Planting seeds

“Acceptance makes an incredible fertile soil for the seeds of change.”
― Steve Maraboli 

Its been a week and I still don't have a plan.  As you can tell from the last post, this fact had my knickers in a twist.  But you know what?  Its ok.  We are ok.  We have a garden, and can anything really be wrong when you're under the big blue sky, running your fingers through the soil? 

No.  Especially not when your child turns to you and says, "I love this!"  For the first time I realized-understood-accepted that not all classrooms have walls and chalkboards, or technology for that matter.  I was saying it before, yes, but now this idea has a place in my heart. It just feels right.  We've made friends with the worms and the people who are in nearby plots, we're practicing patience because seeds don't sprout overnight, and I'm learning to allow Emily to make her own decisions (even when those decisions aren't the ones I'd make).  Who is the teacher and who is the student?

Since I forgot to post some pics last Thursday, I thought I'd share some images from our garden so far.

 April 26th:

Welcome to the Garden Emily

We are actually F-3 and F-4.  Here is the before.

Emily leveling the compost we added to our bed.

We had our first peek at our plots on the 26th, and immediately we both wanted to stay and fill them up with compost.  It was hard to resist staying outdoors after the long winter!  There was still a chill in the air.  We arrived in winter coats and didn't take them off until after hauling several wheelbarrows of wet compost to the beds.  No one else was around, and the majority of the beds haven't been touched as of yet.  Officially gardening season here starts May 1st, but folks are allowed to prep the beds beforehand.  This was also a good opportunity for me to observe Emily's strengths and weaknesses in this setting.  She did get distracted easily (oh look!  A butterfly!) but she did not shun any of the physical work.

May 3rd:

Planting our cool weather crops in F3

With the garden officially open, we decided to put in our cool weather seeds.  Emily helped plant peas and swiss chard.  She also wanted to plant the watermelon seeds and zucchini.  Even though they aren't cool weather crops, I figured why not.  Its a good science experiment.  Its been cold and wet.  She can see what happens to help her decide what to plant and when next year.


We also had a lesson in recycling.  All of the decorative borders that our dog bent up have been repurposed as pea and bean trellises. 

We did think about where and how to plant the warm weather tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.  Sadly, someone nearby had already put in their tomatoes which suffered under last weeks unexpected snowfall.  Another good lesson, although at the cost of their crop. 

May 10th:  

Our first seed sprouted...along with a giant weed

Meet Thorinson the Gnome, who greets all approaching our plot.

Peanut and Cornflake the Chipmunks...the only chipmunks welcome in the garden.

Emily really thought we needed to add cauliflower to the garden, and I wanted to get in a few spinach and lettuce seeds to put in behind the peas.  So we headed to the store and came out with a few new friends for the garden.  We did some more weeding, and learned a lesson about how not to use the water pumps.  Emily was soaked to the bone so we ended up having to go home early.  Whoops.

Is this all that we're going to do for the gardening portion of summer homeschool?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I'd like to start a journal with what works and what doesn't.  But I don't know what format that will take because there are a million different lessons to focus on...science hypotheses!  Math growth graphs!  Essays on the joys of the outdoors.  Drawing the different plants.   As soon as we have something tangible, I'll be sure to share.  But for now I'll revel in this small success.