Real Dirt, Fake Flowers

My older son Aidan has eagerly shared many gardening experiences with me, mostly involving potted flowers and plants being moved to our yard to decorate the front of our house.  The awful thing is after all our hard work, I turn into a plant killer.  I forget them too soon, grumbling when I see shriveled brown leaves, while willing them back to life in a puddle of water.  Every time I buy a new plant my husband laughs under his breath, "What did you bring home to kill this time?"  Aidan is better at remembering to water plants than I am, yet I still continue to purchase them.  One year I bought 3 beautiful topiaries that lined a brick wall in front of our house.  They were completely bare a couple of months later, so I drew scary faces on three white sheets and threw one over each of them just in time for Halloween...they're coming back to haunt you, I thought to myself. 

Aidan at age 2

As much as I have grown to enjoy gardening, I haven't taken the time to really understand the basics.  I just found out from a guy at Lowes the other week that flowering plants do not do well in full shade...I'm sure he laughed about me after I left.  Do you want to know what the really sad part is, aside from all the dead plants?  Aidan's favorite part of the hardware store is the gardening section.  I'm not the best model for him when it comes to growing things, but we're learning together, and it's one of the ways we play together.  Digging in the dirt, finding bugs and worms to inspect, enjoying the beautiful shades of green we arrange together.  Aidan has learned basic math concepts while scooping dirt and measuring holes, the names of different plants and plant parts, and the three ingredients plants need to survive.

I am trying to develop some gardening skills for Aidan's sake.  My goal is to grow a couple of different vegetables this fall with him.  For now we are playing with fake plants while I attempt to understand what I'm doing wrong.  We are still enjoying the real stuff; the dirt, the water, and the sun.  Even though the flowers are fake, the enjoyment of our play is real.
   

(This post was originally shared last summer on JDaniel4's Mom Taking Time to Play Series.)

**Update**

My thumbs might be a little "green" after all...or I have plants that are too stubborn to die...

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