This is the final week of the KinderGARDENS series being hosted by the Inadvertent Farmer.

I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in this series and meeting the most wonderful community of encouraging bloggers.

This was the first year my children and I have ever attempted to get outside and work on a garden together and it has been SUCH a wonderful experience.

And we aren’t finished yet!

Out here in good ‘ol Southern California, the days are still hot, dry, and warm. Things in the garden are still developing, and blooming, and there will be harvesting, baking, celebrating, and eating happening here in October and November, so please keep coming back to visit and see what we’ve been up to.

For the sake of the end of the KinderGARDENS series for this year however, let’s take a look back at how far we’ve come.

I have a deep, dark, past.

I have murdered many plants in my lifetime. The one featured above, believe it or not, is a bougainvillea. Stunning isn’t it? Stunningly murdered!

I started out as a hindered, but hopeful gardener, living in suburbia, with a yard filled only with weeds, wild flowers, and many, many, dead shriveled plants which ceased to exist while under my care.

But I was bound and determined to get outside with my kids and grow something.

Something we could be proud of.

We sketched out a plan, found a spot in the backyard, amended the soil, put seeds in the ground, provided a sprinkler system, held our breath, and hoped.

And here is the result!

Ta-dah!

Ta-dah!

Ta-dah!

Can you tell we’re a little excited… maybe even a tad bit proud?

We are.

We’ve never done this before. We are not gardeners… we’re city folk. But now… we might just start considering ourselves to be both!

Here is the sad patch of land we began with in June.

Here is that sad patch of land weeded, amended, and freshly planted with seeds for pumpkins, sunflowers, peas, and watermelons.

These were our seedlings in week 2.

These were our pumpkin plants starting to take over, in week six.

And now, here we are at week eleven, and just look at what we’ve grown…

I can’t wait to put this pumpkin in a pie… or bread… or a muffin.

Doesn’t it just look picture perfect?

I love it.

Here are a couple more that haven’t turned orange yet. So far I’ve spotted a total of seven pumpkins in our garden.

Two of them are growing on vines that have wiggled through our fence out by the drainage ditch… The very special, romantic, drainage ditch.

But who knows… we could still have more pumpkins by the end of fall. The birds and the bees which we’ve learned so much about, are still busy at work out there, doing their thing.

This photo is the only evidence I can provide, that we were ever trying to grow peas. Once the pumpkin plants sprouted up and turned into giants overnight, the peas didn’t even have a fighting chance anymore to receive sun or water. They were there until week five, and then they were gone.

If I do this setup for the garden again next year, I’ll definitely try planting the peas and sunflowers a month before the pumpkins. That should give them a good enough head-start at gaining height and strength, before the pumpkins take over.

I planted over twenty sunflower seeds and there are six sunflowers that look like they will make it into full development. Some of the seeds just never sprouted, some of the smaller sunflowers couldn’t make it past the giant pumpkin plants, and a few of the sunflowers were… stolen.

We’ve discovered and enjoyed all kinds of critters this summer, but there were a few critters in particular, which we have NOT enjoyed.

We will also unfortunately NOT be enjoying any watermelons from our garden this fall. We discovered two small watermelons developing, but both have since been stolen along with four sunflower stalks.

Please notice the gaping hole with the chewed watermelon vine. This was mischief done, over one night, and over the next night, the theft occurred.

We knew we had a gopher problem and we hoped this little mechanism chirping in the ground might keep them away, but clearly… it didn’t.

The gophers have very obviously discovered this garden and are not shy about attacking it. On a positive note however, they appear… so far… uninterested in our pumpkins.

They’ve popped up all around them, but haven’t attacked any of them. I’m hoping they wont! Oh please, oh please… tell me they wont!

And, though the gophers did steal some sunflowers, that was a few weeks ago when they were small and hadn’t bloomed yet. I’m hoping they will leave these bigger, sturdier ones, alone.

Now it’s the birds we’ll have to worry about, wanting to come and steal the seeds.

We have a plan though.

This is clearly not going to be your friendly, country home decor, store bought, scarecrow. We mean business!

We grew these sunflowers, and we intend to harvest their seeds, dry em, roast em, salt em, and consume them at some kind of sporting event.

We’ve had a fantastic time being out in the yard together, discovering, and learning more about this world and the beautiful mysteries and creative thoughtful designs God has placed in it.

I’m already busy thinking about what we can plant next year.

Thank you again so much to the Inadvertent Farmer for hosting this awesome series, and to all of the other KinderGARDENS participants who have left the most helpful and encouraging comments. All of you have inspired me to continue to step outside with my kids, play around in the garden, plant seeds, grow something, learn together, and let ‘em get dirty.

Make sure to head on over to the final KinderGARDENS link up post, and see how everyone’s children’s gardens have turned out! And… consider joining the Inadvertent Farmer and the rest of us next spring, with a KinderGARDEN of your own!

If this hindered but hopeful, city girl gardener can grow something out in a gopher infested, Southern California, suburban housing tract backyard… so can you! Join us! Your kids will thank you!

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