The Garden of Avery

A few weekends ago, Avery and I went to the store to buy seed packets for our summer garden. At our local Walmart, they have an entire aisle of just seed packets. Visually, it's really neat to walk down the aisle. This is something new that Walmart is starting to do in their stores. To explain, instead of putting one brand of seeds all together (like all the Burpee seeds together, all the Walmart brand seeds together, etc.), they put all 3 brands of carrot seeds together (Walmart brand, Burpee brand, and the Organic Gardener brand), then all 3 brands of peas together, etc. I actually did a market research study group for Walmart last summer, and this was something they asked the people in my group about. Walmart wanted to start displaying items in their stores in such a way that it would be easier for the customer to compare price, package size, nutritional information, etc. for various items (no doubt a blatant attempt to get people to buy Walmart's store brand items...). So, instead of putting all of the Lay's potato chips together on the aisle, they want to start putting all of the barbecue flavored chips of every name brand product and store brand product together. Instead of putting all of the Coca Cola products together, they would put all the different brands of Orange flavored soda together, then all the brands of Lemon Lime soda together, etc. Regardless of what Walmart's motives might be, I thought it was a really neat and new concept. Seems like others may have thought the same thing, because I've started seeing more and more displays in my Walmart being set up in this new way. Look for it in your local Walmart! And every time you see items being displayed in this new way, think to yourself, "Patty played a part in this!" :-)


Anyway, back to the original story. Avery had a blast looking at all of the seed packets, and we decided it was time for her to start her own garden. Interestingly enough, she picked herbs! I was a little worried about us getting one more freeze this year, but so far the weather has stayed warm (yesterday it was 84 degrees here). And her herbs are growing strong! She planted sweet basil, cilantro and mint. I tried talking her out of the mint because really, how often will we actually use it? But, it is her garden and she wanted mint! So, mint is what she got... She wanted to plant her herb garden next to mine in the front yard, and when I suggested we make a sign saying "Avery's Herb Garden" she told me that she didn't need a sign... she knew it was her garden! :-)

The Garden of Avery

Avery also helped me start some of our seedlings that will go into our family garden. We started our cabbage and carrot seeds last weekend. The carrot seeds aren't doing too good, but the cabbage seeds are doing great. This is how they look after 3 days in the seed starter kit:

This weekend, we can transfer the carrots and cabbage to the outside garden. We can also plant onions and potatoes. I'm very excited to try growing potatoes. I've never been able to find potato spuds in the stores, but I did find them through a gardening magazine that my mom sent to me. I also found 2 types of tomato plant seeds that I've never seen in stores. I ordered seeds for tomatillo tomatoes and yellow pear-shaped cherry tomatoes. Who knew I would ever get so excited over seeds? I've also decided to keep a garden journal this year. I'm keeping a log of everything I purchase for the garden. When my garden starts producing a crop, I want to log just how much it produces, and then compare what I spent to what I get out of it... Should be interesting!

Samuel has his Pinewood Derby this weekend for Cub Scouts. The car he made is really cute! Oh, I mean it's really cool, not cute! Sorry... I'm a little worried because the car is a bit top heavy, but Samuel doesn't seem all that interested in whether or not his car will actually win the race. He seems much more interested in how cool it looks. :-) Once the car is finished, I'll make sure to post some pictures, as well as pictures from the event this Saturday.