The boys own Garden #1

She glares at the two packets of seed in her hand, both with "Walmart" printed on the top right corner. So tragic, Walmart as a seed source. But the end of June is fast approaching and hypocrite or not, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Her excuse? It was for the kids, so perhaps it wasn't such an irrational purchase. And anyway, no one needs to know where those seeds came from.

Ahem.

The boys fly out the front door and race their mother to the garden corral. The path they plot is more direct than hers, of course, but it intersects the electric fence. Apparently they don't see this as a problem. Mom yells. They yell back.

Easy. They will simply slip underneath the fence.

Mom yells again. The listen-now-or-else warning. You know the one.

Homemade chocolate malts are on the line, and in the end, beating mom to the corral isn't worth losing a special afternoon treat. The boys come trudging up through the garden gate behind their mother.

The first job is to weed the popcorn maze. The weed to popcorn ratio is at that critical get-it-done-now-or-struggle-forevermore point. The sun is blazing. It isn't long before the complaining begins.

Mom explains that the maze is going to be an awful lot of fun, but the popcorn seedlings will die if the weeds aren't removed. Planting is hard work. Weeding is hard work. Mulching isn't too bad. After that, it's all fun and games.

They decide the reward is worth the sweat. Their mom is proud.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Four fence posts are driven into the ground, then fencing up and around. Boys are in charge of zip-ties as they secure the fencing to the posts. They giggle and joke about planting chocolate chips.

Morning Glory seeds look just like bits of chocolate. Who knew?

Two faces look in disbelief at the big seeds in their hands. They try, and fail, to imagine the height these sunflowers could reach. Seed are pressed firmly into the ground. Their mother imagines the wind these sunflowers will have to withstand. She shakes her head and imagines twelve to twenty foot tall sunflowers lying fallen on the ground.

Planting is done. The boys own Garden number one.

Now the waiting.







KinderGARDENS week 7