The Garden
Amanda had always wanted to grow her own food, but for one reason or another a garden just never happened; until 2014. In 2014, Amanda finally decided to jump into gardening with both feet. It started with a store bought bell pepper, and a curious 8-year old who asked "can we plant these seeds?" This started a quest to see what else we could grow. Amanda is now a full-blown seed addict, collecting a wide variety of seeds that she can plant indoors, aquaponically, or outside when the weather cooperates.
Our plan is to harvest seeds from the fruits and vegetables we grow so that we can plant again the next year, so naturally, we expect to have extras. Any extra seeds will be available to trade for different seeds or plants. Check out our Seed Swap page if you're interested in trading, or donating seeds!
2014 Garden
In February 2014 we planted 26 rainbow bell peppers, 46 bell peppers from the harvested seeds from the store-bought bell pepper, 24 Boston pickling cucumbers, 24 organic Oregon sugar pod II peas, and 24 Di Ciccio broccoli in seed starter trays in the house. As of spring 2014 we had bell peppers, cucumber, peas, garlic, tomatoes, onions, and the research seeds/plants in the house. The plan was to make a raised garden bed in the spring to plant our new outdoor garden... but a series of "other stuff" came up the first half of the summer and prevented us from moving forward with the garden. Unfortunately, almost all of the seedlings died - we managed to get a few small tomatoes out of some forgotten and struggling root-bound plants still stuck in little nursery cups.
2015 Garden
Over the winter months in 2014 / 2015 Amanda started her first Winter Sowing project, and the spring and summer of 2015 we started our first in-ground tomato garden, a shade garden with leafy greens, and a raised bed full of squash, beans, corn, cucumbers, and a couple melons that got choked out by all the squash plants. Overall, it was a huge success! The big pumpkin plant overgrew the garden, wrapping around the lawn and back. The leaves were as big as car windows, and we had a few near-accidents when people would stop in front of the house to take photos of our garden. Even our neighbor, a long-time gardener, asked us what we used to produce such an abundance. Just rabbit manure, sunshine, and water. We did make it a point not to put squash in the front yard anymore to try to prevent any car accidents.
Our plan is to harvest seeds from the fruits and vegetables we grow so that we can plant again the next year, so naturally, we expect to have extras. Any extra seeds will be available to trade for different seeds or plants. Check out our Seed Swap page if you're interested in trading, or donating seeds!
2014 Garden
In February 2014 we planted 26 rainbow bell peppers, 46 bell peppers from the harvested seeds from the store-bought bell pepper, 24 Boston pickling cucumbers, 24 organic Oregon sugar pod II peas, and 24 Di Ciccio broccoli in seed starter trays in the house. As of spring 2014 we had bell peppers, cucumber, peas, garlic, tomatoes, onions, and the research seeds/plants in the house. The plan was to make a raised garden bed in the spring to plant our new outdoor garden... but a series of "other stuff" came up the first half of the summer and prevented us from moving forward with the garden. Unfortunately, almost all of the seedlings died - we managed to get a few small tomatoes out of some forgotten and struggling root-bound plants still stuck in little nursery cups.
2015 Garden
Over the winter months in 2014 / 2015 Amanda started her first Winter Sowing project, and the spring and summer of 2015 we started our first in-ground tomato garden, a shade garden with leafy greens, and a raised bed full of squash, beans, corn, cucumbers, and a couple melons that got choked out by all the squash plants. Overall, it was a huge success! The big pumpkin plant overgrew the garden, wrapping around the lawn and back. The leaves were as big as car windows, and we had a few near-accidents when people would stop in front of the house to take photos of our garden. Even our neighbor, a long-time gardener, asked us what we used to produce such an abundance. Just rabbit manure, sunshine, and water. We did make it a point not to put squash in the front yard anymore to try to prevent any car accidents.
2016 Garden
We had planned to do a combination of in-ground, raised, container, vertical, and aquaponic gardening in 2016, but our situation was a little up in the air with a possible impending move, so our garden instead consisted of two in-ground beds and two raised beds. The shade garden was abandoned, the tomato bed was expanded and we added a second bed across a walkway, and we added a second much smaller raised bed. We also added a couple more rhubarb plants along the side of the house that isn't otherwise usable.
We managed to do all of this on just .16 acre. Yes, less than a quarter of an acre, and that space also included our home, garage, fire pit, play-set, bunny barn, lilac bush, birch trees, dogwood tree, and huge (elm?) tree that shaded out a large portion of the yard.
