Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Sunday was a beautiful day for yard work. With the forecast finally showing no signs of overnight freezing, it was time to move some hostas. The area you see the boys "prepping" was empty all last summer. We let them dig there until we discovered that neighborhood cats considered it a latrine. I resolved to plant there this year to discourage such use. Not sure it will make much difference, but at least the boys won't play in it. We had extra bags of dirt after we filled the pots for our tomatoes, basil and green beans, so before digging the hostas for transplant we tilled in some fresh topsoil and compost since this area was quite dry and depleted. Then the boys were quite enthusiastic about the watering task. Daniel waters himself as much as the plants.

They each had received a packet of seeds a the Saturday morning library program. Daniel's was a mix of various flowers, which we planted between the hostas, and Edward got beans, which he carefully planted in his very own pot. We decided on container gardening this year after last year's tomato and basil withered in our clay soil. The cool summer may also have contributed, but I thought this was worth trying anyway. We read on the package that it will be about 50 days to harvest for the beans so we counted days on the calendar and Edward wrote a "B" on June 21. Fingers crossed they actually grow!

And one more amusing Edward anecdote in this brief update. Yesterday after watering in the backyard, we came around to the front to ride bikes. At one point, Edward parked his bike across the sidewalk and said, "The road is under construction, can't come through!" Then he stood looking at me, winking one eye and then the other, over and over. I finally laughed and asked, "Edward, why are you winking at me?"

"That's the construction lights," he replied, as if I were a complete dunderhead. He was mimicking the on/off blinking lights on a construction barricade. Perhaps you had to be there, but I have to say this struck me as hilarious.