Dirt!

So, many friends who have seen our garden have asked where we got our dirt. I have to admit that dirt is one of the harder things to obtain here in Florida. We naturally have very sandy soil which doesn't grow vegetables and some other fruits well. Pineapples, yes. Orange trees, yes. Aloe plants, yes. I could go on, but gardens here in Florida take some TLC in order to accumulate good, healthy soil. Remember this if you don't remember anything else you read today, your vegetables are only as good as your soil. If you put zero time into your soil in terms of getting it ready for your garden (especially if you have terrible soil, like Floridians), you will not produce good, if any, crops for eating.

Sooooo, we got some dirt delivered yesterday. I've actually been raking and shoveling dirt from various areas of our yard to fill our raised beds, but it just wasn't cutting it. I was able to pretty much fill all 4 of our smaller beds, but our gigantic one on the end that stands 2 feet tall, 4 feet wide and 16 feet long...well, there just wasn't a way to fill that one. Hence, we ordered some good top soil from a local dirt company. I'm going to be using my at home soil testing kit this week to see what I need to add to it in terms of nutrients, but I have high hopes as there's already some good compost that's been added. The dirt smells good and looks so nice and rich.

The kids have had fun playing in it (as well as helping) while I've been shoveling it, moving it into our garden beds. Avonlea has been helping by using her red wagon and Lincoln has also helped using his dump truck to move dirt. It's been a lot of work, but worth it knowing that I'll have a place to transplant our pumpkin and watermelon seeds soon. They're just about ready to go in.

Other than that, we've just been enjoying summer here. We don't enlist our kiddos in camp after camp. We don't 'do' any type of lessons, although we may give some swim lessons a try this summer. We simply enjoy working in the yard, catching bugs, playing 'chicken tag', swimming in our little pool, climbing, playing, painting, blowing bubbles and catching frogs. It's the simplicity of it all and it's in those special moments when children learn and grow.

Here is a fun video I took this morning of the kids collecting frogs and giving them a 'home'. We love having frogs around because they help keep our bugs under control in our garden. Norah especially took a liking to our hopping creatures. ;)

Here's to enjoying the little things this summer!