Planting Day, Too Much Tech For Kids

Butterfly Heaven

Planting Day-
With the 3 day weekend and finally some warm weather, we decided to plant the warm weather veggies. We actually had a frost warning 3 days ago! Really? It's almost June!!! Anyway, we went shopping yesterday. My kids gave me a Home Depot gift card for garden supplies and plants for Mom's Day. You can tell you're an urban homesteader by what your kids give you! I got some tomatoes and veggies there, and got the rest at a couple of other places. I bought 5 Red Russian kales for $2.50 at a little local garden center. He said he just wanted to get rid of them! Works for me!!! Nice color below-

We also bought a few shrubs to fill in some holes and for a spot in the front yard. We ripped out a really ugly, old viney shrub there and are planting a really pretty butterfly bush. They're great at attracting pollinators, good for when you're growing your own food! Since we already had 2 Black Knight varieties (dark blue/purple) we bought 1 Butterfly Heaven, smaller bluish flowers (on the top of this post). I bought a few other perennials to fill in where some died over our brutal cold spell this last winter. 0 degrees for 3 weeks wrecks havoc on fairly tough plants. I saw this cute flower box yesterday, made out of cedar boards, sheet rocks edges and rope-

These would be really EASY to build! And much cheaper :)

Tomatoes, peppers and more, oh my

Mugo Pine

Tick seed plant

Blue Flax, I love these! Hard to find sometimes

Purple Fountain grass

Cold frame ready for kale, the rest is rhubarb, collard greens, lettuce, radishes & Italian parsley

veggie area ready to plant! After photos soon....

Too Much Technology For Kids-
I read a post on Ohmrstucker.com on a new book called Goodnight iPad. It got me thinking. Here's my response:

As a school librarian I love the book It’s A Book by Lane Smith. The short version in on YouTube. I read the book to my 6th graders to remind them that there’s no electricity involved and that it actually has many more advantages. For kids there may be some future problems with using tech at a young age too- what will they do if they don’t have access to that later? Public schools can’t afford to buy kids iPads just because they want to use one in school. How many parents are going to trust a elementary kid to take theirs to school? Who will pay for it if it gets broken/stolen/damaged?

I can’t afford an iPad, and if I did, I wouldn’t buy one. I have 2 computers at home and 2 at work. It’s just too much.  I have lost count how many times I have almost been hit by cars whose drivers are texting. There’s also such a disparity between people who just assume all families can even AFFORD these. I work with 85 % high poverty kids. Only about 30% of them even have the internet at home. $500.00 for an iPad is groceries and rent for them. There’s a huge disconnect (excuse the pun) in tech where wealthier folks just assume everyone else has one. Or wants one, in my case. I love the convenience of tech, but it’s too much- $, maintenance, wear and tear, storage. I don’t have to worry about dropping a book, getting it a little wet (assuming I own it), highlighting it, tearing out a page, my software crashing (a friend lost his entire kindle off his iPad), re-charging, or worry about theft. I could go on. It just needs to be put into perspective sometimes. ***Remember- with no electricity, it’s just an expensive piece of plastic.

Ellie enjoying the sun