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Apr 26, 2010

kinderGARDENS - Week 2 - Sharing Plans

Inadvertent Farmer

Sorry for the delay, this should have been posted on Friday but we had a hectic weekend!

So the kids have decided on a project...(drumroll)...and it is:


A Green Roof and Container Garden!

My self-imposed rules are that they need to use materials from our stash (seeds, scrap lumber, etc - there's plenty of that!), and that if they needed to use tools they had to ask Mommy or Daddy, otherwise I am leaving the plant selection, care and design up to them. I was really impressed that they came up with an additional bonus, they are solving a problem I already had - their "fort"/playset had a tarp roof that was destroyed by a random tropical storm or nor'easter last fall, and I had yet to replace it due to the cost and having to measure the darn thing, but yet they needed shade for the hot summer to come. Why didn't I think of that? LOL...

Here's the photos from Week 2:
Above is the playset/fort that needs help! The kids are going to grow a "green roof" for it. On the top left side of the fort is a planter box constructed by them (via help from hubby with power tools!) and hung where they can plant and reach it to water. The also envision a "counter" on one side of the sandbox where they can have a kids' "Farmer's Market". Does that mean they are going to charge me for vegetables grown in my own yard? What a scam!

Lochlann really wanted a raised bed that I couldn't dictate what got planted where, so he smartly asked Daddy (the non-OCD parent!) to help him build it with scrap lumber.

Finnegan filled the box with soil...

He even wrote their names so each one of the boys "gets a side". Remember those days with your siblings? Don't cross this line!...

The next update will be on seed selection and planting the boxes! To all the kids out there in the garden, have a great garden day and get good 'n dirty! You are helping OCD moms like myself everywhere loosen up and learn to enjoy life's little moments!






17 comments:

  1. Love it! Looks like a great project and what fun ideas the kids came up with. I too am the OCD parent (but you seem to be much more functional about it than I am!) :) The kids farmer's market is awesome. Great work. I look forward to your next post. Now if only I could get mine done!!!

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  2. FANTASTIC! How cool! You get so much credit for the life style you've made possible for the boys. Can't wait to see the next post! (For their young ages, they came up with some super ideas and are doing a lot.)

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  3. This is so awesome Erin! I can wait until Jonathan gets older and starts to show an interest in such things. Who needs video games when you can have this kind of outdoor fun?

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  4. Man, I wish you guys were my parents. :P I did all that stuff on the sly when I was a kid. Imagine how awesome and knowledgable Finn and Loch are going to be! Gardening, construction, brewing, business management!

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  5. Ooo, don't cross that line! That always leads to things like "he's looking at me!" But then, I'm sure your children never do that.
    I didn't have any trouble with the link up for KinderGardens- I think the 'next' step was selecting a photograph. Hmm, I'm not sure why it doesn't work.
    Judy

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  6. ROFL...ever child needs one non-OCD parent! I simply LOVE the idea of a green roof, brilliant!

    Great job guys...Kim

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  7. Fiona, functional? Ha! MamaPea, I say "they" but it was really my 7 year old Loch that came up with the idea. He is my bookworm, the "wierd" kid, lol... I am always having to go in his room at night because he is up late with the light on reading my books on off the grid living or Mother Earth News... I love it, I always tell him not to worry about all the popular kids it's the bookworms who win at the end of the race! Thomas, I bet Jonathan will be ready for some fun stuff sooner than you imagine, I think when kids have parents that foster this stuff by doing it is only natural. Too many parents don't have the time to indulge their kids' creativity and would rather they be "quiet" with their video games at the end of a long day. Not to say I don't have days like that, lol! Happy to report that their video games haven't gotten much use since Spring hit, that's the way it should be. Kenneth, if kids aren't in the current plan for you, make sure you find a random child to instill "your plans" in... you are doing stuff too good for a kid to miss, i.e. guerrilla gardening, potting soil all over and veggies in the apartment, you could get a kid "a stash" of seeds and have the neighborhood bully converted into a guerrilla gardener in no time! Judy, we had "the line" in the backseat of a VW Beetle growing up... THREE OF US! I don't know how my parents survived it...! Kim, I got the link up to work, I just had too many characters in my blog name. Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

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  8. Bestill my heart! How wonderfully ingenious of your boys to come up with a "green" roof! I can't wait to see how things develop...

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  9. That is about the cutest thing I can imagine. The San Francisco Chronicle had a series on their rooftop garden. Maybe the boys would find it inspiring.

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  10. What a fun idea! I can't wait to see how the boys gardens evolve over the summer! (Visiting from Kim's blog.) :)

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  11. Erin -- sorry to bother but how did you get your link posted on Kim's linkup? I seem to be having the same trouble but unlike you, I can't figure it out!!!! Thanks :)

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  12. Fiona, my problem was that I had too many characters in my Blog name, it wants 20 max, once I condensed it a bit it took it. Good luck, can't wait to see the update!

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  13. Thanks, Erin! I'm still trying to link-up -- I am such a technophobe (whatever happened to typewriters and telegrams??) -- but hopefully, I'll get it together.. soon! :)

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  14. Erin is it ok if I highlight your kids' ideas on Thursday's kinderGARDENS post?

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  15. Kim, of course! Every bit of spotlight will help keep me honest about leaving it to them and not nitpicking the seed spacing, that's next up for this week, LOL!

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  16. I love it! Kids and gardening : )...if only more parents would get their kids interested at an early age.

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  17. Sunny, thanks! I have a feeling I will be cruising your blog as soon as I get a free minute, we also homebrew and can... this is the first year for our "Hop Yard"... can't wait to check out your posts!

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