Youngest and I were working in our garden last night. She has her own box, right next to mine, and she's still learning to recognize weeds -- but learning FAST. But her carrots needed thinning, and that turned out to cause a bit of a crisis, it seemed.
Here's our conversation, as I remember it:
Y: But I don't want to pull the baby carrots!
M (Me or Mom): But they're all crowded in there! We need to make some room for them to grown their yummy orange roots by pulling a few of the punier ones.
Y: How would you feel if someone came along and pulled you out by your roots just because you're a little puny?!"
That stumped me! I started wondering if having her own gardening plot was such a good idea, when she promptly started yanking out a few carrots in the thicker patches, doing a great job making room thinning her row: "Ahh, Mom, I was just pulling your chain!" she laughed.
But she did admit she liked growing plants that did not have to be "beheaded" like the Bok Choy in my garden -- she prefers herbs like parsley and chives (she's always been my little helper who runs out to the garden with a pair of scissors when I need a little of this or that for dinner), and harvesting the snap peas (fruit, not whole plant) will be more to her liking. She was a bit horrified earlier during radish harvest -- there was nothing left!!!
I made my son weed with me the other day. He complained, then spent the time out there actually talking with me -- a rarity and a gift. Gardening does that to people.
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