It’s Spring, and we’re back! It felt like a looong winter; even though there was not a lot of snow, there were a lot of gray days. Now there is sunshine and rain and green! Boys can play outside in their boots and search for worms as the world buds and blooms around them.

Each of my boys is a year older, of course. Rex is 10, Jude is 8, and Morris is 5. Each of my boys has grown at least an inch taller (an exact measurement will come soon), and at least a shoe size bigger. Morris’s feet grew two sizes larger since the fall!

As the weather is turning, the boys bring up their gardens in passing. They know it is almost time to plant. Rex and Jude have chives that sprouted from last year’s planting, and after playing outside, I notice they have onion breath. Rex has been looking for his beloved mint to come back; last week I saw some green sprouts shooting up. And, each boy has mentioned a plant he wants to grow in his garden; they expect me to start a list.

We’re starting our growing season by planting a few seeds I’ve collected in little starter pellets. These peat pellets start as hard discs. When you water them, they grow to seven times their size, and they create a cozy little bed for baby plants. Originally, I wanted to grow all of our garden this way. Isn’t that a romantic notion, to grow all of the vegetables from seeds. I’m cautious though. I tried this a few years ago and some of my plants – especially the tomato plants – were not as hardy as the ones I purchased from a greenhouse.

So, this year we’re trying a few, and we’ll see how they do. Last fall, I cleaned and dried some of the seeds from our Halloween pumpkins. These are hardy plants! One fall we chucked our pumpkins over the back of the deck and a volunteer vine grew and grew, and grew pumpkins for us in the fall for Halloween. I also cleaned and dried the seeds of an acorn squash before eating it for supper one night. Rex mentioned that he wanted to grow them in his garden, so why not try.

And, we’re trying something totally new this year. Grandma Jacobson to me, Great-Grandma Jacobson to my boys, gave us hollyhock seeds from her farm in Ottosen, Iowa. My grandma has a beautiful, plentiful garden! She starts the season with strawberries, then fills her garden with vegetables – potatoes, onions, tomatoes, corn, and so on. She also has a large crop of decorative gourds, miniature pumpkins, and squash she grows on a different location on the farm. And lots of flowers, of course! I’m excited to see whether these flourish. I love the idea of having some of her heirloom hollyhocks at our home.

So, here we go! Hopefully 2017 is as abundant and adventurous as 2016!

Morris helped me plant two holly bushes in big, red pots this weekend. We plan on moving them to the front of our home during the winter to add some green/color when the rest of the world looks white and grey day after day.

Boys love to dig! Morris was willing to help as soon as I showed him the small spade. He dug a hole in the pot, we placed the bush within, and he covered the bush with dirt. Good job, Mo!

I’d like to come up with some homemade Christmas gifts to give away with this holly, but it might not be full and ready this season…

This is my last post for 2016 as it is the last planting we’ll do this season. It’s been a great, growing year with my three boys!

Look for us in 2017 when the days are longer, warmer, and ready for planting!

Ty and Jude did some bonding this past Saturday. We have a lot of beautiful walnut trees shedding their golden leaves. Tyler likes to mow the yard, strategically blowing the leaves into the center of a circle. Then, he called out Jude to help him – who didn’t complain – and they raked away. Jude enjoyed commanding the wheelbarrow, moving it from the pile, up the hill, and dumping the leaves behind some trees. He appreciated the time alone with dad, with no brothers throwing piles of leaves at him or taking turns with the wheelbarrow. This was his time.

What do boys do when they pull out the dead plants from their gardens? The boys notice that the corn stalks, egg plants, and tomato plants are shaped like a club, with a ball of roots and dirt on one end of a thin, dried stalk. Excellent! And so begins a battle with veggie clubs and whips made of dried green bean vines. They know better than to actually nail each other with these organic weapons; they are very good at acting out their attacks.

However, this made the time dedicated to tearing down our gardens this weekend much more distracted and much less sentimental than I imagined. I remembered Rex saying how sad he’d be when the gardens were over, how lonely the beds would look when all the plants were pulled out. There was none of that today. Boys yanked out plants quickly and moved on to play. I’d call them back to pull out this or that, they’d return, and then go back to battle.

That’s probably a good thing… Part of me wanted to be a little sad about the end of the growing season, but boys are creatures of action, and they know we’re going to do this all again next year. So I’m not sad either.

Matter of fact, I have plans for My Growing Boys for the fall and winter!

