Victory at Vegetable Village

In my experience, it takes a village to accomplish nearly anything with young children under foot. Somehow, the village came together over the last few weeks and our family victory garden is officially planted.

Of course, the girls themselves were enthusiastic contributors. Elliot fell in love with the process, though she shows a certain lack of understanding. She now plugs any seed-shaped objects she can find into the nearest soil-like substance. (Mind your earrings near the sandbox, please!)


Maya has been a wonderful apprentice, carefully following my lead and planting more than half of our treasures. She is particularly fond of the snapdragons the she selected, planted, and watered all on her own.


Maya also spearheaded a planting expedition with the new neighbor kids. Nothing says "Welcome to the neighborhood" quite like sharing a few rows of edamame!

With four of the last five weekends booked at the ever-exclusive Chateu de Aadland, our guests have offered their own contributions ranging from helpful advice, to cuttings, and even a set of uniquely engineered tomato cages that will soon support next winter's marinara supply.

It doesn't look like much yet, but Vegetable Villiage is taking shape. Current residents include various peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, green and purple pole beans, red and yellow corn, yellow squash, zucchini, patty pan squash, cabbage, pak choy, kalarabi, swiss chard, carrots, beets, raddishes, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, watermelon, asparagas, sweet peas, edamame, basil, thai basil, parsley, cliantro, rosemary, and other various herbs that I'm blanking on at the moment.


Now we just have to sit back and watch it grow. Well, that, and defend the tender seedlings from ferocious weeds. Good thing we have a village.... and a lot of mulch!