kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 5

There are now 36 families participating in the kinderGARDENS contest! Isn't that exciting? Here is week 5 post over at The Inadvertent Farmer. Most of them are families with little kids, but one participant is opening her garden to adult volunteers. Click here and here to see what she has to say. I think that's a great idea too. It's important to get "children" of all ages in the garden and learn how to be less reliant on our grocery stores. Just this past week lettuce was pulled from shelves for E coli problems. Story on that here. Last year or the year before, it was spinach being recalled. Much of our apple juice comes from China, Argentina, and Mexico. When Matthew was drinking alot of it, I could only find one brand that sold apple juice grown in the USA. Isn't that sad? What is wrong with a country that can't even grow it's own food? Ok, ok, I'll get off my soapbox (that isn't what you all come over for) but I really think it's food for thought. Makes a great case for being self-reliant.

On to our story, what we've been doing in the garden the past week. It's been an adventure this week. We had Scamp toss several pots around and destroyed some seedlings. They've been replanted and we are hoping for the best. To read about the damage more go here. Monday our idea got mentioned over at Not Dabbling in Normal. Please do go here and read about it just because I was THRILLED! Otherwise, we did what replanting was necessary and a tiny bit of watering and then it's been cold and rainy, so we just been kicking back our heels. Here is a few pictures of our sprouts that desperately want it to turn warm and sunny again.

The Iran pumpkins. 6 sprouts now, couldn't be more pleased. That's great sprouting for seeds that had a low germination rate and are now 5 yrs old.

The replanting of the Forellenschuss lettuce is sprouting.

One of the heirloom tomatoes.

One of the Royalty Purple Pod beans is sprouting.

Tuesday Matthew, Mom, and I got ditch iris. I didn't have time to plant it yesterday, when it wasn't raining, so Matthew and I ran out and got it planted today.

Matthew assisted me by pulling grass and handing me irises to plant. I did the back breaking digging.

We planted them by our barn between the 2 rose bushes I transplanted last yr. It ends up just being a big weed pit that Phil is scared to mow or weed eat for fear of hitting one of my plants. I'm hoping that this will turn into another beautiful flower garden. Anyone who has been to my house know I'm tucking flowers everywhere I see grass still standing after Phil mows. Now if we can just keep Scamp out of the garden, we'll be ok!

My coworker informed me this week that the purple green beans have been planted in their container and she is just waiting for them to sprout. She then said," if they ever do." I said, "Mine haven't yet, just be patient!" I'm hoping that they do well and it sparks something in that talented, creative family.

If you've missed our previous kinderGARDEN Thursdays here is the list:
Week 4
Week 3
Practice Run
Salsa Garden Planting List
Week 2
Post with Links to Week 1 and 2 on the Inadvertent Farmer's site

That should catch up everyone up. The posts have links to the contest and weekly updates that have other people linked to them. As usual it's not to late to join the fun. If you are family that doesn't have a blog, but wants to play along, let me know. If you send me photos and text about what you are doing, I'd be happy to post it for you. Happy gardening everyone!