In the fall, we’ve got pumpkins and leaves and baking. In the winter, we’ve got some green gifts in mind, along with some frozen chili reds and jalapenos to make jelly. I’d like to start composting (still researching…), and I want the boys to start some of their own flowers and vegetable plants for their gardens next summer.

There are more adventures to come!…but 2016 posts are dwindling. The activity will pick up again in 2017 when it’s time for the growing season. My Growing Boys are excited for another year of gardening adventures!

Mom’s Reflection

The gardens provided more than I originally imagined. I wanted my boys to learn about plants, to observe how the leaves of a tomato plant are different from the leaves of a bean plant. I was impressed when my boys would show others their gardens, pointing to each plant by name.  I hoped they would take the responsibility of a garden seriously by regularly watering and weeding their plot, and they did. And, I wanted them to feel proud of what they harvested, to enjoy eating the vegetables they grew, all on their own. All of this came true.

But we got a lot more out of this project than those initial goals. The boys measured and counted and took inventory of what they grew. They became aware of the signs of pests – holes in our cabbage and nibbled sections of the tomato plants – and learned how to protect their gardens. They became a lot more observant than I originally thought; they noticed what bloomed, what baby vegetables grew, and what was not growing. And, they cooked and chopped in the kitchen and took ownership of their produce at our table. And there’s more!… All in all, it was a success, and we’ll do it again!

Here’s what the boys had to say:

Rex, Age 9

1.What was your favorite part of having a garden this season?

  I learned a lot watching everything grow. My favorite was my peppermint because peppermint

is awesome.

2.What was your least favorite part of taking care of a garden?

  Finding those stupid hornworms…cuz they’re dumb.

3.What is something you learned about gardening?

  How much stuff can grow from seeds. For example, carrots. And to kill all the pests when I see holes in the plants.

4.What is something that surprised you?

  How fat those hornworms can be, and how much they can eat.

5.What will you not plant next year?

  My potatoes; they were un-grown.

6.What do you want to plant next year?

  Peppermint, tomato, chives, cucumber…

Jude, Age 7

1.What was your favorite part of having a garden this season?

  Watching it grow and the corn.

2.What was your least favorite part of taking care of a garden?

  The potatoes didn’t grow.

3.What is something you learned about gardening?

  I learned that worms help the plants by making holes in the dirt.

4.What is something that surprised you?

  That my potatoes didn’t grow. I was going to eat them and love them. I was going to make those potatoes you make me for breakfast.

5.What will you not plant next year?

 I don’t want to grow sage; we haven’t used it.

6.What do you want to plant next year?

 Corn and potatoes. And tomatoes and chives.

Morris, Age 4

1.What was your favorite part of having a garden this season?

  That you get to grow worms and you get to get a plant.

2.What was your least favorite part of taking care of a garden?

  That the cabbage was ripped up.

3.What is something you learned about gardening?

  That worms go far, far, far, far, far into the ground.

4.What is something that surprised you?

  That some of my green beans were rotten.

5.What will you not plant next year?   Spinach.

6.What do you want to plant next year?

  Cauliflower. Peppermint: I love it so much and then I spit it out.

With the start of school and soccer, the gardens have been a little neglected… The boys don’t wander around their plots much these days, mostly because many plants are done producing: the cucumbers and green beans.

There are still some pleasant surprises, though.

Rex found carrots! He’d pulled a few in early September and was pretty disappointed, but when we pulled on the greens this week, we found some decently sized ones…as far as baby carrots go. There’s such a difference in taste between the garden grown and the bagged babies.

We’re still getting tomatoes! The stalks are brown and wilting, but the fall has been warm, and the sun has been friendly. Every week, we enjoy tomatoes in our salads, or I include them in our Sunday night veggie soup.

The boys had a visitor, too! Look at this praying mantis! We had never seen a brown and green one before. We were really hoping we’d see one of these earlier as they are excellent pest eaters.

The boys have not pulled out the dead or dying plants yet. I don’t think we’re quite ready, but the time is getting closer.

Some of our garden didn’t grow. It’s important to be honest.

First of all, none of our pumpkins grew. Last year, involuntary pumpkin vines wound around the hill on the backside of our deck. They were the offspring of Halloween pumpkins the boys pushed over the railing when they rotted. Surprise! In the summer, pumpkins grew, and we loved watching them! No such luck this year. This year, we deliberately placed some of those rotting ones in our backyard, to seed and grow naturally. Come summer, nothing. No vines, no pumpkins. Bummer. We were really hoping for a pumpkin patch. We’ll try again next year.

