5 Lessons I Learned in the Garden About Children-Square Foot Gardening

We've had a busy week putting in our  75' X 100' garden. The weather was "perfect"...for the seedlings, not us. Storms chased us from our garden as we finished planting 480' of potatoes on the first day. The dark clouds remained as we planted kale, kholrabi, beans, okra, onions, leeks, melons, tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables keeping us all misted. The farmer and I planted 50 asparagus crowns that will take a couple of years to produce. I even got to experiment with a no-till method for planting sweet potatoes! By midweek we were done. And by then tiny weeds in the cottage garden were needing my attention, while the snap peas needed training to the first string! 

I made bread too while finishing our last week of school for the year! This is our first year to not be schooling on our farm schedule. We usually did our book work until March 30th, and then we were all in the fields more. So this year marks our first "normal school year" while the public school were the abnormal ones! 

I'll share some pictures of my week at the end of this post...so stick around! These 5 things I've learned in the garden are reminders for us Grandmothers, and vital for young mothers to learn. I'm praying this post will enable you to be all God has called you to be whatever your present calling in life.

1.   Get the weeds out when they're small! The same goes for the "weeds" in our children's hearts and lives. They're never too young to begin learning. The younger they are, the easier it is to weed out the problems.

2.   Train your peas (or tomatoes) when they are short and just reach

the first string of support. If you wait for a better time in a few days, the vine may snap easily when you bend it into place. 

Your children learn best with the least effort and heartache in the first 5-7 years of their lives. It just so happens that's when you'll be the tiredest and busiest. Don't give yourself room for excuses. They'll emotionally "snap" in your relationship if you decided your're going to make up for lost time when they're older. 

3. Water your tiny seedlings daily, for their roots can't reach far for water yet.

 Share the Water of the Word (Bible) with your children daily, for they can't sustain themselves yet. Children love stories! Gather your children around you and read from a Bible Storybook daily...then open your Bible to a passage that goes with the story. (Ex. When reading about Samson, teach your children to "obey their parents in the Lord for this is right."  Samson could have avoided the trouble in his life if he had obeyed his parents. )

Another application is to shower your love on your children daily. I didn't come from a"huggy home" so this has been a learned experience for me...but children thrive with a hug, back scratch, or kind touch several times a day. For my youngest child, it's "butterfly kisses" when I say my final goodnight after praying in the dark of her room at night. Study to know your child, and a good balance of the Word and Love will nourish them.

4. There's a process called "hardening off" that a plant needs so they don't go into shock, wilt, and die when you transplant them.  Do not put them straight outside after careful tending (either from the greenhouse nursery or your own efforts). I put my plug flats of tiny seedlings on tables in the shade when they are almost ready to go into the garden. After a few days of getting used to the filtered sun and breezes I move them to another location that has more sun, but not full sun. After another day or two I move these tables with flats into full sun for a week or more. We often bring them inside in late afternoon if cold weather is forecasted for that night. When we can leave them out for a few nights and the evening temps are reliablly in the 50's and 60's, we plan a planting day in the garden. Even then I cover my most tender plants with shade cloth, an overturned flower pot (has holes on the bottom) or a couple of boards that I lean together to make a shadey covering. This gives the transplant a sheltered place to put their roots down. 

My application to children here is not accepted by most people...but sheltering a child until they are strong enough to stand for truth and not bend to the pressure to conform to this world is VERY important.  This is one reason we choose to home school our oldest son in 1986.  We took seriously God's admonition in Deuteronomy 6 to teach our children ourselves, for one day WE are the ones who will be held accountable. Later when we farmed full-time with 13 farmer's markets to run in east

Tennessee we needed to "divide and conquer"!  We chose to send a a younger out with an older (18 and up) who could help them learn to deal with the public at a market. They could give cautions to them and prayerfully keep a good eye on them as their "boundaries" were being stretched a bit. But we go most everywhere as a family, and it is a rare thing for a child to go out without a parent nowadays. 

