I love gardens with a little character. The boys and I like to stroll through a neighborhood garden planted by a group of Master Gardeners. These gardeners let the plants speak for themselves mostly, but they also add touches of character: a fairy house and chairs planted in the middle of succulents, or a gnome peeking out from under a tomato plant.

My boys have lots of character, so I decided I’d give them a $20 budget to decorate their gardens a little. I took each boy to our local grocery store where they have a garden section full of decorative items. They have at least a hundred brightly painted tin sculptures, and Jude selected a large, blue airplane with a spinning propeller and two pots to plant. He begged – I mean begged – to go over-budget (by $20) and spend some of his Christmas and birthday money on a little yellow bird. I couldn’t say no to that.

Morris picked out a two things. He can be quite decisive when he sees what he likes, and he spotted a double wind-spinner right away. He didn’t even want to consider anything else. As we were checking out, he found a display of ceramic mushrooms. He had to have the blue one, which he keeps shoved deep into his garden with only the top sticking out of the earth.

Green beans and cabbage are growing, along with Mo’s muscles!

Rex has been uncertain about how to decorate his garden. Uncertain or disinterested, I’m not sure. I purchased a blue gnome awhile ago, which sat on our kitchen counter until I decided to offer it to him. He said, sure, he’d take it, so now it nests in the corner of his garden by his chocolate mint plant.

As you can tell, the boys bring a lot of their own character to the gardens. 🙂