In the boys gardens, we didn’t have much luck with carrots. Rex and Morris both planted carrot seeds. When they pulled on the fine greens to collect what grew below, carrots the size of a pinkie finger came up from under the earth…if we were lucky. Most of the carrots were a hint of orange that was slightly thicker than the stem and about one inch long. We’ll try again next year.

No luck with potatoes either, the veggie Jude was most hoping to grow. He set aside four plots, but none of them prospered. When we pulled on the green, only the original potato we planted was there. Bummer for Jude. We’ll try again next year.

Some veggies weren’t quite the hit we were hoping. As two and four year-olds, Rex and Jude, loved to nibble on chives. They were kind of ignored this year – out-shined by mint and cucumbers – and chives never made it into one veggie dish. We never did anything with Jude’s sage either, even though he reminded me a few times it was hanging out in his garden.

All of these experiences serve as great tips for next year’s planting. Not failures.

Cabbage was the pride and joy of Morris’ garden. Whenever someone asked him what was growing in his garden, he had one thing to say, and one thing only: “Cabbage.”

I’m not even sure if he ate it much before he decided to grow it, but he definitely knew he wanted to. And I’m not sure he even likes the taste of it very much because there are always leftover pieces whenever I add it to his dinner plate… There’s just something about it, I guess.

Tonight, he pulled a second one from his garden, and we chopped it up for coleslaw. As I was chopping, he was away playing toys… All I had to do was mention that I was ready to use his cabbage, and he ran right to me to help out. So, we made coleslaw together:

1 head of cabbage, finely chopped

½ cup diced onions

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup white or apple cider vinegar

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup cilantro (because I love it in everything)

1 tbsp sugar

Morris was very proud of the bowl we placed on the dinner table. He was very proud he grew that cabbage.

When produce rests on kitchen counters, annoying fruit flies come to visit. They seem to especially enjoy bananas and our garden tomatoes.

My sister-in-law Amy gave me a great fruit-fly-killing-cocktail recipe!

1.Grab a glass and fill it halfway with apple cider vinegar.

2. Add 2 squirts dish-soap.

3.Dash in some fast-running water so bubbles form on the top.

The apple cider vinegar attracts the little stinkers, which then rest on the bubbles. The soap decreases the vinegar’s surface tension and then causes the flies to sink and drown.

Jude was fascinated by the collection of at least fifty fruit flies at the bottom of the glass. Thank you, Amy! I’m going to remember this one.

Early on, I wanted to get a guestimate of how much we earned back from our harvests. In an earlier post I noted that we spent about $110 on plants and seeds (way back in May), and as of July we’d earned about $45 in produce.

I’ve been keeping track (loosely, I confess) on a piece of notebook paper that rests on top of a scale in our kitchen. Tally marks note how many tomatoes Jude has harvested versus Morris, and how many pounds of beans came from each boys’ garden. I put them all together for a total.

Some vegetables are difficult to keep track of, which I note after my total. But, here’s a good guess at the boys’ garden value. Bravo, Boys!

	Cost at Store	Harvested	Value
Cucumbers	$1.00	30	$30.00
Green beans	$2.69 / 1.35 lbs.	4.69 lbs.	$9.35
Tomatoes
-Roma	$.25 each	41+	$10.25
-Cherry	$3.79 / 0.95 lbs.	90+/ 2.5lbs.	$9.48
-Big	$1.35 each	31+	$41.85
Jalapenos/Chilis	$0.30 each	8+	$2.40
Eggplant	$1.99 (for large)	2 small	$2.00 (guestimated)
Lettuce	$1.99	3 large bowls/heads	$6.00
Cabbage	$1.86 each	6	$11.16

Basil – $1.99/pkg. (fresh) 8 $15.92

Chives – $2.99/.75 oz. (fresh) –

Cilantro – $1.00/bunch (fresh) 2 $2.00

Dill – $1.70/.58 oz. (dried) 3 $5.10

                                                   TOTAL VALUE (as of 9/10)= $145.51*   

*Some items did not grow: potatoes

Some items did not grow well: carrots

Some items yielded a small harvest and did not get figured in: kale

Some items were lost track of because they were picked and given to visitors: green beans

Some items were not harvested but nibbled by children and adults: chives, mint, sage, and many tomatoes.

                                TOTAL VALUE OF LEARNING AND FUN! = PRICELESS!