Homeschool Village Garden Challenge

My garden at the moment is S.C.A.R.Y. It literally has not had a thing done to it since last fall..except for tossing the remains of some old plants out there. And it really didn't bother me since I didn't have to look at it at all this winter....after all, it's been covered in mounds of snow and ice for months!

But the snow has melted (although I'm almost positive more will be headed our way in April..par for the course!) and I really need to start tending it if we plan on having any kind of a productive garden this year.

The Plan (no progress yet!): First things first! For the month of April, we'll be cleaning out the bed, raking it, turning over the soil and calling the utility company to come out and mark their lines so we can add on this year. We plan to triple the size of the garden as Reagan has big plans for the vegetables she wants to grow (although Mommy *did* remind her we have to eat what we grow!). Mother's Day weekend is always our planting weekend, so we'll plant seeds directly into the ground then.

Lessons/Resources Being Used: In April, we plan to make an egg carton seed starter. (Note: due to lack of warmth and good sunlight our seeds usually don't do well being grown inside so if that happens, we'll just use it to our advantage to talk about why, but we won't plan on these being used for actual planting unless-miracle of miracles, they actually grow!) In addition to the egg carton seed starter and Easter (which is our main focus in April), we plan on studying birds, weather and worms and of course, we'll be talking about how all three can help plants grow. Our library has great concept kits and this month we'll be using the WEATHER concept kit they have and using the theme "April showers bring May flowers".


Reagan is super excited about the garden this year. Right now we're both drooling over seeds and she has specifically requested to plant potatoes and corn. A great book about planting potatoes is Two Old Potatoes and Me. Definitely inspired Reagan to try something new! (By the way, in case you do decide to check this out, you'll want to know it's about a little girl who's parents have just divorced and she and her dad start planting potatoes together, thereby helping her adjust--the divorce theme is definitely toned down so if you're not a divorced family-we aren't-it should still fit in perfectly!)

And just because she's cute, here's a picture of Reagan with our garden last year (our first attempt at planting seeds directly in the ground as opposed to starting them first!) and a picture of Reagan and cousin Emily with fresh zucchinis!