Turning over a new weed...

We have officially moved into spring in Seattle.  With all the beautiful flowers come some weeds and in my garden there is more of them, or should I say was more.  Taking advantage of a beautiful day, the boys and I got to work.  Most of the time when I try to think of what we are going to do during the day I try to avoid the obvious - cleaning, tidying, working. But teaching our kids the value of work and to actually enjoy it should be a bigger priority. I'm going to try and post more ideas related to work in the future and would love any ideas you have.

As for this afternoon we got a lot accomplished.  Cleared out a lot of weeds and fallen debris (leaves, pine needles, etc) out the the flower beds, did some pruning, and found lots of bugs including making a new friend in this giant snail.  At age 6 my boys are old enough to use most real gardening tools, but sometimes the big tools just aren't as easy to handle for little hands. (especially near delicate new flowers and plant shoots I'd like to keep around).  

I like sand toys for digging our dandelions (especially in soft spring soil) and the best weeding tool is an old fork.  They get right under the weed (check out the gigantic root below)  They can be use to gather (rake), loosen the soil around a week and dig.

I was reminded of a quote my Mom used to say, "Work will work when wishy-washy wishing won't'."  It's true, left to their own devices those weeds would go crazy.  So hopefully pulling out these weeds has inspired some new work ethic in me (don't get your hopes too high sweetie)  It did remind me work is not only useful but in E's words, "I love yardwork Mom.  It is so fun to get these weeds."