Gardening: Summer Boredom Buster for My Daughter

Pretty Flower Garden-I Wish I Could Create!

 My youngest daughter, who is ten, loves to garden.  She is participating in a gardening day camp twice a week and is learning lots of great gardening tips.  Often, she comes home with a newly planted item. For instance: on Thursday it was a pumpkin; the time before that some sort of green bean.  The problem is she was born to two parents who not only know nothing about gardening but also have very little interest in learning about gardening. 

I admit that at one point in my life I dreamt of living in one of those incredible cottages with a stunning garden surrounding it and ivy and roses creeping up the walls.  I even tried to start a garden, multiple times, with the same result every time.  The plants die.  I either over water, under water, put in the sun when it should be in the shade, and so forth.  I admit wholeheartedly the issue is that I cannot keep the rules for each plant separate, I get confused easily, and I’m really not terribly interested in gardening in general.

Another Dream Garden- But Not Ours

On top of all of that, gardening is hard work and is nearly impossible for me to do on a daily basis with Fibromyalgia, but my daughter wanted a garden so badly!  So, my daughter, her dad, some of our friends, and I created a cute little garden for her today.

We had some tires in the back yard that had been sitting in a pile for years, so I decided we should use them to separate the different plants, but they weren’t very pretty.  My daughter and I went to the nearest hardware store and found some nice pastel spray paint that works on all different types of materials and can be left outdoors.  We ended up with six colors. 

My daughter, my friend, and I painted each tire a different color (total of six one color tires) and then my daughter opted to paint this tiny tire that we didn’t really plan to use with all of the colors.  We ended up using the tiny tire too, of course. 

Meanwhile, my husband and his friend went to buy top soil. Seriously, we actually paid for dirt!  Who does that? Well, I guess people who really love their daughter do that.  It’s the only reason I can come up with.

Another Beautiful Garden-But Still Not Ours

Then my husband and his friend did the heavy work of placing the tires and the top soil.  When the boys were nearly done, my daughter and I went to visit Nana and Gramps, my stepmom and dad, who have plants all over their farm and offered to share them with us. I just can’t justify spending money on plants right now.  

We ended up with chocolate mint, lemon mint, apple mint, lavender, chives, rosemary, thyme and some filler plants.  My daughter chose them because she either liked the way they looked or the way they smelled.  I’m told they are all easy to grow and they tend to spread out, so hopefully they survive. I’m sure my daughter will have great success with them.

When we got home, my daughter and her friend planted them all very carefully in individual tires.  The only tire we didn’t fill is the one that I promised could have strawberries.  We’ll be going to get those tomorrow (if I can move), otherwise her Dad will be taking her to get them.

My Daughter's New Garden

At any rate, my little green thumb daughter now has her own cute little garden, which I hope will be a summer boredom buster. 

Her biggest concern about the garden at this point is what is going to happen to it while she is at overnight camp next week and won’t be able to water the plants.  I hate to admit it to her, BUT there is a high likelihood some of the plants won’t survive my trying to keep them alive and I think she already suspects that.  

Fortunately, if they don’t survive, she can plant some more and we’ll learn from it, or at least she will!