"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."-- Thomas Jefferson

One of the odder things about aging is that we, inevitably, do somehow turn into our parents. No matter how hard we might try not to, it happens, and even odder yet, is that I don't mind it at all.

Example for the day: my mother has always loved to garden. I remember getting dragged around to a nursery in my teens and just hating it. Now, I am the one dragging the boys around. They see the car approaching the Red Barn and just groan.

So this year I've made it a goal to get the boys more excited about gardening, and perhaps get them to eat some vegetables. So they are growing their own vegetables, and have several plants they get to take ownership over.

Alex planted pumpkins, watermelons and sunflowers. Ryan planted pumpkins, carrots and sunflowers. Sunflowers are such easy and fast growers, so I thought they would each get some good bang for their bucks, and fast, to keep them on board with their new garden.

We also planted some green and red peppers and onions, but those didn't come from seeds, and the kids aren't nearly as excited about them as they are about what "they" planted.

Two years ago, Carl and I first ventured into edible plants and away from flowers. We've added an apple tree, a lemon tree, a mexican lime tree, as well as an herb garden, with rosemary, thmy, sage, parsley,three kinds of lavender, Texas Tarragon, French Tarragon, Sweet Basil, Italian Basil, and Chives. We'll see how my experiment into vegetables (and watermelons!) works this year. And if it helps the boys eat more veggies!