Yay for playing with dirt! Directing them to places where it is Ok to excavate (and to dump soil and sand) seemed/seems to work well with ours, and thinking of that as devoting some garden space to growing their joy in gardening helped me get over the large land-take. And despite explaining which are the important and delicate plants, some precious things being destroyed by youthful exuberance goes with the territory.

**FIXME and **TODO have a fave game at the moment called "potions", which is filling the paddling pool with water, mud and weeds, stirring and laughing. Appropriate-sized long-handled tools help, as well as hand tools. **FIXME is doing actual useful weeding as a part of the process (he's done more than I have this year) which is great. But them enjoying it is even better.