When I grow up...

"When I get big, I'm going to buy all the toys I want, and then I'll shrink so I can play with them!"-Nicholas

A good spot.

I remember as a kid, watching my Dad go out in the freezing weather with a ladder, climb the peach tree, and string it full of Christmas lights, and turn them on. It wasn't Christmas, and even if it was, the tree was in the backyard, so no one would ever see the lights anyway. When we asked him why he was doing it he said that he didn't want his peach buds to freeze. I remember in his garden he had tomato plants, and early in the spring he would go out, and put these ridiculous water tepees on them so that they wouldn't freeze too. I remember often times finding him out in his garden caring for it. Sometimes I thought he was a little bit crazy because he obsessed about it so much. I also remember though as a kid getting to go out and enjoy the fruits of his labors. We would go out to the garden and each get to pick a strawberry, some boysenberries, a peach, or a cherry tomato, and we would sit outside and eat it together. As we grew up, my Dad passed this tradition on to his grandkids. After being in North Carolina for a few years our first summer trip back home was when Nicholas was almost 3. He went out with Grandpa to pick some grapes and cherry tomatoes. This was AMAZING! To find out that some of his favorite things actually grew in Grandpa's backyard, and he could pick some anytime he wanted, was a dream come true. My dad has a little child sized bench in his backyard, where they would sit and eat them. Nicholas named it the "Good Spot". Anytime they would pick something from the garden he would say "Come on grandpa! Let's sit in a 'good spot'", and they would sit down and enjoy each others company, and eat some fruit. This became such a beloved tradition, that whenever we sit down together to enjoy a treat, he says "Let's sit in a good spot!" Of course the next summer Christian was old enough to enjoy the 'good spot', and he too often refers to it. This spring I got a hankering to grow a garden of my own. This would prove difficult since I live in a townhouse. There were a few places where I thought it might work, but when I watched the sun, the spots didn't get enough sunlight to grow anything. This was discouraging. Then one day when I was at Sam's club, I saw some blueberry bushes for sale. Sam and I have LOVED blueberry picking out at the U-Pick farm, and often talked about owning our own bushes someday. Then I remembered that our neighbors had a blueberry bush in a pot. For the next few days I kept thinking about what fun it would be to have our own blueberry bushes, and maybe we could plant a small container garden too. Finally we decided to do it. When I told Nicholas we were going to plant a garden, he was so excited that he went right outside and started digging! That night I asked the boys what they wanted to plant in the garden. Nicholas immediately shouted "Tomatoes!". Christian shouted "Pants!". Pants? We told him it had to be a food. Again he said pants. I guess you can't blame the kid, every pair he owns has a hole in each knee! We went out and bought all the supplies, seeds and plants and got stared. Nicholas insisted we grow a watermelon, which I don't think you can do in a container, but just to appease him, we bought a pack of seeds, and will plant some in the ground, and see what happens. My blueberry bushes came in a pack of 4 , and I had to plant them in the pots which was a learning experience, but I got some help from my neighbor who also has a potted blueberry bush, and I'm really excited to see them grow, and hope that they survive long enough to make blueberries (It takes 3 years before you get blueberries)! So, this being my first container garden, if anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it!