the flowers in the pot.  I'd thought they might want to put their hands in the dirt (thus the play clothes), but neither of them really did.  Max wanted to touch the dirt once all the flowers were planted.  He picked it up and was putting it on top of the newly planted flowers.  He was trying to help.  :)

Lastly, the kids "watered" our newly planted flowers.  I don't think they quite understood that concept.  Susannah poured most of the water out next to her and I think most of Max's water ended up on him.  For better or for worse, they both view water as playtime.  We accomplished all of this in about 20 minutes and then loaded the double stroller up and went for a walk.  I'm trying to take advantage of the cool (for June) weather before it gets blazing hot!

Here's the finished product on our front porch.