Last Sunday morning, I awoke full of energy (that’s a lie) and a burning desire (another Lie) to do something different. Actually I was just looking for a quick project for a Sunday morning, but what has evolved has turned into something a little bigger…
For sometime I had been toying with the idea of a Vegetable Garden and was keen to somehow get the kids involved. So, after breakfast on my way back from getting my morning coffee, I made a slight detour and dropped by Bunnings to see what they had in the way of raised garden beds.
There weren’t a lot of options, but I did find a simple wooden raised garden bed that was fairly easy to put together and on sale, so in a moment of crazyness I made the decision to invest in three beds so the kids could have one each.
As I made my way home an idea started to form…. I could get the kids to build them as a way of getting them interested. I’ll then create a challenge where by the kids can have a garden bed each that they can choose what to grow… a scheme was starting to form…
Anyway, amongst moaning and groaning I managed to drag the kids away from their electronics by telling them they all had 5 minutes to get dressed appropriately and join me in the back yard… meanwhile I used that time to cut the slightly longer than it should have been grass at the back of the house as short as possible.
As the kids joined me, I handed my electric drill to Zac, pointed to the garden bed kits and said “I want you to work as a team to assemble three garden beds…. Go!” as I stood back with an evil grin on my face.
There was a lot of confusion and grumbling from all three kids before they finally decided to read the instructions and work together. Jess did most of the reading and directing, Tara did the heavy lifting bringing each piece to Zac who using the drill screwed the boards together. Never heard anyone complain so much with each screw… “Ooo…ahhh… my knees…”
“Yes son, it is called bending them and they are sore because you don’t need to do that often when sitting at the computer….” came the response from the evil smiling guy of to the side!
Wasn’t overly complex, but for kids that have never done anything like that it was a real challenge.
I had some weed mat left over from an earlier project, so spread it over the grass and positioned the three new vegetable gardens at the back of the north side of the house where they would get the most sunshine. We rang the local Garden Supplies and ordered 2m of 3-way soil, a mix of 2 different soils and manure. It took a little while for the soil to arrive, but once it did it was all hands on deck as we barrow’d the soil from the driveway around to the back. We were supposed to be at a party that afternoon, but it was looking like we would be late!!
Tara and Jess used their little barrow with Tara filling it and Jess pushing it while I filled my wheel barrow. Zac was tasked with moving the dirt from the front of the garden beds where we tipped the soil to the back, and before long we had recruited Mum into the mix as we were filling and dumping faster than Zac could move it!!
Thankfully the neighbour Brian poked his head over the fence to see what the commotion was and seeing me exhausted and dripping with sweat, grabbed his wheelbarrow and joined us in moving the pile. His three kids also joined in, and it wasn’t long before the garden beds were full along the a few garden beds out the front and at Brian’s place too (might have slightly over estimated!!!).
Anyway, Job was done and we were all really proud of what we had achieved. We managed to leave home for the party only 45 minutes after it started!!
The kids were all excited by the prospect of having their own garden bed, but no one knew what to do next…. what do they plant? What will work at this time of year? How are they going to figure this all out????
The next day my scheme (to use a gardening term) began to sprout…