We wanted to delve farther into permaculture incorporating fruit trees and permanent berry bushes and canes - things we couldn't properly do in the city.
2017 Garden
Our city house flooded in April 2017 and we spent 11 weeks in a hotel, unable to do much with the house or garden, and a month after we got back into the house we moved to our new homestead. Our 2017 garden was all in containers as a result, but we did end up getting a few peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants, a single tiny spaghetti squash, and a few zucchini squash, plus herbs. The big raised bed in the front yard was free-seeded with lettuce from last years plants, and when it came up in abundance, we offered it for free to everyone who asked about it. Since we weren't home much, I have no idea if people came back to harvest. I hope they did. It was such a fun perpetual salad bed that I think we may replicate it in the future.
2018 Garden
We built two raised raspberry beds, which now contain both raspberries and blackberries. We built a large raised strawberry bed, though the strawberries didn't do well this first year. We got half way through installing an in-ground garden off to the west side of the house. It's all fenced in but only half has had the sod removed and mulch applied. In the finished area we have one blueberry plant, one Imperial currant plant, two silver-mound plants, and several spring bulbs. We plan to put in a walkway through the garden area, and do potted and perennial herbs in the (yet unfinished) side. We've started to plant fruit trees, though it looks like a majority of them were not dormant, but just dead when we bought them. Lesson learned. Only buy healthy local fruit trees that have leaves and are actively growing!
2019 Garden
Unfortunately, due to ongoing health issues, our 2019 garden was pretty much nonexistent. We added a few more fruit trees to fill in the gaps of trees that didn't make it through winter, replaced some of the raspberry plants that didn't survive, and replanted the strawberry bed (much more successfully this time). We managed to get one single tomato from a store-bought plant (the other two tomatoes on the plant were eaten by something else). We installed a mini walk-in greenhouse (something like six feet long). We did attempt a scatter garden to the north, but nothing came up. I suspect the birds and other wildlife may have eaten all the seeds. It was a particularly bad year for apples. Our mature tree that usually gives a bumper crop produced about a dozen small and puckered looking apples that were not really edible. One of the new apple trees, despite only being about six feet tall, did produce a nice crop of apples. It's the first harvest from our orchard investment. Both the blueberry and currant plants in the west garden produced fruit this year, despite being 18" or shorter. Wild turkeys came and ate every last cherry off our Nanking cherry tree, so we were not able to make more cherry jelly this year. We planted a St. Patrick's (tea) rose, and transplanted the last of the irises from the old house. We are hoping these are our beloved root-beer irises, but they did not flower this year. We will have to wait until next year to see. We will be attempting to overwinter several plants that did not manage to get planted this summer due to health and time restraints.
2020 Garden
With the chaos of Covid and schools switching to distance learning, and the chaos of husband working 60+ hour weeks due to being an "essential worker" our garden again didn't really happen. I did try to plant some tomato and pepper plants from the store, and despite watering them regularly, they just languished at about 8 inches tall and didn't really do much. A couple of the tomato plants managed to eek out a minuscule harvest, but nothing big enough to share or make a recipe with. The cucumber plants died as soon as they came up, the zucchini and squash plants were stunted and produced nothing, even the blueberry plant only gave about 1/4 of the crop it had last year. We did harvest several pounds of Nanking cherries this year and have restocked our jelly for the year. The strawberry plants have sent out unbelievable amounts of runners this year, so I'm hoping that next year we will have a lot of strawberries!
2021 Garden
Due to sudden and unexpected issues coming up in our personal life, we did not have a garden in 2021. I worked long hours all summer to try to get by, and we had no time for extra-curricular activities. It was a drought year, so the perennials did not perform well. The apple tree only gave a few deformed apples, the cherry tree produced, but not enough to take out the canning supplies - we enjoyed the harvest fresh off the tree. The birds got almost all of the strawberries. We're hoping for better luck in the future.
2022 Garden
I have been away from the house most of this year (January, February, May, June, July, and August). By the time I got home in late August it was too late to start a garden. I'm looking forward to the 2023 garden season!
Check out Amanda's Blog for photos and updates and to follow along as we get our gardens set up at the homestead!
We had planned to do a combination of in-ground, raised, container, vertical, and aquaponic gardening in 2016, but our situation was a little up in the air with a possible impending move, so our garden instead consisted of two in-ground beds and two raised beds. The shade garden was abandoned, the tomato bed was expanded and we added a second bed across a walkway, and we added a second much smaller raised bed. We also added a couple more rhubarb plants along the side of the house that isn't otherwise usable.
