The Garden

The kids and I have been slowly working to plant the garden this year. I have my trusty helper Farmer Tyler, AKA Captain Squatchy, who has helped the most this year. He is pretty well fascinated by the whole thing and can be counted on the plant seeds, not necessarily in the appropriate location or with the recommended spacing. In fact, he practiced a new technique I will call 'cluster planting' wherein it appears he dumped the entire contents of a pack of radish seeds within an 8 inch square. Every day he pulls one or two, washes off the microscopic root and feeds it to me. This also has the unintended but useful side affect of thinning them so he might actually produce a radish or two. The kid remembers nearly every plant he has planted and what it is. Katie also has her own patch which is planted with an assortment of flowers, mint and the odd tomato plant. James has opted again for Indian corn, this year planted from his very own seed! New this year are potatoes. I have a friend who writes a column in the Home and Garden section for the local newspaper in Grand Junction, Colorado. She wrote up a company nearby that raises potato seed and sent me some delicious looking taters from there: reds, fingerlings, and purple potatoes! They are looking good so far, and I attribute a large deal of the garden's success to a generous application of composted chicken manure. Its like gold, baby! I am also rollin' in the lettuce and rhubarb, which makes me very happy. Rhubarb is da bomb, yo.