Organic learning~Gardening

Our most recent adventures in Organically learning started about a month ago when we sat around talking about our food budget. We spend a significant amount of money on fresh produce weekly. The kids and I sat around talking about ways we could cut our grocery bill even more in an attempt to save what money we could in our limited budget. This sparked a discussion on gardening. We have a good area where we could plant a garden and I had seeds left over from last year when we co-planted with my parents at their place.

We talked about what a garden should have in it and what were the best ways to grow food without using tons of pesticides to keep our food growing healthy. We studied Square foot Gardening http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ , it is a great way to garden in small spaces. We also studied Companion planting http://www.planetnatural.com/site/companion-planting.html and learned what we could plant together in our small boxes to grow together. This provides the best of both worlds. In our 3 four foot by four foot boxes we decided what to plant where. It took two days to decide what to plant where and how much we could get in each box.

Here are pictures of the boxes empty.

After all our studying we started applying what we learned. In the box farthest from the picture we inter-planted Corn and Pole beans slightly in front of that we planted summer squash and towards the very front we planted spinach & celery. The squash will grow between all the corn and beans and prevent weeds as well as help the spinach and celery grow well without any chemicals. We planted late in the season but everything seems to be growing well.

Here is the corn & bean box on day 4 after planting:

In our second box we planted 2 kinds of cantaloupes, 2 kinds of watermelon and cucumbers. So far only one variety of watermelon and cucumbers have come up, but both seem to be doing well.

In the last box we planted Carrots, yellow tomatoes, red & green leaf lettuce, bib lettuce, mixed bell peppers of 5 varieties including purple, red, orange, white and green. We are starting to see sprouts of some stuff in this last box but it is not growing nearly as fast as the other boxes.

It has been a few days since I took new pictures and everything has grown considerably. We also picked up 2 red raspberry plants, a blueberry plant and another variety of tomato that is planted in a smaller box we made. I will be updating our gardening blog section often with pictures. We are counting down the days until we can taste the fruits (and veggies) of our labor.

I hope through our adventures in learning Organically we are showing others the advantages to learning without books or traditional school.

Organic learning

In this Organic learning section you will find my blogs on Homeschooling. I love the adventure that our life has become through learning. I am always amazed at the myriad of ways that children learn. I have been Homeschooling in one form or another since my oldest was about 3, she is now 15 1/2! I have 4 children and I am sure that you will get to learn bits and pieces of them over time, here they will have nicknames and it will fit their personalities. The oldest will from here on out be known as The Bookworm she is 15 1/2 and writes as much as she reads, or vise versa. Then comes The Inventor He is 13 and one day I see him inventing great things, He is smart in his special way and I love the way he sees things. Our next two are close in age and were known as "the tots" for so long it maybe hard for me to not refer to them as such, I am going to work hard at it though as they each have their own personalities now. The Adventurer just turned 7 She is full of whimsy and adventure, no tree is to tall and no mountain is to big! Last and far from least is The lover. Being the last in line I suppose he was destined to be my cuddle bug. He is 5 going on 6 is extremely tall for his age has the sweetest face and a bit of a lisp still. I must say that He is slowly leaving the love bug stage and his nickname may soon change to the antagonizer as all boys are want to be, but for now it is the Love bug.
Now Onto the Learning...

Just the begining

Everything has a beginning and this is mine. Over the coming weeks I hope to be able to blog lots of adventures creating a fun place full of information that might not be readily available. The types of information you will likely find on this blogging spot are; cooking tips tricks and advice as well as pictures of fantastic dishes I create, mostly from scratch. Sewing, I love to sew but do not do nearly enough of it. Crocheting, it may seem old fashioned or outdated but is completely relaxing and fun! Homeschooling, It is the heart of our family and I intend to share lots of tips on how to learn in fun, free, and unexpected ways. In general I have many interests and hope to share them with anyone willing to read about them, so stay tuned as the adventure begins.