green thumbs & spray guns

We started another gardening project this year, buoyed by last year's mild success with a few peppers and some basil. I'm in the mood for fresh herbs and veggies that don't cost a fortune and the kids are in the mood for...dirt. We went seed shopping a few weeks ago and Tagg and Sloane picked most of them out, including corn (where in the hell are we going to plant corn?!) and peppers and pumpkins. Yep. Pumpkins. "Giant" pumpkins. That should be interesting.

So we started a bunch of seeds in these little planters. It was dirty business, but we got them planted. And nearly drowned a few in the process. My kids love to pour water on stuff!

And a few weeks later, we have little sprouts! Tagg shuffled all the name tags so it will be a guessing game to figure out what's what, but wow! We're growing stuff!

We had to move our gardening project inside this week due to a cold spell. 80 on Saturday, snowing on Sunday. Not so good for our little seedlings. I say this like I know anything about gardening, which I do not. But it sounds good, so now the little plants are living on our dining room table, all nice and toasty.

You have never seen anyone who loves to water plants as much as Tagg does. It might be the squirt bottle. Okay, it's definitely the squirt bottle. At least for once it's aimed at something productive, as opposed to my mirror, shoes, bed, his sister, the dog, the DVD player...

He is pretty proud of his green thumb. He likes to point out each new little sprout as it pops up and we talk about the differences between the way they look and how fast they grow. But they all need water. That much he knows! Sloane is still just fascinated by the dirt which does not bode well for the plants. Last year, she would pick every tomato, strawberry and pepper she could and start eating them right off the vine. At least she enjoyed our limited crop!

Plant-watering is serious business in our house. You have to FOCUS.

So we may be a little ahead of the planting season, but we've got a long journey to turn these little seeds into a bountiful crop. From a planter. Like I said, serious business.