Tater's Sandbox Garden

Despite some evidence to the contrary my Tater is quite the aspiring gardener. He frequently requests trips to Lowe's to pick out flowers, and he begs and pleads for additions to the garden every time we see flowers outside of the grocery store.

He picked out a bunch of seeds earlier in the Spring and we planted them around outside and have our fingers crossed that they will survive beyond the sprout stage.

So, when I realized that we still had our ancient sand table under the deck, I thought perhaps it could be repurposed into Tater's own little garden. Like a windowbox, but bigger...with bridges!

Of course he LOVED this idea and pestered me relentlessly for several days about when would we go get the dirt and plants. When? When? WHEN???

So finally last weekend I gave in and took him to Lowe's where he picked out all of his own plants, and some decorations, for his garden.

I have been on a perennial kick for our outside beds - something about planting just once and not having to do it again next year is very appealing. Tater has latched onto that idea and was a little disappointed that the sandbox garden was probably more appropriate for annuals since the soil is not very deep and the chances of things surviving the winter in there are pretty slim.

There was a moment of drama when we took the lid off of the mud-encrusted table, which had been closed up for about 2 years. We weren't sure what was going to be living in there. I was prepared to scream and run away, but aside from a few substantial spider webs it wasn't so bad.

We used the hose to spray the table clean, and squirting the hose is always fun for a kid! Then we hauled the empty table up onto our deck and filled it with potting soil and all of Tater's plants. He did a nice job picking a mix of colors and textures - the finished result is quite fabulous and he is very proud of himself.

During the planting was where Sprout thought she might like to get involved, but she was shut out (poor Sprout) since Tater felt he had done all of the hard work and she couldn't just jump in for the fun. Which is true.

He picked out a rain gauge that looks like a ladybug to sit on the "umbrella hole" on the table, and a ceramic mushroom (the blue on the left). We also put the bridges from the sand table back in and an iron bird that had been sitting on the deck. Somehow a garden just doesn't seem done (to me anyway) unless there is some little hidden statue somewhere.

I don't know where I got that from - my parents are not big on the statuary. But I kind of love it - as long as it is subtle. Like little surprises you find amidst the flowers.

Anyway, the finished garden is a lovely addition to the deck. I am considering this to be a recycling project since the table was definitely headed for the trash before we found a new use for it. So, yay us!

Now I have to go get MORE potting soil because my little gardener also insisted on seeds for cucumbers...and might like to grow some carrots. And maybe a few more flowers out front...