September 20, 2011
My school-age daughters have a play structure in the backyard that includes swings, monkey bars, a slide and a sand box. They spend a lot of time out there, but the local cat tends to pee regularly in the sand box, which is not so popular (imagine that!).
I’m forever on the hunt to creatively find more space for planting. The other day, as I overheard my girls warn yet another friend not to touch the stinky sand box, inspiration hit. Why not ditch the sand and create a place for the girls to plant some vegetables of their own? The idea was a hit, so we hauled off to Terra Sol, the local nursery, and planned their own little garden. I let them pick whatever they wanted to grow, and it was fascinating to see what caught their attention and why. My baby girl found rosemary and loved the smell and the other one was determined to grow broccoli—bless her heart!
We encountered one obstacle after we scooped out the sand: a lot of hard-packed soil. The lady at Terra Sol told us to give it a good spray of water, wait a day, and then try to break it up. That worked brilliantly—I love that lady. Our next step was to mix in Happy Frog soil conditioner (boy, this is reading like a recipe, isn’t it?) to mix with the clay-packed soil. Finally, we covered the whole area with a mix of compost and potting soil, gave it a spray of water and we’re ready to plant.
My new Pink Lemonade Blueberries found a sweet little home and the neighborhood cat is now on the search for a new potty—preferably one (far) across the street.
