Of quack grass and garden magic

Here is what we've built in the garden. In the bottom corner of the nearest raised bed are Edward, Joe and Mimi, who are Noah's tomato plants. Fiona's bed, with the green sign, was constructed first, and is showing the more growth than anyone else's right now. Sophie, our radish expert, has bits of green showing in her bed, the farthest one. My bed is lower right, and is the one without all the compost, sand and peat in it, so is a bit of a throwaway. Ditto for the bean beds. Due to Abominable Dog mayhem our gardening got set back a bit this year. But still, we're proud. Why? Well, here's the photo of the other half (okay, three quarters) of the garden...

Now you can see that I wasn't exaggerating when I mentioned "overgrown with weeds." Go ahead, click on the photo. Even enlarged, I dare you to find a square centimetre free of quack grass. This is what we started with before we put our raised beds in. There, aren't you proud of us?

This year's garden is teeny tiny compared to anything we've planted in the past, but it feels really good. It has an energy it's never had before, thanks to my kids' magic touch. I started the GRUBS club a couple of years ago in an effort to give my kids experience gardening, since they didn't seem into it at home, and they've been agreeable enough about it, but never really caught the bug. But now, when I least expected it (isn't that always the way?) there is interest taking root at home. Today when the chicks escaped from the chicken corral, the kids' first worry was that they might have got into the garden!