I love the spring. It's the time of year that I finally leave the house after cowering from the cold of winter. The snow has given way to green grass, the trees bud and flowers grow wildly. It’s when I make my way into my vegetable garden with children in tow.
Together we dig and rake and collect. A little compost here, a little straw there. Stones go in the big yellow bucket and weeds go in the wheelbarrow. And as I loosen the soil, all three of them follow behind me, walking or jumping, even rolling in the dirt that will soon be as compacted as it was before I began.
As I rake the beds flat, my son Milo makes it a point to demonstrate to his little sister Willa how not to walk through the garden beds, a lesson equally lost on both of them.
Soon my oldest daughter Neva is tirelessly digging for worms leaving holes everywhere. She collects them into a pail -- all 134 of them -- telling me about each one she finds. "Found another one!"
In another day or so, I'll be back out with my entourage planting seeds. Then I’ll just have to wait to see what grows where after my pint-sized crew finish rearranging things.
Happy Sweeping,
Bob Gunther
Webmaster, ContestHound.com
