Gardening with Brooke

Brooke is three years old and has loved my garden since she could walk through it. It's pretty big with stepping stones that lead to a gate in the fence.

Daisies and Cosmos have been her favorite flowers. She loves to look at them and loves to cut them to put in vases.

Six days ago her family moved into a new house and for weeks she said she wanted me to help her start a garden.

Today was the big day. I'd started growing some seeds inside a few weeks earlier. I bought Daisies and Black Eyed Susans at Redmond's Nursery. I wanted to make sure at least something would succeed. And Brooke and I planted some seeds.

While we dug holes for the bigger plants, Brooke looked at me and said, "I'm not comfortable."

I held up my little green kneeling mat. "Do you want to use this?"

She nodded. "Yes."

I placed it on the ground for her, and she smiled. "That's much better."

She was wearing her little yellow gardening gloves, and she pulled them off. "I want to feel the dirt with my hands."

This might be a good time to mention, Brooke and I are home alone with no parental supervision. So I said, "Honey, you'll get lots of dirt under your fingernails."

Brooke looked at me with her big, blue eyes. "We can cut my fingernails off."

Really? Who can argue with that.

At last we had everything planted, and it was time to water. Brooke has a precious little yellow watering can. We walked to the house and filled it and her little green bucket with water. Back and forth we went. Sometimes she helped carry the water and sometimes she let me carry it all while she skipped back to the garden.

All in all I think we had a successful day. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures for you, but stay tuned. In a few weeks I hope to have pictures of Brook in her garden of flowers.

Have a great weekend.