By now, Alvin and I have figured out the rhythm. After supper, I said, “Alvin, after piano, let’s go outside.” He did his practice, we had a good session after a rocky start, and then we headed out to the garden. We don’t have a lot of time to work with, so we’ve learned to do this in pieces and parts every single day. It’s actually working.

The timing was perfect too—it had rained the day before, so everything was still moist. No watering needed, which saved us 10-15 minutes. We knew exactly what we were doing.

The Second Potato Pot

We grabbed another big pot and went hunting for sticks and rocks for drainage. Layered it all in: sticks first, then rocks on top for good drainage. Added some soil and compost, mixed it together, grabbed a couple of little potatoes, and Avian planted them and covered them right up. Four or five minutes, tops.

That little guy loves dirt. I mean, loves it. His hands got so black I’ve never seen anything like it. I had to give him a look—“Alvin, you’re going to have to watch those afterwards, because if Mom catches us, we’re both getting in trouble.” He knew exactly what I meant, but we weren’t done yet.

The Lettuce Box Surprise

I figured, well, let’s get a lot done today. We came out to do a potato, but then I looked at the flower box hanging space and thought, “You know what? Let’s do another box full.” So that’s what we did.

I grabbed a flower box—you know, the kind you fill with flowers and hang on a railing—and Avian and I filled it with dirt and leveled everything out. By that point, both our hands were absolutely soaked and filthy with soil.

Then came the seeds. Lettuce seeds. Tiny. Tiny. The kind that would blow away if you sneezed. I was going to have Avian do it, but honestly, I could barely manage it myself. And the problem is, when your hands are wet and covered in dirt—dripping wet, full of soil—you pick up way more than you intend.

So here’s what I did: I poked holes in the soil to give each seed space to breathe. Then I dipped my wet, dirty finger into the pile of seeds, grabbed two, three, or four at a time, touched the bottom of each hole, and the seeds transferred in. Usually ended up with two to four seeds per hole. Once all the holes were full, I covered them up, and we were done.

The whole seed part? Maybe a minute or two. Pouring the dirt took longer than planting the seeds.

We cleaned everything up, put the rags away, stashed the pots where they needed to go, and that was it. Another day in the garden, another layer of dirt under the fingernails.