Mama Bean is KinderGARDENing (9)

This little Bean likes to help us water. It's his new favourite game. We're still working on getting the water onto plants, instead of the sides of the box, the dirt/mulch, or the front of his pants. But it's progress. And 'helpful' :) Whatever keeps him smiling while we're out in the yard is something I am happy to do.

I sort of suck at thinning plants. I just hate the thought of taking something living out of the ground, that grew from a seed I purposefully put there for it to grow. I know it's good for the plants and will improve things overall, but sometimes the gardening big picture is just too big and I get caught up on the little seedlings I'm murdering. On the other hand, thinned lettuce is so darn tasty! I call this picture "Still Life of Gardening with Toddlers"

We thinned the lettuce in the morning, partly because, as good smart gardeners (ha!) we know that's when the lettuce is full of water and nice and sweet. And partly because that's when Bean wakes up and we (he) hit(s) the ground running. And running. Here's the dew beading on my (also thinned) cabbage. I will need to start thinking how I want to protect these guys from the moths.

There's just something about peonies that says 'LUSH' isn't there? I'm so glad the previous owner of our home loved peonies as much as I do. The lighter pink variety used to be even whiter, but this year's blooms are significantly streaked with bright magenta. Do peonies blend this way (like roses)?

This is the edge of where we put down the sidewalk blocks for our makeshift BBQ pad. The compost that used to live here has offered up some volunteers - they look like cucumbers, right? Or some sort of cucurbit, cucumber seems the most likely. We're gonna leave them to grow up and around the rhubarb as best they can and see what fruit they provide :) We have another volunteer bean plant growing out of the compost pile where they were moved to, also. I'm increasingly aware how vegetable gardening does best with a bit of flexibility, because you never know what's going to pop up. And I'm fully aware I couldn't/wouldn't have had that flexibility our first year, because I wouldn't have known the difference between a cucumber sprout and a weed. So it's kind of gratifying to see this stuff happen and feel all smart-stylez because I like know a little something (ha!)

This is Papa Bean, holding Sprout in my sling, while Bean played in the beach part of his playground. Not strictly speaking a gardening picture, but I wanted to point out a) how great he looks with that sling on and b) how much I appreciate growing a life with him, in our garden and otherwise. We recently celebrated 10 years of being together (i.e. from when we started dating) and it was Father's Day a few weeks back, and it all got me thinking how thankful I am for him, and all the hard work he does, again, in our garden and otherwise.

We're meandering around the prairies, and it's killing me to be away from the garden, just as everything was starting to sprout. I hope there's enough rain to sustain things, because I didn't arrange for anyone to water our plants, aie. Though, it is kind of fun to wander off for a bit, because it's such a surprise how things burst to life (weeds included /sigh) When you're out in there (several times, chasing a Bean) every day, the changes are more subtle to catch, but it's blatantly obvious after 3 or 4 days how much progress has been made. It's pretty humbling, too, realizing how little I actually have to do with it - the plants are just following the code, doing their thang, being all green and grow-y. I like it. Hope you do, too. Pop by Kim's to check out the other KinderGARDENing action - everyone's showing off the pics their kinders took in their gardens, it's quite impressive!