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Spring! (gardening)
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Hello to all! Now that Spring is just around the corner…is anyone here planning a garden this year to do alongside of the children for some real outdoor learning, and nature study!?? We have decided to this year, but we are mostly planting flowers of all sorts….and a few veggies. I am looking forward to spending time outdoors with our family, and watching the wonder of our seeds turning into beautiful flowers. I have been reading “Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots-Gardening Together with Children” by Sharon Lovejoy….and she has some amazing ideas for gardening with children. We are going to try a “sunflower house”, and try a small rose garden too. Is anyone else getting into the gardening spirit?? Just wondering!
Christie 🙂
Hi Christie,
We, too, are getting into the gardening spirit. I bought the book “Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots” about a month or so ago and my daughters and I are planning on making the sunflower house as well. We have all the seeds bought and my husband has cleared a little section of grass for us to plant. Now all we have to do is wait for it to warm up a little more. We also would like to do the moon garden. If these two projects go well, I would eventually like to plant a vegetable garden with them (square foot gardening).
Mandy
Christie,
We put out a very large vegetable garden every year. Even with it’s size, I am starting to look forwars to it. I sometimes think God gives us winter, so that we might forget, just a little, how much work we put into our garden the year before. 😉 We can everything we put into our garden, so our kids are very involved. They enjoy the flower garden a little better, as it’s much smaller and has less weeds!! I personally love to sit down and plan our garden for the year at this time. I have never read the book by Sharon, but it sounds like one I will have to check into for our little ones!! Thanks for the idea, and enjoyyour gardening!!!
Steffanie 🙂
Mandy- YES! I thought the moon garden looked neat as well! There are just so many options and you could really go wild with all the ideas in the book if you wanted! But, we are going to certainly try out the sunflower house for sure. I have five children total, but my three youngest ones are 5, 4, and 3 yr. old girls! So they are going to enjoy that for sure. I think we are going to try for a raised bed veggie patch on our side yard. That’s the plan anyway!:)
Christie 🙂
Steffanie-
That sounds wonderful! I would eventually like to raise a huge veggie garden as well! But for this year, I think we are keeping it kind of simple to start out with! Mostly focusing on the flower garden this year, but I know that the benefits and rewards of working in a large garden all summer must pay off! All that fresh food, healthier for your family! And yes, I agree with you on why God gives us winter! Time to refocus, and refresh ourselves! Although! With the holidays, and school, I can’t say that I quite do that myself! Maybe I should though! It seems non-stop around here! 🙂
TTFN!
Christie
We live in northern Indiana, so we have a little time to get ready for our garden. If you have any question I’ll try to answer them. I’m no expert, but I sure love big gardens. (Please feel free to remind me of this in August when the canning season is in full swing.) :-0 We tend to can enough green beans and tomatoes until we are dreaming of them!! It’s the only way to go if you have the space and time. Nothing tastes as good as a fresh picked tomato right off the vine. Yumm, I can’t wait!!!
I would love to learn how to can things! I have the time! Right now I am growing: tomatoes, sweet banana peppers, blueberries, strawberries, apple tree, nectarine tree, basil, sweet onions, Greek oregano, rosemary, Italian parsley, thyme, spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, pineapple sage and I can’t remember what else is out there. (It’s too dark to check) I started really doing this a year or so ago and now I’m hooked. I have the Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots book borrowed from the library. It’s a wonderful book that I would love to buy, it’s totally worth it! We want to grow gourds and Jack Be Little pumpkins so we’ll have them for fall crafts.
You should be able to find some boks at the library on canning. You can either pressure can, which requires a pressure cooker, or you can ‘hot water bath’ your jars. Pressure canning takes half the time, and the way I prefer. Some don’t like the idea of the big canners, but when you hve a big family you have to get alot done at once!!! Anyway I think you can find books by Ball or Kehr on canning. It will also tell you how to freeze things if you don’t have enough space to store canned goods. Hope that helps you. 🙂
Steffanie
Okay, Ladies. Black thumb, coming through!!! I specialize in killing any living plant that comes within 5 feet of me or my house. I inherited this special trait from my mother (we had a rock garden!!).
Can you give me any ideas on how to start easy and simple? Could I plant some things in pots this year and gradually move to an actual, dare I say, garden? What is really easy to grow and hard to kill? I live in Northern Illinois, so I have time to plan this out if anyone is willing to give me some SIMPLE ideas.
Steffanie, since you probably live the closest to me, maybe you should come over and give me a tutorial! LOL!
Seriously, any easy, fool-proof ideas would be welcome. My mother-in-law would be so excited if I didn’t kill the flowers and tomato plants she brings me every year!
Help, Faith 🙂
Faith,
I live in northern Illinois, too. We grow a large vegetable garden every year but not much for flowers. I’m not good at visualizing a good flower garden so I stick with whatever grows well on its own without too much interference from me.
