Damaging Helpers

A few months ago we decided to plant a garden. I never have before and was hoping that half of what we planted wouldn’t die. I am not a person with what you would call a green thumb. Big Brother gave me a flower for Mother’s day and it died on me just like the cactus I had last year. Right now I have one little African violet plant in my kitchen window that has made it through spring and half of summer. Aside from that little thing there was only one plant I ever kept alive for over a year and it was an aloe plant that needed almost no care. I was wrong about the garden. It had no problem growing. It grew weeds faster than the vegetables. I honestly cannot keep up with the weeding and just try to keep the plants free from vines or overshadowing weeds. We went away for a weekend which is our prime gardening time and have been trying to recover the row of dirt ever since.

During the week I try to get out there but between my two little helpers it does more damage than anything. In the beginning when we would have to water the soil for the seeds the boys didn’t care much for anything other than sitting in the dirt driving their cars and trucks. Once plants sprouted out of the ground we had to try to keep the boys out even more. Little Brother would sit on a row or worse whatever was beginning to grow he’d spot it and rip it right out of the ground. Big Brother really wanted to help water and knew not to step on the rows. But he could not resist jumping over every row all the way across barely making it without stomping on a tomato plant.

Once the plants got about 6 inches the weeds were racing to 10. When I would be pulling out what was unwanted, Little Brother would run for the driveway, pull a green tomato off the vine, or try to sit on a celery plant while pushing a car. So far the corn is my favorite. Easy to weed and seemingly invisible to boys. This week we noticed our beans were ready and I couldn’t believe it. We grew something that I added to our dinner. While I was picking beans Little Brother was trying to pull the whole plant out and if I told him no, he’d try to bite it instead. So far most of what has grown out there has survived this long and seem pretty tough having been fallen on, stepped on and tugged.

I just hope Little Brother doesn’t try to pick the pumpkin too early because Big Brother will never forgive him. Big Brother calls the pumpkins “Mine crop” so I hope he gets at least one out of his little patch. Well so far things look good out there even with my little garden damaging helpers.