Walking Therein

From the Archives- Gardening 101 - You *Can* Teach Your Children!!

    It's March!! Can you believe it?? The first 'official' Day of Spring is almost here! Now is the perfect time to start a little garden with your children! If you haven't already, consider doing some type of garden. You can do a little one outside, a huge one outside or even a little container-type one inside. 

1. Planning Your Garden
    Make a list of the different plants you would like to plant according to the different vegetables you enjoy and how much you want to harvest. Your children - especially the Littles will probably love brainstorming on this one!
    This is a great opportunity to spend some time outside! Look at your land and see where would be a good location to plant where there is adequate sunlight and access to water. Talk to your chidlren and let them give ideas why this is a good location or if there may be another spot.

2. Order/Purchase Your Seeds
    With list in hand, call and order your seeds or go pick some up at your local store.  This is something an older child can do and practice communication skills.
    There are many places you can call and order seeds from. Most seed companies have websites you can check out. We ordered ours this year from Seeds of Change. Read about what we have done and get some links to heirloom and organic seed companies at Seeking Rest on the Homestead. You can also read about the benefits of receiving the Organic Gardening online newsletter.

Some I have found are:
Unlikely Homesteader
I Am Definitely Not A Farmer
    Of course, you can visit *our* Homestead blog, too:
Seeking Rest on the Homestead

3. Plotting PlantTimes
    Different seeds need to be started indoors andothers direct-seeded into your garden outside. Call your local extansion office and find out your last frost date and work backwards from there. Use a calendar to write down and keep track of when to plant certain seeds.

4. Time to plant seedlings
    Children of all ages love to work in the dirt and plant seeds. Of course, my Littles loved filling our seed trays with dirt. I just put down some newspaper, put the potting soil in the middle of the table and gave them each access to a tray and a spoon. I had 5 children, 22m, 3 1/2, 7, 9 and 13 filling trays, having fun!
    Have a reading child read how many seeds and such to put and how to plant them. Help the Littles and they really can't do it wrong.

1. Littles can match seed packets and separate them into baggies.
2. Study seasons - why God made created each time.
3. Science -Botany of Seed to Plant
4. Schedule - watering, sunlight, and heat lamp.
5. Measuring and graphing the garden spot, the times to plant, the days of growth to germination.
6. Determinate/Inderterminate Seeds/Plants
7. Study Different Types of Soil - Nutrents in Soil.
8. Research Companies - Pick out and order seeds from Seed Co.
9. Weeding and reasons for it.
10. Organic gardening and the use of harmful pesticides on our soil and in our foods.
11. Bible Lessons: Diligence, Bounty
12. Biblical Planting, Watering, Harvesting can be shown in a physical, tangible way.
13. Do an indoor greenhouse.

    The *best* part about gardening is all of the lessons from the Bible you can incorporate!! Search online for bible references to planting, harvesting, and the like and read your children a story each day, before you start. *Always* incorporate God's Word into your lessons.  It makes your lessons more real and makes God more real!

Be Blessed!!

Are You Ready To Garden Yet?

Summer Homeschool: Gardening, A Photo Journal Essay

 

I knew last winter that this year would be hard on the gardening, since I was expecting LucyLillie. I knew with an April due date, the garden would not get planted when it should, and tending to it would be hard with a newborn. We waited for the ground to be dry enough to till. Matt tried in March, and it was just too wet, so he and the girls got it done in April.

It was tilled 2-3 times before we could get out there to plant.  I used the hoe to furrow the rows. I found it was the best tool to do that.

It sure did look nice with the clean dirt and no weeds.  Dad gave me those silver metal stakes to put the names of the vegetables in each row. I just taped the seed packet onto each stake so we knew what was in each row. If you look closely, at the bottom left of the picture,  you can see the string down the row that we used to make the rows straight.

Learning about the tilled earth and the cycle of the seed is a lesson that every child should experience.  There are so many Bible and Creation lessons that can be learned just by knowing the law of sowing and reaping or how a seed reproduces after its own kind. There's the fact that we must till the earth and water it.

The ground is hard, even after tilling sometimes and must be tended to with your hands. When we plant tomatoes, we dig deep down into the dirt. Then we break off the bottom stems and plant the seedling deep so it will grow strong roots. 

It feels good to get your hands into the freshly-tilled soil and plant something. You are planting something that you know will grow and produce fruit one day. Some of the best lessons and quiet times have been spent in my garden.