Things that are easy to grow and hard to kill in northern Illinois would include: oregano, basil, sage, violets, Johnny Jump-Ups, petunias, any wildflower seed mix from a local store, sunflowers, rhubarb, asparagus, zucchini squash, butternut squash, Black-Eyed Susans, milkweed (great for monarch butterflies), lilacs, and red osier dogwood. All of these plants take a minimum of care, mostly just watering them, if that.
Here are some tips for successful gardening:
Wait until all danger of frost is past. Usually, after May 15 here in northern Illinois.
Harden off any plant you buy or grow indoors from seed on your own. This means to gradually increase the amount of time the plant is outside. Start in a shady, sheltered spot for a few hours and gradually increase the amount of time, breeze and sun the plants are exposed to. Make sure plants stay moist. Plants in pots tend to dry out very quickly and need to be watered more frequently than you may think. After about a week of increased exposure to the sun, they are ready for the garden.
Once the plants are in the ground, keep them well watered by making sure they have about an inch of water each week. If it doesn’t rain, that means you will have to water them about twice a week. Let the sprinklers run at least two hours each time you water. And be sure to water as early in the morning as possible.
Weed at least once a week. Mulching with straw or compost will cut down on the weeds but you will still have to do some weeding. Mulching is one of the big secrets for success. It helps retain moisture, protects the plants from soil-borne diseases, and keeps the soil temperature even as well as keeping weeds in check.
For tomatoes, pull off the bottom set of leaves. Plant in a hole deep enough to come up to the next set of leaves. This will give the plant a good root system. Pinch off any buds, blooms, or fruits that are on the plant. You want the plant to put its energy into making roots at this point, not fruit.
Feel free to ask any more questions. You may want to get a good gardening book such as Square Foot Gardening.
Wow, Karen knows her stuff better than I do. I just go to the local fruit market and buy my plants and seeds.:-) I find I don’t have the desire to start my own plants. My sister-in-law does, but she usually only does flowers. I have found that it takes alot to kill green bean plants. (Believe me, my husband and children have tried! LOL!!) They are really hardy. I always buy Blue Lake Bush beans. Some prefer the vining kind, but I plant in rows in my garden. They don’t take alot of care, just weeding. If taken care of well, they can provide alot of beans!! We tend to put out alot of tomatoes, also. I buy Romas and Big Boys. There are alot of different varities, and I experiment with different ones every year. We fill our garden with alot of different veggies every year. The only thing I refuse to plant are peas!! Takes way too many to fill a jar. 😉 Hope that helps a little. Happy Gardening!
Steffanie
Ladies, you have been so much help that I really have no excuse this year! Your suggestions are great! I really think I’m going to go for it this spring. Thanks for your help and encouragement.
One more question…where is a good spot to plant a garden? All sun? Some shade, some sun? Is it okay if it’s on a slant? The very flat back of our yard tends to retain water if it rains too hard, so I would hesitate to plant anything there. Also, how much preperation do you do to the plot of land?
Thanks again for your responses! I’ll let you know how it goes!
Faith 🙂
Faith, my garden is a 70′ x 65′ plot that is in a full sun area. There is a very slight slant, but it is a lower area. The first year we had a garden in that spot, my husband just tilled the area several times until it smoothed out. I have heard of people putting cardboard out to plot there gardens for the first time. Leaving the cardboard out helps to kill the grass,but I personally never worried about that. I just had to work a little harder on my weeding the first year or two. If you have a plant that needs more shade, you can always put it in a large pot in a partial shade area. I have found that most, if not all of my vegetable, need alot of sun. If you have any good mulch or compost, it would be great to work it into your tilled area. It will only help grow a better garden. We have a horse that helps our garden grow. 😉 If you know a local farmer that can help in that area, you can get some very nice and big veggies!! Hope all of this helps the planning process for you. Believe me you will enjoy all the benefits, and somehow a tomato taste so much better when you grow it in your garden.
Steffanie
Steffanie, thanks for all of your great ideas! I can’t wait to get started! My husband is really happy, too, because he’s been trying to get me to start a garden for years!!!
We don’t have a horse (although it would be my dd7’s dream come true), but we will try to mulch or compost with something else.
Do you make this a big part of your homeschool in the spring? I was thinking about spending a big part of May focusing on the planning, plotting, and planting of the garden. Is this a good idea? I figure we can cover many subjects with this one project.
Faith 🙂
Faith, I have to be honest. I have never incorporated it into school. This is the first year we have had all of our kids at home. They went to a wonderful christian before now. Our oldest has been home for 3 years, but she has always helped in other areas.
Anyway, the whole family is involved in the planting. I usually plant where I want on the day of planting, but I also I have been doing this for awhile. I do keep a ‘map’ of my garden every year. I make little notes about what worked and what didn’t. This helps me to ‘rotate my crops’. 🙂 I also make sure that I write down how much of each seed or plant I buy. That helps me to know if I need more or less the next year. It helps to write down the names of the different plants. I dicsovered an Amish Paste tomato plant that I can’t wait to grow this year. It is wonderful for paste and juice. So, you may want to keep all of that in mind when you start. It actually is very easy. We make it an extended family project. The grandparents try to be involved and my husbands’ sister helps too.
Steffanie
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