Terrorists in the Garden

I had to banish two of them.   Then I had to banish two more.  One insisted that he'd done nothing wrong but I was there at the time and my eyes don't deceive me.  

At one point I had to raise my voice.  The Cuters will attest to the fact that this is a monumental occurrence, one not taken lightly by those on the receiving end.  I've never done that at Prince.  Not until today.

GARDENERS!  PAY ATTENTION! 

A hush fell over my space as I pointed out the yellow part of the garden bed, the part covered with mulch, the part where those very miscreants planted seeds in toilet paper tubes just last week.  I mentioned that it looked very different from the rest of the black, un-mulched part of the garden bed.  We all agreed that we DO NOT dig in the yellow part and we DO DIG in the black part.  

It should be noted that this is not new information.  But they are little and they need reminding.

Approximately 11 seconds later the terrorists were at it again - flinging soil at one another and standing on the yellow mulched seeds to dig more conveniently.

The whistle blew.  They dropped what they were doing and raced to line up.  I held my head in my hands.

I appointed a take charge 1st grade Garden Leader to monitor the situation when first and third came out together. After setting up a watering plan for the Mandarin Orange tree,  I turned to be sure she was okay.  Neither she nor the garden were okay.

There was tromping and stomping and flinging and she sat on the storage bench, her chin on her fists.  I calmed things down with a few well placed words and frowns, and turned to my little helper.  It was hard, wasn't it?  She nodded slowly.  They were monsters.

The next whistle brought the competent, diligent, eager, fourth grade girls, and we set to work planting the starts I got for free from the Tucson Village Farm a few weeks ago.  Cauliflower and broccoli and Asian greens joined the 2 tomato plants and the 3 mustard greens in the veggie bed.  We left holes for the olla balls.  They watered gently with the hose nozzle on shower.  

There was a kerfuffle outside the garden wall which was startling and a little bit scary.  A giant group hug was called for.  It lasted for a nice, long time.

I will go back tomorrow, hopeful that things will have simmered down.