Our Gardens

      Our backyard has a lot of trees and shade. It is not very good for planting vegetables. We've had a container garden on our side porch since we moved into this house almost 4 years ago. We had two trees taken down last fall. So, this year we decided to try a raised garden bed. Kaylee enjoys gardening. She helps from the very beginning by planting the seeds in the tiny greenhouse. She helps transplants the tiny sprouts into the soil, waters them and sprays our homemade spray of Dr. Bronners soap, olive oil and water to keep the bugs away. And finally, she picks the veggies and even eats some, but not all of the different kinds we grow.

     There isn't a better way to learn about how plants grow, where food comes from and pollination than growing your own veggies. It's also helped with her fear of bees. She can now understand how important bees really are for our environment.  

     The raised garden bed has been a challenge. First, it's an investment. We had to spend money to buy the materials we needed to make the beds. Our backyard is sloped so we had to build it up fairly high to make the bed even. Then, we had to buy soil and compost to fill the beds because our soil doesn't seem to be right for growing vegetables. Lastly, we bought chicken wire to prevent the neighborhood cats from using our vegetable bed as their litter box. Yuck.

     I had some difficulty getting the soil just right. The leaves of my baby veggies were beginning to turn yellow. I researched it a bit and decided it wasn't a water issue so it had to be a fertilizer issue. I added some organic plant food and within 2 days my veggie plants were green and happy again. Some plants died along the way and I had to replant. But, I am happy that so far it has been successful. Maybe I can talk my husband in to building me a second one this fall so it is ready for spring planting.

Our container vegetable garden. We planted cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, yellow squash, and zucchini. We use Earthboxes. 

Our very first raised garden bed. We've planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, and then strawberries in the smaller attached box.  

Creative Kaylee

     Last week, Kaylee and I were at home for three days because she wasn't feeling well. We are usually busy doing something just about every day. She was just hanging out on the couch for two of those days. That is not my girl. She is very active. I knew she wasn't feeling well at all. We even missed a group field trip to the zoo.

     Kaylee seems to always be creating things. I think it is a huge advantage of homeschooling for our family. She can create things whenever she gets an idea. I try not to worry about the little things. If she wants to use most of a roll of tape making this ring toss game, then that's fine with me. I can get a roll of tape for $1 or less at the dollar store.

     I knew she was beginning to feel better when she made this game and asked me to play with her. She used markers taped to the floor to catch the rings. She taped a score to each marker. The "rings" were balloon rings that are used to prevent balloons from flying away. We played and she won. So creative....

Kaylee's ring toss game.