Gardening with Kids Layout Plan & Lesson

We sat down today with the kids to figured out a garden plan. We went over how some plants need something to grow on, some plants are fine standing alone and how some plants need to be contained such as tomatoes in cages. Then we found out which plants are going to be the tallest and which are the shortest when they are fully grown.
We reviewed how every plant is going to need to get the most sun when we design our plan and we need to have access to all the plants as they grow so we can pick the vegetables and weed our garden.

 With all of our information and new knowledge we set out to make our plans. We used Microsoft Word to create our garden layout to bring our plans to life. With our new plans we are one step closer to creating our garden.

        Sunflowers: our tallest plants

        Peas: they need something to grow on

        Peppers: medium size plants

        Cucumbers: we will grow in cages

        Zucchini: we will grow in cages

        Lettuce: low growing plant

        Carrots: root plant

        Marigolds: to edge the garden and hopefully keep out any playful hungry little

                         bunnies

The Lesson:
This was a great lesson for the children. We looked at the back of a seed packet and showed the children how they all come with a planting guide. Each planting guide comes with a zone chart and a color coded map of the United States to show where the zones fall on the map. So with that information which tells us we are in Zone 3 we knew that we would be able to plant our plants outside between April and June. The back of the seed packets also told us whether to sow our seeds indoors or directly outdoors (all of ours were to be sown indoors). We can transplant our plants outside after the danger of frost is over. This introduced the topic of what exactly frost is and what morning dew is and the differences between the two as well as the climate changes for each region of the United States. A guessing game then ensued about which plants could grow where in the United States. We made it up as we were going along but eventually we pulled out our map of the United Stated and placed raisins on each state as we got our answers correct. This was really fun.

After we finished our guessing game we then looked back at the packet and learned how deep in the soil we should place the seeds while sowing them indoors as well as how far apart we will have to place them when we put them outside. We all pulled out our trusty rulers and measured finding out how deep each seed was to be sown. We marked the length on a piece of paper to see what each measurement looked like and then we actually sowed the seeds. FUN, FUN, FUN. The kids loved putting the seeds in the dirt and then watering each one to be sure we would give it a great start in life. We read up on how the seeds will need sunlight to grow and how long it would take for the seeds to germinate. We also found on the back of the seed packet how long it would take until we could harvest our goodies and then checked it out on the calendar. All in all, this is becoming a fabulously productive and educational project as well as loads of fun.

FUTURE GARDEN CRAFTS

 Plant Markers

We are going to be making garden stakes that will mark all of our plants. Today we decided that we would use clay and make the actual vegetable that we are growing on the top and a label underneath the stake to print the name on. We will then paint the clay creations and spray with something so they will be able to stay outside and weather the season without being ruined.

Stepping Stones
We will be creating a stepping stone that will say “Our Garden”. We will buy cement at our local hardware store and we will all have a hand in creating this masterpiece that will serve as the entryway to our Garden.

Wildlife Sculptures
We will be making depictions of wildlife to place in and around our garden. The kids will be making clay critters and bugs such as turtles, ladybugs and bunnies to decorate our garden. We will spray all of these so they can withstand the elements outside.