A Loving Gesture From The Army ... I Mean The Children

For the last 2 weeks, we have been adding some new plants to our flower beds a few at a time -- Cone Flowers of various colors, Joysticks, BlackEyed Susans, Coreopsis, Achillea, and more. The flowers were doing so-so but were drying out much too quickly despite watering daily with the sprinkler --- they were in DIRE NEED of mulch (which I never got around to doing last year either).

So, at 3pm on Thursday afternoon I drove (all by myself WITH the trailer attached to my van -- I am so proud that I did not hit anything or anyone !) to the CoOp and bought "1 scoop" of mulch (this 1 scoop would fill the bed of a large pick-up truck with a large mound of mulch). My plan was that I would mulch the flower beds a bit at a time over the course of the following week. If the mulch was HERE, I could work on it as I had time.

The van, the trailer, the mulch, AND I made it home from the CoOp (a 10 minute drive each way) safe and sound. HOORAY !! And I parked in the carport (and did I mention that I did not hit anything ?!?!) .... went inside for a cold glass of water (standing and watching mulch being scooped onto your trailer is DUSTY and tends to give you a dry whistler. HA !)

Well ..... after my cool drink I noticed that ALL of the children were circling the trailer with thoughtful expressions on their faces ... and then I blinked. Suddenly there were shovels and buckets, Tonka Trucks and Tonka Bulldozers ... a wagon ... and I could hear detailed instructions being given by the older children to the younger children on HOW to mulch flowers properly (this is a much more serious business than I realized - HA !)

Next there was a nearly-constant CLOUD of mulch around the trailer .... orders (to me) given by said children to move the trailer (with the trailer full of mulch still attached - OH MY !) here and there ... brooms and dustpans sweeping up the mulch that was dropped onto the driveway during loading ...

It was quite a scene !!

And before dark ALL of the flower beds were mulched beautifully and were being watered ....

BTW - I was finally allowed to help A LITTLE BIT (mostly I was allowed to CHECK each plant to be sure it was not too deeply covered in mulch, and that the mulch was evenly spread) .... but almost ALL of this hard work was done by an army of (our) children .... aren't they sweet ?!?!?

The above photo was taken while I was sitting

(as I was TOLD very firmly to do by my 2nd oldest child)

on the front porch steps,

watching the children spread mulch over the flower beds.

This is my favorite QUITE TIME spot --

and is the lovely view that I enjoy nearly every morning with my coffee.

These are the Nastursium seeds that were in each of the children's Easter Basket -- they are getting big ! (they will bloom in red, gold, and orange ... eventually.)

The Hollyhocks are HUGE this year !
This is a photo of Cherub 2's garden -- she selected various Annuals for her garden. And the garden is doing well -- except that she selected some little annuals that have feathery blossoms -- and the BIRDS are stealing these little plants one by one. They steal them ROOTS AND ALL ... leaving nothing behind except a little rectangluar empty hole in the soil. (note the empty space at the front of the bed in this photo -- see the holes ??) Too funny !!

They even mulched the flower bed below the Holly Trees. It looks SO much better.


This must be THE year for roses --- our roses are truly outdoing themselves ! They were just covered with big beautiful blooms a few weeks aso, and now are beginning to bloom all over again.

And the scents -- just lovely !!

Cherub 5's PURPLE (of course) Rose.
Cherub 2's PINK rose.
Our Lavendar plants are blooming and are growing by leaps and bounds. We have added coneflowers, blackeyed susans, blanket flowers, and more to this bed. And although little is blooming yet, the bed looks LOVELY with fresh mulch.