Herr Cappel's Garten Help

Darin, the boys, and Gunter

We have the cutest little neighbor, Gunter Cappel, he doesn't speak any English, he is always smiling, and cheerful.   He always watches out for us and helps us.   (This is the neighbor that Darin had to race in the winter to get to the walks first, because he'd shovel our walks if we weren't fast enough.)

We were trying to get a garden area ready.  Gunter has a beautiful yard and garden!  He came over to help Darin and show him how to do it correctly.  When Darin understood just how to turn the ground over, he let him try.  After two shovel scoops of dirt, Gunter couldn't stand it and took the shovel back.  It was hard work, but he made Darin watch as he made it perfect for us. (I sat in the house, looked out the window, and laughed.)  He made Jag put the worms he was playing with back into the dirt because they are good.  He told us when to plant and then took plants out of his own yard and planted in our garden area.  He tells us when to cover our plants so they don't freeze.  He helped the little boys plant flowers in our front yard making sure that they didn't give them too much water and pushed down hard enough on the dirt.  We managed to plant only 6 of our 60 plants without him knowing and helping out.  If he sees us, he comes to help.  Sometimes we try to be sneaky because we don't want him to feel like he has to come over.

He came in the backyard to explain what needed to be covered for tonights expected frost.  This is only after he brought over the newspaper to show me the expected temps.  When he saw the weeds in the garden, oh the look on his face.  He said they needed to be removed.  I said, "Ja,  Mein Sonn."  I was hoping that he would be a little more understanding of the weeds if he thought that the kids were supposed to weed.  Guess what we are going to be working on this weekend.  The pressure to not disappoint Herr Cappel is great at our house.

We are so lucky to live next to such great neighbors.  I am so glad that he doesn't mind living next to a herd of Americans. 

I hope our plants live.  Maybe next year we'll skip the garden.