^{Genesis 1:11} And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

¹² And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

¹³ And the evening and the morning were the third day.

We did not plant a garden last year.  However, we attempted to grow some flowers , bushes, and a few vegetables,  but nothing succeeded in our clay and rock soil.  This year we are trying again, but we won’t be planting directly into the yard.

This past week, my husband and B15 dug out a 10ft diameter circle and lined it with bricks,  (my husband is a brick layer so we always have a pile of bricks around),  with a path designed going into the center.  Do you think it looks like Pacman?  E17 and a friend of mine think it does.

Z7 helped his dad and B15 add a ton and a half of good soil.

Now we have a garden spot.  My husband must be anxious to get this project finished, because he went to the nursery as soon as the new soil was spread out and bought some tomato plants.

That burlap basket is for our compost.  This idea,  as well as the garden shape,  comes from So. Africa’s “key-hole” gardens.  Brilliant plan!  There is no bottom to the basket, just rocks so the rain water can drain.  And as the water drains, it washes the nutrients from the compost into the soil.  When we water it during the dry spells,  we’ll do so through that basket.  We won’t have to dirty up our feet when we take out our compost.  That’s what that path to the center is for.  Also, most of the picking can be done from the outside of the garden.

E17 went back to the nursery with her dad yesterday.   She decided on several different pepper plants and some mint.  Maybe next weekend we’ll add beans, calliflower, and broccoli.

With all this gardening going on, we will be adding some garden studies to our homeschool science lessons.

We will be working on this free Gardening Unit Study from  http://www.inallyoudo.net/2013/03/26/gardening-unit-study-prek-5/

We’ll also be using some of the garden connections for unit studies and lapbooking from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/connections__plants.php

And, I found  gardening journaling pages and interactive  games here  http://www.nourishinteractive.com/nutrition-education-printables/category/9-kids-gardening-growing-healthy-food  (By the way, this site is very cool!  I’ve got it bookmarked for later studies.)

You can view the Keyhole Garden tutorial here  http://www.se7en.org.za/2009/04/26/saturday-spot-our-virtual-keyhole-garden  (This site is awesome, plan on staying here to explore for a while!)

For another post about our gardening science unit study, click here  https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/04/16/a-science-lesson-from-a-friend/

Are you gardening with your children?  And, is your garden shaped like Pacman, too?

betty jo