The Sandwich Generation Granny Nanny and Senior Mom Started Gardening with the 2011 Sunflower House and Mini-Butterfly Garden

This is the year of WEIRD weather! Seriously! It's in the NEWS! We also just got more proof of it this past week with the devastating Missouri tornado and I'm definitely praying for all affected by that. It's also in the news for boomers and seniors right here at SandwichINK! For weeks my senior mom and I have had to get our "gardening fix" by enjoying the flowers in our neighbors' yards…

and by enjoying the lush greenery previous tenants have planted in our own yard's landscaping designs.

My grandkids and my senior mom enjoyed some fun and physical senior citizen and grandkid gardening activities earlier – preparing for the Sunflower House 2011 by planting different sunflower seed varieties into several of my senior mom's pots. She also started some of the plants she decided on as she planned out how to create a butterfly garden. They've all stayed mostly in the garage with occasional "outings" in between storms.

But FINALLY, after a LATE frost last week, things seemed to have settled down (or we just got desperate for spring ). Because of health issues, my mom decided to create a mini-butterfly garden this year - to make it easier for her to take care of the different flowers. I planted a lovely Butterfly bush at one end of last year's Sunflower House garden area, added a Mr Lincoln red rose bush at the other end. Then I planted all the sunflower plants my grandkids and mom had started earlier, along with some extra seeds – just in case. It looks so nice in the yard. I even added firewood logs to outline it – and protect it from lawn mowers.

I had prepared the area with organic compost last month and, as you can see by this HUGE worm, it's working well. I'm happy to report the good news that he's not the only worm working hard and digging away for us boomers and seniors gardeners and we're most appreciative.

Doesn't it look nice? And we had such lovely weather – for about two days. Then, back to a nasty storm yesterday, an even nastier one last night, and more to come. Hopefully, though, our garden will survive. And if not, we'll just start again. 

But at least we've got it going. YAY! And just in time to share the fun photos from my easy to use digital camera with y'all from Sweet Shot Tuesday, who has another awesome contest to help us learn to take even better photos. Not only that, but it's Rednesday - isn't my grandson's shirt a lovely shade of red?  And if you'd like to see some of the wind we got today, do pop on over to SandwichINK Real Estate Info for the video I shot of the wild and crazy weather and its impact on the brand new Sunflower House and Butterfly Garden.    

P.S. If you'd like more information on how to grow big and little sunflowers, just click here. And for more fun ideas for Sunflower Houses, you might enjoy Sunflower Houses by Sharon Lovejoy who wrote another favorite of mine, Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars: Grandma's Bag of Tricks. We also enjoy the Sunflower House book for young readers by Eve Bunting. It's great for reading activities for grandparents and their grandchildren. 

• Pin It
• Share
• Tweet

Kaye

Tagged as: butterfly garden plant seed mixture, create a butterfly garden, easy to use digital camera, fun and physical senior citizen activities for grandparents and their grandkids, how to grow big sunflowers, How to grow big sunflowers and the Sunflower House book, Rednesday, Sweet Shot Tuesday, the sandwich generation granny nanny dealing with the multigenerational issues of caring for the elderly parents and babysitting grandchildren, weather news for boomers and seniors