Mama Bean is KinderGARDENing (5)

These weeks of KinderGARDENing are just jetting by, and I feel like we've barely started any real gardening! The sun has only just started to show up - here's the babies practicing good sun safety with their hats :) At least today I put my soy beans into the ground, andandAND we have cabbage and lettuce sprouts :D My staff member told me to put salt and pepper on my cabbages (when they're more than sprouts, obvs) to keep the caterpillars/worms away. Does anyone know if this works?

It's not that we haven't been busy! Here's a little collage of yard changes - our compost bins are now against the back fence, flanked by rhubarb plants that have already been harvested for some fresh rhubarb platz earlier this week. And where the bins used to be we laid down some sidewalk blocks for a little BBQ patio. Except we didn't properly level the ground under the blocks, so we may have to redo it, if rain during the summer makes it obvious the blocks will be undermined and liable to crack over winter :( But it is a much tidier little corner now without the compost bins right against the house. We have a trio of herbs potted - summer savoury, chocolate mint, and cilantro. Will the mint come back if I leave it in the pot? What about the other two - are they perennial? I know I could just google it... Those purple flowers are planted en masse at Bean's playground, they smell delicious. It's a bulb, but I don't know what they're called - anyone recognize them? They seem to bloom a long time, I'll have to see if I can find some at a greenhouse to plant at home. Wonder if they spread... I was so excited to see my hens'n'chickens had developed all these little balls between the leaves, I thought they were going to turn into new chickens. But PB discovered (with google, of course) that they are seed pods, which should be removed if you want the hens to keep growing (i.e. not send their resources into seed making just yet) so we brushed them off, but not before snapping some pics.

Clearly there is no gardening happening in this picture. We went to a massive neighbourhood garage sale, and I wanted to show our haul. I could wax on about the importance of reusing and recycling, and how important it is to the environment, and our desire to raise our children with proper attitudes towards the lifetimes of usefulness in consumer goods... but mostly we like a good deal! (Kids are expensive, spread the word!) PB is especially happy with Sprout's little chair thingy, and Bean very much enjoyed his new kitchen and Tonka truck.

Check out Kim's place to see what all the other KinderGARDENers are up to!