Green Thumbs, Dirty Hands (by Thom)

Last week Amanda took the girls to the Dakar Academy library to get some new books to read. They came home a book called "Growing Vegetable Soup". This book became an instant hit with Miri and Hannah so we decided to take the concept to the next level: actually growing some vegetables. Together with our friends who live in our building and some other friends we bought some seeds and started some planters on our roof. We planted a rather strange collection of veggies: turnips, radishes, and cherry tomatoes. We also have some okra seeds but we didn't have a planter big enough for that. I know that sounds like a weird assortment to grow but those are some things we haven't been able to buy locally (and I like turnips). Miri and Hannah were very excited to start this. We've pointed out that we needed "dirt, water, and sun" to grow the seeds and every time Hannah looks out the window now she says, "Look, Daddy! Sun to make the seeds grow big!"

This has been a fun project so far, and it's great to see the girls' enthusiasm! We planted the tomatoes and radishes in the beds and the turnips in the flower pots (below). Each girl got her own pot.

We planted them Friday and this morning (Monday) Miriam had two turnip sprouts!