A Slice of Smith Life: Garden Challenge

Art Showcase-LEGO Gardens and Update on Garden

This week my children made the following LEGO creations:

"This is a garden with a yellow entrance and a green gate around the entrance. There is a red path that divides the garden into 3 sections. The far left section has swamp plants, the right section has bushes and flowers and the other section has just flowers on the ground.” made by my 11 year old cupcake

“This is a garden with a building, 2 bird feeders on the far left, a cactus sitting on a blue brick, a flower pot beside the cactus, and a security camera on top of the building to look out for invaders because there is hidden gold in the garden building. There is also a white sprinkler that is watering the garden right now.” made by my 9 year old cupcake

"This is a lady’s garden with a white arched entrance. To the right of the entrance is a water bottle holder. In the garden there are flowers and rainbow bricks around it. The lady is walking on a black brick sidewalk and she has a pocketbook in her hand.” made by my 6 year old cupcake

I'm linking up the Garden LEGO creations to...
Kimberly's Art Showcase Fridays

My Blessings from Above: Lego Creation Thursday

I've also submitted all three Garden LEGO creations to LEGO Quest: Quest #41, which is to make a garden out of LEGO.

Speaking of gardens, it is time to do an update post on the garden my children are keeping with my in-laws that I first posted about HERE.
To join in the HSV Garden Challenge go HERE to link up and read posts of other gardens.

Here are the vegetables growing really well and my father-in-law added an electric fence to keep out hungry deer:

My children helped pull up onions and radishes:

They pulled so many that I gave some away to friends and neighbors and used the rest in our salads.
We look forward to seeing how the garden continues to grow!

Please join Lynda, Anna-Marie, and myself at No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). Click button for details and to read some great blog posts that have already linked up!

Garden Challenge Link Up

I think I'm a tad bit late for this Garden Challenge Link Up because I did not link up last month, but better late than never right? Find out more about the Garden Challenge at the Homeschool Village. They will be hosting a monthly link-up where everyone can share what they are doing, planning and progress on their gardens and/or containers.

I have to admit that I do not have a green thumb and half the time I forget to water things so you could say I am "garden challenged":) Unlike my neighbor who knows ALL the names of plants and flowers in LATIN, I can't even remember the names of what I planted in English!

But, I must say since my 2 oldest cupcakes are currently taking a homeschool Junior Master Gardener class for 2 hours a week at a local arboretum, I have been more interested in overcoming my challenges because of their enthusiasm and interest.

So in our backyard we replanted our flower garden during our spring break from homeschooling last week. The original flower garden looked like this. The big butterfly bush in the center of our small flower garden should bloom soon during the summer. (My neighbor told me this AND the Latin name for it)

Here's an up close picture of the Camelot Rose Foxglove ("Digitalis purpurea 'Camelot rose') that my daughter picked out to plant that is on the far left of the above photo.

We planted these Feather flowers in containers by our front porch steps. My cupcakes call them Easter egg flowers since they reminded them of the shape of eggs.

We bought some hanging baskets to hang on some stands around our yard.

I also went to the Dollar Tree and picked up some cute garden decorations.

My in-laws started a vegetable garden and my cupcakes and I helped plant their garden a few weeks ago.

Here are my cupcakes with my father-in-law as he dug the holes for the tomato plants.

Here's my oldest daughter planting collards.

Row of radishes and cucumbers

I am on the right helping 2 of my daughters plant. What fun!

Here is my son and youngest daughter planting more collards.

We planted peppers, radishes, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, collards, and blueberries and next month I hope to give you an update on my in-laws garden with the Garden Challenge Link Up in May!

Then after we helped plant the vegetable garden, we headed across the street to my in-laws neighbor. He has lots of land and some furry and feathered friends on his property.

I've never seen or touched a baby donkey before, but this little fellow came right up to the fence for us to pet.

He was staring right at my youngest daughter! So cute!

Here I am with my 4 cupcakes petting our furry friend.

After we saw the baby donkey we checked out the chicken coop and each of my children were able to hold a chicken.

Our family would love to raise our own chickens since their eggs are so delicious. Does anyone have any resources to share on how to get started with raising chickens?

Please join Lynda, Anna-Marie, and myself at No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). Click button below for details and to read some great blog posts that have already linked up!