We managed to do all of this on just .16 acre. Yes, less than a quarter of an acre, and that space also included our home, garage, fire pit, play-set, bunny barn, lilac bush, birch trees, dogwood tree, and huge (elm?) tree that shaded out a large portion of the yard.
We wanted to delve farther into permaculture incorporating fruit trees and permanent berry bushes and canes - things we couldn't properly do in the city.
2017 Garden
Our city house flooded in April 2017 and we spent 11 weeks in a hotel, unable to do much with the house or garden, and a month after we got back into the house we moved to our new homestead. Our 2017 garden was all in containers as a result, but we did end up getting a few peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants, a single tiny spaghetti squash, and a few zucchini squash, plus herbs. The big raised bed in the front yard was free-seeded with lettuce from last years plants, and when it came up in abundance, we offered it for free to everyone who asked about it. Since we weren't home much, I have no idea if people came back to harvest. I hope they did. It was such a fun perpetual salad bed that I think we may replicate it in the future.
2018 Garden
We built two raised raspberry beds, which now contain both raspberries and blackberries. We built a large raised strawberry bed, though the strawberries didn't do well this first year. We got half way through installing an in-ground garden off to the west side of the house. It's all fenced in but only half has had the sod removed and mulch applied. In the finished area we have one blueberry plant, one Imperial currant plant, two silver-mound plants, and several spring bulbs. We plan to put in a walkway through the garden area, and do potted and perennial herbs in the (yet unfinished) side. We've started to plant fruit trees, though it looks like a majority of them were not dormant, but just dead when we bought them. Lesson learned. Only buy healthy local fruit trees that have leaves and are actively growing!
2019 Garden
Unfortunately, due to ongoing health issues, our 2019 garden was pretty much nonexistent. We added a few more fruit trees to fill in the gaps of trees that didn't make it through winter, replaced some of the raspberry plants that didn't survive, and replanted the strawberry bed (much more successfully this time). We managed to get one single tomato from a store-bought plant (the other two tomatoes on the plant were eaten by something else). We installed a mini walk-in greenhouse (something like six feet long). We did attempt a scatter garden to the north, but nothing came up. I suspect the birds and other wildlife may have eaten all the seeds. It was a particularly bad year for apples. Our mature tree that usually gives a bumper crop produced about a dozen small and puckered looking apples that were not really edible. One of the new apple trees, despite only being about six feet tall, did produce a nice crop of apples. It's the first harvest from our orchard investment. Both the blueberry and currant plants in the west garden produced fruit this year, despite being 18" or shorter. Wild turkeys came and ate every last cherry off our Nanking cherry tree, so we were not able to make more cherry jelly this year. We planted a St. Patrick's (tea) rose, and transplanted the last of the irises from the old house. We are hoping these are our beloved root-beer irises, but they did not flower this year. We will have to wait until next year to see. We will be attempting to overwinter several plants that did not manage to get planted this summer due to health and time restraints.
2020 Garden
With the chaos of Covid and schools switching to distance learning, and the chaos of husband working 60+ hour weeks due to being an "essential worker" our garden again didn't really happen. I did try to plant some tomato and pepper plants from the store, and despite watering them regularly, they just languished at about 8 inches tall and didn't really do much. A couple of the tomato plants managed to eek out a minuscule harvest, but nothing big enough to share or make a recipe with. The cucumber plants died as soon as they came up, the zucchini and squash plants were stunted and produced nothing, even the blueberry plant only gave about 1/4 of the crop it had last year. We did harvest several pounds of Nanking cherries this year and have restocked our jelly for the year. The strawberry plants have sent out unbelievable amounts of runners this year, so I'm hoping that next year we will have a lot of strawberries!
2021 Garden
Due to sudden and unexpected issues coming up in our personal life, we did not have a garden in 2021. I worked long hours all summer to try to get by, and we had no time for extra-curricular activities. It was a drought year, so the perennials did not perform well. The apple tree only gave a few deformed apples, the cherry tree produced, but not enough to take out the canning supplies - we enjoyed the harvest fresh off the tree. The birds got almost all of the strawberries. We're hoping for better luck in the future.
2022 Garden
I have been away from the house most of this year (January, February, May, June, July, and August). By the time I got home in late August it was too late to start a garden. I'm looking forward to the 2023 garden season!
