My Mini-Gardners

Lucy doesn't beg.  She never has....unlike her sister.  She is very good at being typically female and drops hints.

This winter she dropped LOTS of hints to her Daddy that she would REALLY enjoy gardening again.  When he talked about how much work it was for him and how she can't really stay outside in the sunshine long anyway, she would just look at him and take a gardening book to bed.  The next morning she would have a garden planned on graph paper.  This happened a few times.

So....he saw me pinning some things to Pinterest (he doesn't normally pay much attention to my pins) and happened to observe some tiny gardens made of cinderblocks.

One Sunday when Lucy returned from a weekend with her Nena & Papa, she found these....

Daddy had come through! :)  The kids were SO excited!!  They each chose his/her mini-garden then planned the layout.  Lucy ran straight away to find the old garden decorations and pass them out.

Lucy's planted sugar-snap peas, green beans, lima beans, lettuce, peppermint, lemon-thyme, curry, and she acquired some butterfly mix seeds from her brother.  Note the small peppermint plant that Nena bought her...you'll be seeing it again.

Clyde's garden was soley meant to be a flower garden to benefit our flying friends.  In the center he planted a hummingbird mix and jasmine, while on the edges he planted a butterfly mix.

Iris planted Morning Glories, baby carrots, corn, begonias and some of Clyde's butterfly mix.

Here are some photo's of their rewards...

Lucy wanted her sugar-snap peas to be cooked in their pods, but her Momma stir fried them a little TOO well and she ended up just opening them and eating the peas.

These are Iris's prized "pink flowers."  She loved them so well, we saved their seeds.  I need to identify them, the came from one of Clyde's mixes.

Here is Lucy's peppermint!  And it has actually gotten even bigger and produced some little purplish cone-shaped flowers.  She lets me use the leaves to make fresh peppermint tea!  It is FABULOUS!

This is Lucy's lettuce!  I have NEVER had lettuce grow and was very excited for her that her did!!  Looks scrumptious!  Lucy thought she grew it for US to eat.

But she was mistaken.  She actually grew it for this little guy.

One of Clyde's flowers...I took several pics of these...they're quite photogenic :)

Iris holding one of her prized baby carrots.

Iris's corn!  She's most proud of it.  Only two stalks produced corn cobs, but she was deliciously excited when she got to pick and eat them!!

And her morning glories.  They TOOK OVER!!  Stephen and I both would go out at various times just for fun and unwind them from all the other plants to try to keep them in contained in their own heap.

Lucy displaying one of her green beans.  We cooked a batch of her green beans along with some of her limas and they were SO good!

 The three gardeners with their mature gardens.

 Lucy's lima beans.

Clyde's garden....

 ...and then again several days later.  Note the new purples and yellows and the increase in the oranges and pinks.

If you walk to the other side there are several of these little blossoms kind of hiding...

One of his visitors.

...and another.

I finally got a better picture (not so good with the camera) when one flew over to one of Lu's flowers.

Not too shabby for itty-bitty gardens, huh?  I was quite surprised with how well they turned out and I thought the kids, and Stephen ;), did a great job.  They LOVE their gardens and want to go look at them every chance they get.  They've been quite a blessing!