Mother’s Day is a wonderful time to plant! In the middle of May, you feel fairly comfortable that there will not be any more surprise snow showers or freezes.

After tallying how many plants and seeds I need for the boys’ gardens on a notecard, I headed to Hy-Vee one afternoon to purchase plants. Last growing season, we bought plants from Lowes, but I noticed a better price for healthy looking plants at our grocery store.

I also purchased some garden plants in April at the junior high plant sale. A former colleague of mine runs a gardening club there, and I definitely wanted to support him and our school district. I mean, how cool is it that a group of junior high students fills a greenhouse with an amazing variety of vegetables and flowers!

Last year, I took the boys with me to help buy plants, but I felt a little over-whelmed keeping an eye on them (my boys tend to play tag in stores a lot) and keeping track of how many of each plant was in my cart. So, this time around, I selected plants and seeds on my own, and I was done in about ten minutes! I’m a lot more efficient when I’m not distracted. 🙂

The plants came home, and the boys immediately asked when they could plant their gardens.

Rex wanted to plant first this year, and we started by transplanting his chives from his old garden to his new. His chives were already a small bush shooting in all directions with little purple flowers on top. We divided them in half and planted both in his new garden. We also transplanted some of his mint; a few shoots were donated to Jude’s garden…with some grumbling. Rex is protective and proud of his mint.

Rex did a lot of planting all on his own this year. I placed plants in a square of his garden, and he took charge of placing them in the earth. Good job, Rex!

Jude and Morris planted simultaneously.

Jude started with his cucumbers, four plants lined up along the east side of his garden. I anticipate a lot of canning this growing season. Cucumbers are so fun to watch grow, and so rewarding to harvest.

         *Jude found a toad during one of his distracted moments. Just like him to find a friend.

Morris started by planting hot pepper plants. He’s most interested in planting his beans, but we start those with seeds, and he wanted to plant a plant. It was so endearing to watch him. He wraps his little hands around the plant and pushes the earth into a small mound around the base. It looks like he’s hugging the plant with his hands. Morris learned this technique at preschool where he grew his own tulip in the garden beds there. It’s so sweet.

Morris planted a few of his carrot and pea seeds, but he became less interested as there was a battle going on in and around the gardens.

Jude and Rex were teasing each other, playing tag, and running around everywhere. At one point, Jude pulled Rex’s planted chives from their tops and pulled them out. Rex was enraged. He cried, shocked by Jude’s cruel move, and then chased after him. It was pretty humorous to watch…but not at all a relaxing planting afternoon.

I tried to get each boy to plant more of their gardens, and they would come back and plant a little more, but eventually they wandered away and started up a new game or jumped on the trampoline.

So, like last year, I planted the rest of the gardens for the boys. I reminded myself that although it’s fun to plant, the real joy is in watching the plants grow.