Check out Amanda's Blog for photos and updates and to follow along as we get our gardens set up at the homestead!
The Curriculum
The garden is going to be an ongoing curriculum for summer education in addition to the kids' schooling through the winter months. Here are some examples of the basic lessons we plan to teach the kids using the garden (please feel free to take these ideas and run with them - use it as an idea to teach your own children). I've also set up a Research page to document all of our observations about the seeds we've ordered through the Germplasm Resources Information Network.
Strategy and Planning:
Different plants require different things. One plant may need full sun, while another may prefer shade. Some plants need a trellis or a support system, while others require more space to stretch out. While one plant may get very tall, another may be low to the ground. Planning out where in the garden to put each type of plant is like a jigsaw puzzle. For example, you wouldn't want to have your corn (which grows pretty tall) blocking out the sun for a sun-loving vegetable in the next row... but that same tall corn can provide the shade for a plant that prefers partial or full shade. Planning ahead is also good for knowing how many seeds to plant. Even if you have 100 cucumber seeds, are you going to be able to eat that many? Do you have enough friends and family and networking connections to put all of the harvest to good use? Or could you be wasting the vegetables you worked so hard to grow? Companion planting borders between strategy/planning and biology.
Math:
Even the youngest in the family can learn math using the garden. A small child learning to count can help you count out the seeds as you're planting, they can count the seedlings as they poke up through the soil, and they can count the fruits and vegetables as they start to develop. For kids a little older, you can make simple math problems using the garden. For example, if you have three pepper plants, and each has five peppers growing, how many do you have (5 + 5 + 5 = 15). You can teach basic multiplication in much the same way. For example, if you have five rows, and each row has twenty plants, how many plants do you have (5 x 20 = 100). For more advanced multiplication, you can calculate future yields. For example, one pepper plant has five peppers growing, and each pepper averages 150 seeds. If you plant all 150 seeds from each pepper next year, how many peppers should you have (5 x 150 = 750... 750 x 5 = 3750). The same can be used for subtraction (if we have 10 peppers and we eat three, how many are left?), and division (if we have 20 peppers and we're going to give one fourth to grandma, one fourth to the neighbor, and keep half - how many peppers does the neighbor get?). You can make up math problems based on the situation too. Let's say your friendly neighborhood bunny is sneaking into your garden and eating three tomatoes a day. If you have 20 plants, each with 20 tomatoes, and you want to pick them in 14 days, how many would you expect to have left? 20 x 20 = 400, 14 x 3 = 42, 400 - 42 = 358 tomatoes left).
Biology:
Perhaps the most obvious lesson subject, use the experience to teach about germination, pollination, oxygen cycles, and the basic needs of all plants (nutrients, water, sunlight). For older kids you could put together a lesson plan on which insect species are native to your area that are helpful and harmful to your plants, or even get in to soil testing and fertilizer composition. We're not going to get that detailed here, but we are planning a compost/worm farm sometime in the future.
Sustainable Living:
Most of the fruits and vegetables people grow in their garden have seeds that can be harvested and saved to plant next season. Only save the seeds from your best plants. For example, if you have three tomato plants and one out-grows the others, or has a tastier tomato than the others, don't worry about harvesting seeds from the other two - harvest/save all of your seeds from the better plant to have better odds of more and/or better tasting tomatoes next year.
Social Networking:
Unless you are an expert gardener, chances are you're going to have questions at some point. Social networking also includes sharing your findings. I'm using my blog to share what plants we're growing, how they progress, and eventually, how they produce and how the end results taste. Social networking is also a wonderful way to find new seed varieties, trade your extra seeds, and connect to other gardeners, maybe even find some tried and proven recipes for that particular vegetable variety you're growing! Social networking can also open the doors to new experiences. Perhaps your harvest was better than expected, so you decide to put up a vegetable stall at the end of your driveway, sell some at a farmer's market or food co-op, or get involved with your local soup kitchen or food shelf by donating to those less fortunate in your area.
Comparison:
For young kids, comparison is an important developmental tool. A garden offers a multitude of opportunities for all ages. The younger kids can compare and learn about similarities and differences such as dry and wet soil, sunny and shady locations, tall and short plants, unripe and ripe fruits/veggies, or different colored peppers or tomatoes. For older kids you can compare different versions of the same plant - compare how long it takes them to grow, how hardy they are, how many and/or how big their produce grows, their foliage (leaves), and even the taste of the produce. Keep a diary or blog to keep track of your research.
