We planted us some strawberries!

Today was the day. I've been promising Little girl that we could do this since she saw it on some random show she was watching.

I told her when Spring came that we could do it.

Well, it's spring..............and by golly, she wants to do it!

So we headed out to the nursery today and walked right into that wonderful place and asked for.....

some STRAWBERRY PLANTS!

I was fully prepared that these plants we were going to purchase would not have any kind of fruit bearing status until maybe next year and I would just have to throw some store-bought strawberries into the dirt so she could feel a sense of accomplishment (Don't be amazed, as I know you are at this very moment at my gifted nurturing of self-esteem. Any good mother worth her peanuts would do the same. :-))

Any-who (as my Grandma used to say)

I didn't have to fake out my child. There were already strawberry buds on these bright green plants and apparently they are supposed to be fully ripe with a ton of strawberries for about 3 weeks this June! How cool is that?

We will be alone in our grey-carpeted new apartment in Indiana (apparently the classy people got the new and improved tan carpet in our apartment complex, but no one here is bitter), and we will have a great thing of joy to behold any day we want to head outside and pluck a sweet treat off of it's green branches.

I am so excited. I have never had a strawberry plant and I am so excited to see it grow and produce it's fruit. I am also super excited to see Little girl's reaction to watching something grow in a pile of dirt with just a little water and sunlight added to it. I hope she will experience a lot of wonder and anticipation that even I as an adult experience when I plant something and then watch it grow.

Here's a funny thing. As much as I love gardening, I realized I didn't put that in my 50 things about me post I did last month. You, my friends, were missing out on a critical piece of insight into who I am. I apologize for your loss. I will try to keep you more acquainted with my personality while you are reading my posts from now on. :-)

Any-who Again.

I really do love gardening, but haven't ever had a REAL garden of my very own before. I have done the container gardening thing, the herb garden in pots thing, the change your landscaping with some perennials and add some flowers around your mailbox thing, but never really a bona-fide, big rectangle in your backyard full of fruits, veggies, herbs and cutting flowers - gotta keep up with it on a daily basis kind of thing. Ya know what I mean? I can totally de-stress if I can plant and mulch and trim on some flowers. I really love it and I hope to pass on this love to my daughter and my future children.

We had a lot of fun planting today. Little girl's favorite part was scooping the soil into the strawberry jar. She could care less about the watering for some reason. Maybe it's because she helps me water plants all the time, but tossing some dirty soil around - now that's a new and fun treat! I spaced out and let that child wear her fairly new white tennis shoes out there though and I definitely will be regretting that. Brilliant.

Here are some fun pics of our adventure today!