One thing I did was to make sure that the rows were farther apart then the width of our tiller. This made it easy to till the weeds in-between each row. It worked out rather well, and even worked when the weeds got tall!

And you must water it. Plants must have plenty of water to ensure they will grow well and flourish. We have to water each seedling after we initially put it into the ground so that the soil falls around its roots. 

We make furrows in the rows and water each row individually. This ensures that each row is getting the water and the weeds aren't.

And, soon you will see the fruits, like these lovely little shoots of new lettuce.

And bean shoots, coming up like a little army.

And spinach

 


And then, you must still keep the weeds out. It takes a lot of work, but as with any job well done, it is well worth it!  Here, Eric is digging so we can plant our seed potatoes. By the time he is finished, he will have dug a ditch 1 foot deep and piled the dirt on either side of it. Then we planted our cut-up potatoes with eyes on each piece and covered them with 5-6" of dirt. As they grew, we covered the green of the plant with dirt, until there was a mound of dirt. After the plants died off, we knew they were ready to dig up!

You must work and weed and hoe, so that the peppers keep growing. If we could keep the garden nice and brown, with the dirt like this and no weeds, that would be great. It does take a lot of work for that, though

And the tomatoes need to be weeded around too (though they seem to grow just about anywhere).
Tomato plants get so big that they need a support going up or they will literally take over the area!

Here is the broccoli. Isn't it beautiful? It will grow and grow, and you just have to cut off some of the stalk and take it in and wash it, and it is ready to cook and eat! Fresh out of the garden!

When you weed yet again... shake the dirt off the weeds before you toss them! And, for heaven's sake, don't forget your gloves!

And remember to take time to notice the sunflowers,

and the flowers on the okra plants, which are so pretty, it is worth growing the okra, just to see the beautiful flowers!

 

And, when you are out weeding with Daddy, you also have to have a little fun sharing your chocolate chip cookies and your toad...

and watching little creatures, like your toad, when it jumps out of your hands! Toads are fun to watch.

 

In between cookie batches, keep an eye on your veggies as they grow. And, keep those weeds under control, Rachel!!! Ack!!









As you are tending to your garden, take time to sketch the herbs you have planted. This is a wonderful project for the whole family. Even those who do not like to draw will participate if it is something you have all worked on together.

I had 2 children who weren't thrilled to draw, but did it when we all did it. It was interesting to see how each drew the same object differently. We plant our herbs in a pot so that I can take them into the house for the winter when it starts to get cold.






Be thankful for a nice harvest. Eric was so excited to find this giant zucchini. Zucchini are better and the skins not so hard if the fruit is smaller and less seedy, though.

When it comes time to can, be sure to clean your vegetables well. Before canning peppers, they have to be soaked overnight in a brine.

After the 24 hrs, take your peppers out of the brine and put them into the jars.

Make sure you show the Littles how to help so they like to help! It is so fun to do the work when you are little.

Read all about the proper canning techniques so you know what to do. Get Mom in on this one... even she will learn a lot!

to cook ...  and cook
   

and can                                       and can

     

Then, you will be able to enjoy the fruit of your labor

We had a lot of fun in our garden, and I wish I could post all of the pictures!!

And, this photo journal was a lot of fun, too... and a great way to chronicle some of what our summer homeschooling looks like!! It is also a great culmination of what I wrote about in March: Gardening 101 - You *Can* Teach Your Children!!


blessings! 
Jacque

 

So I have been checking back over at Sprittibee's yesterday and today to see if she announced the winner. Nope. But she did do a really cute entry herself with her daughter. Today I went back and she said she had gotten the help of 6 judges and would announce it later.

So I was busy checking my mail and this is what I saw:

 Heather Bee: " : ) YOU WON! "

I was so excited. All my hard work and uploading all these pictures on dial-up paid off. So just to let you all know, if you weren't on my IM or email list;

I WON THE PRINTER! YAAAAAAYYYY!!

Thank you Heather for hosting this!

 

I worked really hard on Monday night to get in an entry for Sprittibee's Printer contest...
I was going to link it and send you over there, but, since it was a Homeschool Photo Essay, I think I will just copy/paste!  Did you know I have a homestead blog?? ;)

I hope you enjoy it!
Blessings!

 

From the Homestead: Harvesting your garden