ode to the peach blossoms

During our time at the peach blossom festival, Emma was fascinated with holding branches of her own. When she discovered she was not allowed to tear branches from the trees, she satisfied herself with collecting petals that had fallen to the ground. You can imagine her delight when, on the way out, she stumbled upon a huge pile of discarded, pruned leaves...full of petals!

She waved her stick of blossoms all the muddy way back to the car, and as soon as we got home that evening, she announced that she wanted to have a peach tree.

Hmmmm. Deciding not to mention the fact that we have nowhere to put a peach tree, we asked her instead if she'd like to plant some flowers.

The next day, off to the flower market we went. Daddy was the official buyer, and he helped us locate all the necessities - pots, dirt, seeds, mini-rakes and trowels. We ended up with four types of seeds: wildflowers, camellias, violets and strawberries. We were hoping for more traditional spring flowers like tulips, dadffodils, and such like that, but they weren't anywhere to be found.

When we got home that afternoon, we spread out a big sheet on the floor and started potting. Let's just make this clear up front - neither josh or I have much history successfully growing things. Several years ago, we bought some parlor palms that died quite quickly. When replaced, their successors died. We have since decided to stick with children and not press our luck with other living organisms.

(Note: the lighting when I took these pictures wasn't great, and with all the dirt, water, and small objects flying around, I only had brief seconds for picture duty...so please excuse the ones that are hard to see...)

Step 1: Seeds
the girls were delighted with how small they were!Step 2 - Put soil in the pots. Armed with a shovel (emma) and a trowel (mantha) the girls scooped dirt til the pot was fullstep 3 - pat it in all nicely together, and make a few holes to put the seeds in.step 4 - put the seeds in, sprinkle a little dirt on the top, and (hopefully....after several days/weeks...) voila!
The funny thing about writing this post three weeks later is that I already know the outcome of the little saplings (is a plant a sapling, or only a baby tree?). But you will have to wait until I get those pics posted!

(note - sandra, I loved your post about your herb garden! mine is not nearly as organized or as well photographed as yours - yet another reason I can't be your friend anymore :) - soI hope yours turns out better than mine!!)