What does my garden grow?

I never said gardening with little ones wouldn't be challenging. I'm just seeing more of the fruits of it right now!

We're two weeks into having a garden, and we're starting to see a few results: the teeniest of spring lettuces, the shoots of the onion sets, the pencil-thin leeks (or at least I hope they're leeks and not random blades of grass), the beginnings of chives (again, hoping not grass).

Which leads to Lesson 1: Mark your territory. Even though I thought I knew where things are planted, it's challenging to guess. The carrots may not even start for another two weeks, for example. And I'm not 100 percent sure right now what's growing that was supposed to be there. In other words, I should have put in my yogurt-container-turned-veggie labels as I worked.

My beans are of an iffy state. About 1/3 of what we originally planted are doing well. The beans we planted a week later in the other bed are going crazy. Lesson 2: Space your planting. I never really understood until then why they say that!

These two lessons came in handy this weekend, when we got a surprise package in the mail. Our shallots, onions and garlic ordered a few months back from Pinetree Garden. A great problem to have, except my idea of what would be shipped (if it ever arrived) and what they delivered had a slight discrepency. And they would have to fit in about a 2-foot by 4-foot area. Right... (Thankfully they can be used to plant this fall as well.)

In comes my helper, who's thrilled about planting shallots, which by then I'd accidentally spilled into my extremely wet peat pellet tray. She eagerly grabbed a handful and went to work peeling off the thin outer layer "because the birds like to eat them," she reasoned. And just as quickly, they were planted (in likely large, clustered batches) in random areas that make sense to only a 3 year old.

So in the coming weeks, I shouldn't be surprised if random things are popping up everywhere. This summer, in our garden, we'll just stick to Lesson 3: Just go with the flow.