Carolyn's Garden

I love tending to my garden, and so does Carolyn! I think this is so sweet, until she digs up my freshly sown seeds or starts picking under ripe fruit. It's just so adorable the way she wants to do everything that I'm doing and I hated having to exclude her from helping me in the garden. Then it hit me, why not give her her own very distinct garden space, a nice little toddler garden area! On our next trip to the hardware store the plan was hatched.

She was all delight and pretty surprised too that we were getting all of this for her. We explained, repeatedly, that this was her very own little garden. The goal was that she would remember this and leave mommy's garden alone...

Here was our shopping list:

• 2 large rectangular planters
• 4 begonias
• 1 bag of organic potted plant mix
• 2 short picket fence sections

These planter boxes are just the right size for her and they are a nice distinctive color so that when we need to remind her to dig in her flower box we can specify her "green" flower boxes. We chose begonias because they are pretty hearty and can endure excessive watering. They were also cheap, so if she killed them we wouldn't be out a ton of money. (We actually made these back in June, I'm just terribly behind on blogging, but that allows me to be able to tell you how well they've held up!) All four plants have survived a very hot summer with lots of watering and digging around them.

Also please note, it's important to get organic potting mix because regular potting mix can have chemicals in it, and you know those little hands will be all in that dirt!

We chose a nice open area in our garden where she would have some grass to sit on and be in the shade. Originally we had planned to put a garden bench here, with visions of sitting in the calm, quite garden watching the birds and butterflies. That was pre-kid and boy have those visions gone out the window! HAHA I'm glad they did though, because this is much better!

Carolyn helped me plant the flowers, I added some compost, that we make in our garden, to the soil so the plants would have some food to eat. I know it looks like we totally could have put another plant in each box, but we left it open on purpose, this way she could have room to dig in the dirt in the boxes.

To arrange our little area we just arranged the boxes on opposite sides with a gap in the middle for her to walk through and Ben hammered in the picket fence. He discovered that our ground was a bit hard, so using my weeding tool he pre-pounded the holes for the fence stakes.

Add in a watering can, shovels, and some outdoor chairs (picked up at the thrift store) and we have a toddler sized garden area!

We had visions of making her a little mud kitchen in this area, but the Lord provided us something that she loves much better! As I was driving down my street one day, there on the curb of my neighbor's house was the most perfect playhouse!

That little craftsman cottage fit PERFECTLY in her garden! My neighbor and her daughters were delighted for it to go to a new home just down the street and get a second life. It looks like we built the fence and flower boxes just for it! Gotta love how things work out.

Yeah, I'd say she likes it...

Seriously just look at how well it fits in, it's like we planned it that way! Oh how I love when things work out like this.

From toddler garden to garden cottage, Carolyn she has been very lucky! This really worked out quite well, every time I go up to the garden to water or weed she is so happy to play up there with me. AND she leaves my precious garden beds alone because she has her very own to tend!