If your child is in Little League,  public school, or even a Sunday School class,  they will be dealing with situations you are not in control over, and they may not be strong enough yet to deal with. Other people's values/agendas will become theirs. Shelter them as you would a seedling...be careful who you allow to watch your children for you...Decide ahead of time your guidelines for choosing reading material or tv programs. Even if everyone thinks you are smoothering your child, you know that one day the shade cloth of protection will gradually come off and your child will be strong enough to be all God created him to be. Until then, tend your lil' seedling till he's "hardened off" and ready to be transplanted in the world. Don't be in a hurry.

5. Stop to enjoy your garden's beauty! We rush through our days seeing only the things need tending. The garden reminds me to stop, be thankful for what God's growing, and to patiently wait for the harvest.

As busy Mommas we often work down our to-do list with an eye on the next item that needs completing. Since our move to this lil' farm in late January, the Lord has been teaching me to slow down and enjoy a quiet moment and be thankful for what He's doing.  I've had to set an alarm on my phone to remind me to take a "blessing break" mid-morning and afternoon. Ideally I like to grab my water cup and go sit by the pond for a few minutes (usually only 5-10 minutes) thanking the Lord for all He's doing in my life. If I am already in the garden or can't drop the chore I'm working on my mind can take time to be thankful.  I read once that if you don't see your prayers being answered, check up on how you are thanking the Lord for what He IS doing.  With my ever increasingly large family to pray for, I need to keep my eyes focused on what He has blessed me with and what He is doing. There's so much beauty all around me, so I need to focus on that!

My new cottage garden is starting to produce its bounty! The farmer and I  had our first salads yesterday with the tiny leaves pinched from the lettuce and spinach plants. Ohhh! I love walking into my garden and pinching off the first tender leaves that were heavy with droplets from the latest shower. My gardens are always a healing place. I never let the children squabble as they worked in the raised beds...there was always something to be excited about! 

HOMESCHOOLING MOMENT:

What's in your yard...park...or the sidewalk in front of your house? Mark off a 3' square (1' square for younger children) in the grass. Sprinkle white flour or around the edge of 

a yardstick or tape measure to mark off your square. Then, with a clipboard or notepad in hand along with a magnifying glass, make a list of all that you find. If possible go beneath the grass and count the bugs or worms. Are there wild flowers growing in your square? Identify them with field guides or Google Lens. (A neat feature we've used a lot this spring in Google Photos.) What weeds are growing in your square? For further research, find out what kind of soil you have to grow these weeds. (Ask Google, "What kind of soil grows clover?) Try to keep that kind of research for AFTER they've spent some time exploring, and even looked up a few things they've found in FIELD GUIDES or encyclopedias! Even little ones can do this with a buddy or parent guiding them. 

If you look closely at my raised beds you'll see squares marked off with wire. We use the square foot gardening method whenever possible, even in the large garden. https://squarefootgardening.com/ I won't go into a lot of detail as it's best to learn straight from the source.  I'd like to share how I used this gardening, and this particular method in our outdoor classroom. (If you have any questions though, just ask below in the comment section.)

From the fall of 1999 till almost 2005 we lived in a 1,000 square foot home with 10 children.  It was the original one room home (that had been added on to) that came with the farm. Long winters inside cramped little boys legs who ached to run in the woods!  By January the boys were more than ready to be outside and done with school work. I would tweak their studies a bit and turn them into a fun unit study on gardening that taught us all and helped the cramped inside days move quicker. Some of these are outdated, but still work today!

*When the seed catalogs came I tucked them away till we needed the diverson. Then I'd

pull them out for everyone to dream over. To my children they were the Sears & Robucks catalogs of my childhood. Dreams of fruitful gardens ran HIGH and lists of wanted seeds ran LONG. Each child made a list of their dream fruits and vegetables on lined paper. (Reading &Handwriting)

*When their lists were pared down, I copied the order form

from the back of the catalogs for them to learn to make out an order. Careful calculations needed to be made along with neat handwriting. To figure out the shipping zone they had to read the map and add in the right charges. Reality hit about then...and they began paring down more on their lists....and the process repeated for each seed company they wanted to order from. (Now, we often combined our order but this allowed each child to learn a skill and stay in a budget.)