The garden is going to be an ongoing curriculum for summer education in addition to the kids' schooling through the winter months. Here are some examples of the basic lessons we plan to teach the kids using the garden (please feel free to take these ideas and run with them - use it as an idea to teach your own children). I've also set up a Research page to document all of our observations about the seeds we've ordered through the Germplasm Resources Information Network.
Strategy and Planning:
Different plants require different things. One plant may need full sun, while another may prefer shade. Some plants need a trellis or a support system, while others require more space to stretch out. While one plant may get very tall, another may be low to the ground. Planning out where in the garden to put each type of plant is like a jigsaw puzzle. For example, you wouldn't want to have your corn (which grows pretty tall) blocking out the sun for a sun-loving vegetable in the next row... but that same tall corn can provide the shade for a plant that prefers partial or full shade. Planning ahead is also good for knowing how many seeds to plant. Even if you have 100 cucumber seeds, are you going to be able to eat that many? Do you have enough friends and family and networking connections to put all of the harvest to good use? Or could you be wasting the vegetables you worked so hard to grow? Companion planting borders between strategy/planning and biology.
Math:
Even the youngest in the family can learn math using the garden. A small child learning to count can help you count out the seeds as you're planting, they can count the seedlings as they poke up through the soil, and they can count the fruits and vegetables as they start to develop. For kids a little older, you can make simple math problems using the garden. For example, if you have three pepper plants, and each has five peppers growing, how many do you have (5 + 5 + 5 = 15). You can teach basic multiplication in much the same way. For example, if you have five rows, and each row has twenty plants, how many plants do you have (5 x 20 = 100). For more advanced multiplication, you can calculate future yields. For example, one pepper plant has five peppers growing, and each pepper averages 150 seeds. If you plant all 150 seeds from each pepper next year, how many peppers should you have (5 x 150 = 750... 750 x 5 = 3750). The same can be used for subtraction (if we have 10 peppers and we eat three, how many are left?), and division (if we have 20 peppers and we're going to give one fourth to grandma, one fourth to the neighbor, and keep half - how many peppers does the neighbor get?). You can make up math problems based on the situation too. Let's say your friendly neighborhood bunny is sneaking into your garden and eating three tomatoes a day. If you have 20 plants, each with 20 tomatoes, and you want to pick them in 14 days, how many would you expect to have left? 20 x 20 = 400, 14 x 3 = 42, 400 - 42 = 358 tomatoes left).
Biology:
Perhaps the most obvious lesson subject, use the experience to teach about germination, pollination, oxygen cycles, and the basic needs of all plants (nutrients, water, sunlight). For older kids you could put together a lesson plan on which insect species are native to your area that are helpful and harmful to your plants, or even get in to soil testing and fertilizer composition. We're not going to get that detailed here, but we are planning a compost/worm farm sometime in the future.
Sustainable Living:
Most of the fruits and vegetables people grow in their garden have seeds that can be harvested and saved to plant next season. Only save the seeds from your best plants. For example, if you have three tomato plants and one out-grows the others, or has a tastier tomato than the others, don't worry about harvesting seeds from the other two - harvest/save all of your seeds from the better plant to have better odds of more and/or better tasting tomatoes next year.
Social Networking:
Unless you are an expert gardener, chances are you're going to have questions at some point. Social networking also includes sharing your findings. I'm using my blog to share what plants we're growing, how they progress, and eventually, how they produce and how the end results taste. Social networking is also a wonderful way to find new seed varieties, trade your extra seeds, and connect to other gardeners, maybe even find some tried and proven recipes for that particular vegetable variety you're growing! Social networking can also open the doors to new experiences. Perhaps your harvest was better than expected, so you decide to put up a vegetable stall at the end of your driveway, sell some at a farmer's market or food co-op, or get involved with your local soup kitchen or food shelf by donating to those less fortunate in your area.
Comparison:
For young kids, comparison is an important developmental tool. A garden offers a multitude of opportunities for all ages. The younger kids can compare and learn about similarities and differences such as dry and wet soil, sunny and shady locations, tall and short plants, unripe and ripe fruits/veggies, or different colored peppers or tomatoes. For older kids you can compare different versions of the same plant - compare how long it takes them to grow, how hardy they are, how many and/or how big their produce grows, their foliage (leaves), and even the taste of the produce. Keep a diary or blog to keep track of your research.