Today was our second garden workday and our second attempt at tilling our plot. There was a problem with the tiller so the garden coordinator rented one to use for the day.

Cheyenne is a natural born gardener. She is really getting to a new, much more independent stage and she is eager to help in whatever way she can, sometimes too eager. Today she decided to be her Daddy’s assistant. She and Zach immediately grabbed shovels, headed to the woodpile and started shoveling woodchips into the wheelbarrows of the other gardeners to help make new paths. When she had enough of that she borrowed a child-sized wheelbarrow from an older child and started hauling woodchips to the paths. The very patient older boy assisted her in her efforts. She’s eager to learn and eager to help. I love it.

Isabella was not as excited. It was a very windy day and she was a little overtired. I decided that she could be my buddy for the day. While we waited for the tiller I put on her little gardening gloves, gave her a trowel and put her to work helping me fight the Creeping Charlie at the edge of our plot. Once she realized that I was going to let her play in the dirt and pick the purple flowers she cheered up a bit.

Bella and I chatted with our plot neighbor, a very nice woman named Elaine and her baby Elizabeth. Elaine helped me identify some plants in my garden that were useful. There was the patch of chives I recognized, but also quite a bit of dill, a patch of lemon balm and some sort of flower she described as looking like Einstein’s hair if it were dyed. I’m curious to see what that looks like.

Bella, Cheyenne and I ended up having brunch at the cafe next door to our garden while Zach did the tilling. I thought Cheyenne’s helpfulness might be slightly dangerous around the tiller and the girls were ready to eat. The cafe is a funky little locally owned place that Zach and I have been to before. I saved half my food to take to Zach for his lunch. Unfortunately Bella decided she wanted to grow Daddy some more biscuits and gravy, so she tried to plant them in our freshly tilled plot. She was kind of sad when she learned that not everything grows when you plant it in the ground.

We were about to leave when Zach began chatting with an older guy who apparently had just had a stroke. As he was not fully mobile yet, Zach offered to till his plot. As a thank you Lisa the garden coordinator gave us a really nice, sturdy tomato cage.

Our garden is now tilled and ready to plant. We’ll probably do that Monday as we are expecting severe thunderstorms tomorrow. Zach and Bella are planning to take a break from the garden that day, so Cheyenne and I will have some mom and daughter bonding time.