Plant School and Planning a Garden

For years I've been talking about doing a garden with the kids. Dan has never been interested in the extra work. When I met him I was living at home with my parents and teaching school. I had an herb garden in my parents back yard. Dad- you are welcome for the mint! I learned the hard way that just because you put mint in a pot in the ground doesn't mean it it won't jump the pot and spread. Through. The. Whole. Yard.

So, I haven't had a garden since and I've never grown a vegetable garden. Well this year that is all about to change. We planted some seeds as a MOPS craft a few weeks ago and they are growing. I don't have much luck with plants inside our home either- we have exactly- uh NONE. We have sunflowers and daisies coming up in pots in our dining room and we've decided to do a garden.

As we continue to sail on the high seas exploring The New World, we will also be doing some seed science and learn about flowering plants as we plan out our garden- or two. Here are some resources I'm using for the endeavor.

This is a really great book that teaches some concepts about soil and what plants need to thrive. We'll be doing some of these just to drive home the basics. I especially like the one on crowding- this will help to illustrate why weeding our garden will be important.

Who doesn't love The Magic School Bus? Ms. Frizzle will take our kids on a journey to find out how a little seed can become a huge plant.

This little book is a gem! She has a lot of fun gardening ideas. I think we will plant a pizza patch, but I'm also interested in a salsa garden.

This is another book from the Williamson Kids Can Series- it's full of ideas on how to garden with kids.

And finally, because Jana says so, we'll be trying out the Flowering Plants Delta Science Kit! This will take us through the science of how a flowering plant does its thing. Although I could put some things together myself, it has everything right there with complete plans and at this time of year that is a bonus! The table of contents is chock full of seed dissections and activities with roots and stems, etc. When we are finished with this we'll know what is happening with our garden and how it all works. These kits are at Delta Education and came highly recommended from Rainbow Resource which no longer carries them- too bad! They are the Science in a Nutshell Kits for grades 2-6. There are many topics in physical, earth, and life science.

So, no pressure Jana...

I'll be sure to keep you posted with pictures as things get going.