tepees and sunflowers

{more from Parky's farm}

I love how big this garden tepee is. It's hard to get an idea of just how large it is from this picture, but if you can see the small flower hanging over on the left side of the tepee that would be about 5 feet up.

Each of the eleven poles are about twenty feet long and lashed together at the top. There are several websites around that talk about how to build tepee structures as well as how to lash them together (these are just the ones I found most helpful, especially the second link).

The sunflower house was also quite large. I love the way they did the inside of both of these garden hangouts. They put down a barrier material to completely cover the inside and then covered that with straw. No mud. No weeds. Just a nice soft spot to sit down and relax.

It just looks so inviting.

Some Farm!

Today was all about farm animals, big and incredibly fun gardens, wagon rides, and so much more . I love Parky's farm! Every time we spend a day there I come home with my head overflowing with ideas about what our garden should really look like. Oh my, the potential!

I mean, come on, if you're going to plant some beans then this is the way to plant them. Right? Because why shouldn't you run through a bean tunnel playing hide and seek, lay on your back in the middle of its cool shadiness, munch on some perfectly crisp and green deliciousness and "oh wait, there's a little tomato, I think I'll eat that too." Well, that is just what you should do.

"Throw me a pill Alice", because this is a place that can make a big person want so badly to be small. I can't wait to show you all a few more pictures of the farm. I will see if I can post some more over the next couple of days. Until then I hope everyone is having a great Monday.

A most frightening pattern

After having searched for small gardening gloves for Owen with no luck, I decided I would just sew a pair for him.  How hard could it be?  A little pair of gloves.  It will only take me a minute, right?  HA!  

I tried to use the Heather Ross pattern found in Weekend Sewing (I really love this book!) but I just couldn't get it to work out with his tiny little hands.  I probably tried it about 6 different times varying finger width, hand width, length--anything, but I just couldn't work it out.  I haven't given up on the pattern entirely yet.  I think I may try some for myself and see how it works out.  It is available here as a free pattern, but for all my sewing friends I certainly recommend her book.  It's dreamy.

I ended up taking a pair of regular children's gardening gloves, all of which are too big for a three year old, and scaled down the size to fit smaller hands (pictured above).  

The results:

Well now, I just adore the results especially since it's all matchy matchy with his little gardening bag (it's a sickness, I know).  I am happy to share the pattern if any of you feel inclined to spend entirely too long stitching up some tiny gloves that you could just buy here.  In fact, I'm sort of wishing I would have found those sooner, but I guess then it would be all un-matchy and I'm not sure I could live with that.  Oh heavens no.

And so with some new gloves to work with, we're off to weed out some thistle.  Have a happy weekend everyone.

The fruits of our labor

This is a photo of Owen taken during the first week of April at the point we realized weeds were threatening to take over our strawberry patch.  Since then we have weeded this bed nearly daily.  Sometimes we take out a weed or two with just a minute to spare and sometimes buckets full with hours to spend.   It is a job with no end, but we have continued to visit here each day in hopeful anticipation.   Something wonderful will come from this labor, right?  

  

You bet.

Sweet, sweet rewards.

Toddler gardening

When you're talking about getting the little people you love so much involved in the gardening process, well...

it's all about the proper attire.

Garden tote

I suppose if I expect these little ones to do some work in the garden then they really should have a gardening tote to hold all of their supplies.  I looked around and couldn't find a pattern for a small-ish gardening tote.  This is what I came up with.
I would have liked for it to be a little more rigid.  I suppose I could add some sort of stabilizer to the inside to make it more rigid, but at this point ripping it apart and sewing it back together again just isn't appealing to me.  Call me crazy.
I have to say that I am really in love with the fabric.  I picked it up sometime last year at The Will.  That's my new nickname for Goodwill, which I hope demonstrates my incredible fondness for it.  I like to say something like..."yup, I love it.  I picked it up at The Will (pronounced  - The wheel!)  Ahh yes, The Will, where all of my favorite fabrics come from.  The fabric shack, I love. The Will, I love even more.

Back to the garden tote.  I sure like it.  Owen thinks it's a great place for his woodworking tools. This explains why I keep finding the gardening tools strewn liberally throughout the house, the porch and the yard.    So, it's possible I will have a second attempt at a gardening tote every bit as rigid and sturdy as I think one ought to be while this one continues to do its job housing hammers, drills, screws and nails.   

Toddler Gardening 2

I can feel these days stretching out as if the sun is finally beginning to awake after a long winter of rest. Each day those beautiful rays stretch to include just a few more minutes. A few more precious minutes. And as the sun promises to warm our faces a bit more today than yesterday, we find ourselves coming outside to greet it more and more.

This lovely weather has inspired many projects around our home the past few days. We have been building, sawing, sanding, grinding, painting and planting. I would love to share a bit with you on the planting end (at least the getting-ready-to-plant end).

On one beautiful morning this week, we gathered with our favorite shovels, the momma included, and went to work filling our trays with soil. These are the trays that will go in the cold frame we have set aside for our sweet kiddos. That morning I had imagined we would fill our trays, pick out our plants, plant our seeds, nestle our little trays down into their new cozy home and quickly wrap up our gardening plans. But oh these little people. They always have an agenda so different from mine. It's the un-agenda.

Instead, we sat on the soft warm grass the entire morning running our fingers through the potting soil while happily ignoring the little seed packages spread out all around us. Owen ran his shovel back and forth through the dirt examining all the bits and pieces he found inside. Carmel. Oh my little Carmie. At first she mostly just ate it, but once she had decided it didn't suit her palate she moved on to running her hands through it and letting it squish between her tiny fingers. Ahh dirt, a sensory delight.

As our bellies called for lunch, we slowly finished putting the soil in most of our trays, but not all of them. We packed up the potting soil. I put the seeds away for another day. What's the rush, right? What's the rush when we can sit outside in the grass, soak up the sunshine, and play in the dirt.

The un-agenda. I love it.

Garden surprises

What a pleasure it is to dig around in the garden and find a few unexpected surprises. It's hard to believe I know, but some of our carrots wintered this year. We thought that they had long ago died off. And so, it was very exciting to see them out there covered in a blanket of rich soil waiting, oh so patiently, to be found.
Owen was happy for the chance to put his little red shovel to work digging up the dirt all around them and then stopping to explore each one as he lifted them from the ground.

I sure hope they are as tasty as they appear to be. I'm certainly willing to try them out.

Toddler gardening series 1

So this is the new series- Toddler Gardening. I don't plan on doing this post everyday of course, but I would like to include bits of how Owen is helping out and enjoying himself on the gardening front from now until harvest time this year. Hopefully we'll be able to include a little of the Carms enjoying some of the summer garden treats too. PEAS! YUM! I can't wait.

Here is the first in our series of toddler gardening. Building something that resembles a cold frame. It's not beautiful, but hopefully it will work.

After we got the box built we went to a friends house to pick up some glass (thank you Rachel) to put over the frame. A little backwards. We should have picked up the glass first THEN we would have known how big to build the box. Details. Details.
I am so very excited about this though because I just know my wildly creative friends are going to have some great ideas. I hope you all will be able to chime in on this series and let me know what your garden plans are for the kiddos this year. Ohhh won't we have FUN!!!