Saturday, May 14, 2011

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 2

Here we are on the second week of kinderGARDENS! We would have posted Thursday, but as most of you know, Blogger was down, so here we are today.

This is Matthew's part of the garden. He planted 800 carrot seeds and can't wait for them to sprout. For the full story go to The garden is planted!.

Thursday we got the opportunity to see how trees sprout from seeds. For full story go to Natures Bounty.
Planting the 800 seeds. I suppose a better teacher would have spent alot of time explaining how it's not a good idea to plant that many seeds in a small site and tried to make him space them and plant them properly, but this time I just sat back and let him go to town. I feel like I don't let him experiment or experience enough in the garden (because I want it to work right), so my goal is to let him to his own thing, at least in his garden space.

Our little strawberry plants are blooming, so we are hoping for strawberries once and awhile this summer. I'm going to try getting strawberry seeds sprouting again and plant them. I had 5 varieties of sprouts, but in the last crazy moments of the move, the delicate little things got crispy fried!

Everyday Matthew has to go out and see his sunflower sprouts!

Checking to see if the tomato plant is doing ok. It already has blooms.

Matthew is so excited about those sunflowers, the minute Mamaw got home from work, he was dragging her over to check them out.

As some of the others are experiencing, I'm having trouble deciding what is the best way to efficiently to water the garden. This this space doesn't have traditional rows for hoses to march up and down, it's a little hard to water everything. Using the "soggy doggy" sprinkler worked pretty good, but I still do alot of moving of water elements (got soaked in the process) and it soaked my garden path. I'll keep working on it!

9 comments:

Kirsten said...

What a great gardener Matthew is.

I can't wait to see his sunflowers grow. And I'm anxious to see how the 800 carrot experiment pans out - maybe they'll all grow together into one monstrous carrot and then you can read the book "The Enormous Carrot." :)

Kindra said...

Haha...I laughed about the carrot seeds and letting him do his own thing. I would also want to stop the kids and show them "my way", but this is how they learn...heck, I made that mistake when I first started gardening and got some crazy looking carrots. Love his enthusiasm!

Cathryn said...

When I saw your post about the walnut tree that is what gave me the idea about posting on the peach trees! I was caught in that "blogger breakdown" and couldn't comment at the time, but thanks for the idea! I would LOVE to trade a peach tree for a walnut!
I'm glad to see Matthew is having fun this year and that ya'll are enjoying the Banana Bread song so much!
HAA HAA - I have to show the kids!

Auntie said...

I am glad you let Matthew do some things his way. Plus, glad you have him do things your way so he can see what works. DId you ever give the dimensions of your garden plot?
Will Soggy Doggy be able to leave the garden in the hot weather to play with Matthew?

Mama Bean said...

It's so good to let the little guys figure things out by experience - it's the best teacher, right? I know I've learned the most from our (many) mistakes over the past two years. I always think this will be the year I get everything right, but I'm sure I'll do something similar to planting 800 carrot seeds all at once lol.

Nap Mom said...

Hahahahah! I love, love, love your picture of your water hoses.

I see your sunflower seeds coming up. They don't waste any time popping to the top, do they?

My only regret so far is that we didn't plant some strawberries. Maybe next year.

The author said...

Kirsten, I guess for a 4 year old he's an enthusiastic one at least! I think the 800 carrots are starting to thickly come up!

Kindra, get ready for crazy carrots over here! He might not let me thin them. :)

Cathryn, I'm glad I inspired you to post about your peach trees, that was a cool post! Still loving the banana bread song over here.

Auntie, I didn't give the dimensions, but I'll try and get some taken soon.

Mama Bean, here's hoping! My teaching theory in the garden is evolving with him!

Nap Mom, it might not be too late to plant strawberry plants. 5 Kids and a Dog got me excited to try planting them last year. The sunflowers waste no time, which is good for impatient little guys. :)

Jess said...

Oh dear, I didn't thin my carrots last year and there was no where near 800 of them! LOL! This is going to be a fun experience for both of you.

So fun seeing everyone's baby plants, can totally imagine what it'll look like in a month, along with the FUN the kids are having.

Shayne said...

How did you find strawberries with those pretty pink blossoms? I've only ever seen white ones, but yours are gorgeous!

Good for you for letting him plant his 800 seeds. I catch myself trying to "fix" the things the kids are working on all the time. It's hard to let go of that control. But boy, will he feel successful when he sees all those feathery little tops coming up!