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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Gardening: Weeding Assignments - Divide and Conquer

My Dad was a farmer and as a kids we always had the largest garden in the neighborhood. This basically meant that we slaved away doing yard/garden work exponentially more than any of our friends – or so it seemed. I remember cursing weeding and working in the yard, swearing that I'd never do it as an adult. Luckily this declaration, as most others made in childhood, proved erroneous. Now I love gardening and find it very therapeutic, although I'm far from a masterful green-thumb.  So, following the natural cycle of things, I perpetuate the same wonderful (or torturous) work opportunities for my kids. When it comes to gardening, that means Weeding Assignments. Man, those two words were possibly the most dreaded of my childhood. Each child was assigned a section of the yard and garden to weed.  So here's a quick glance at what I inflict on my kids each year.

Weeding Assignment Responsibilities:
Spring:
  • Help with any planting in your assigned area
  • Understand which are plants in your area and which are weeds. (Knowing plant names would be great, but I'm not that unrealistic)
Summer: 
  • Area must be weeded and checked by a parent every 2 weeks (1 week when I was a kid, so yeah, I'm a softy).
  • Area must be dead-headed every 1-2 weeks.
Fall: 
  • Clear out annuals and cut back perennials.
Yes, this means a bit of grief when it comes to enforcing, but that is the whole point of parenthood. Of course it would be easier to do it yourself, but then the next generation would be botanically clueless, and you don't want your grandchildren raised in that kind of yard do you? *grins*

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