*Then before their seeds arrived the children would make a garden journal with each vegetable having a

page. On the page they'd record the date they sowed the seeds, when they emerged, and any problems they may encounter such as bugs they identified, or a blight that hit. They recorded things like how much they harvested, and how much it would have cost at the store. At the end of the harvest a couple of our sons were able to talley how much their square foot beds saved the family from buying! We've drawn grafts where the children measured a cucumber vine each week and recorded its growth too. Our teenage boys learned to cross-pollinate vegetables to create their own hybrids, and even started their own seed company with seeds they saved in their gardens! There are many ways to learn through gardening!

*Square Fooot Gardening is a great way to teach little

ones to count. A 4X4' bed will have 16 squares in it, each 12" x 12". In each square they've figurred out how many vegetables can grow in that space. One tomato plant per square foot, 4 lettuce plants, 9 beets or beans, and 16 smaller root crops like fast growing radish or green onions (scallions). Children love to draw the dividing lines in the dirt and push their fingers in to make the spacing. The best kind of teaching you can do at any age is to work with your children, so include them (or in my case, I had to work to let them include me as they grew!)

 One 4 X 4' raised bed will feed one person throughout the season, and is a "curriculum" you can use from year to year. It will grow more each year as your child grows. Our little ones had a snack garden where they were allowed to pick from  it at any time, but they enjoyed it best right after their naps! They loved to pick

cherry tomatoes, pull a radish, and fill their pockets with snow peas or green beans as they ran off to the woods to "work in their camp". 

Levi and Noah here were learning to measure one foot. Then they hammered in a roofing nail for the the dividing wires. This is the best kind of math class a lil' boy can have!

This is was our outdoor classroom. The baby laid on a blanket where everyone could keep an eye on him, while the preschoolers could contentedly play or work alongside an older. The older children would sit quietly by their raised beds and make their daily entry into their journal (English composition, spelling, & handwriting) or measure their plants while pulling weeds or training climbing plants. We read aloud on the garden bench with little boys flaked out all over the grass. Morning snack time was fun as everyone shared what was growing in their beds, while discussing what we could pick for supper!

Isaac pulled green onions and is posing by his bed. 

This may be hard to read, but it's a first grader's copywork for the day. Since at this age they can't really write in a journal, they dictate what they would like to write to me and then copy it. Even younger ones practiced writing their letters on a garden theme...O is for onion, S is for squash, etc. We'd also do a lot of counting as we planted 9 bean plants to a square, or 16 radishes to a square.  

Our garden school grew the next year into a small business. We ran a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in nearby Dayton, TN.  We supplied a basket of vegetables to 23 families weekly. The two older boys below learned to also sell to restaurants and grocery stores!

Our first customer was another home schooling Mom!

We built more beds for our CSA and the work became a family affair. The weekly responsibilites grew our children in ways book work could never do. 

Adam created a pamphlet that we mailed out to all our friends and family.

(English composition & Computer skills)

Levi and Noah were our onion boys and weekly pulled and washed close to 200 green onions! (With MY help.)

Adam also was our lettuce and radish man, weekly picking, washing and packaging them for the baskets of vegetables we delivered to town. He loaded tables into the van and had a careful eye to what was needed before we left.

Caleb's steady help was a great example to the little boys. He filled sinks with hose water and had our packing area all set up by harvest time. He also harvested all the Swiss Chard, and labeled all our bags....and so much more!

Those were our farm's humble beginnings. But we look back fondly to those fun and carefree days in our gardens.

I had to include one more important thing I've learned in my garden...I really tried to keep it to just 5 things! But this last one is vital,  for along the edges of my garden this week there was grass that the mowers didn't get. If Luke (the baby above)  didn't weed eat right away the seed heads of the grass would lean over the new bed and drop its seeds. I knew from experience that later, they'd spring up and there would a problem because someone was too distracted with their own agenda to come and do the last bit of mowing.

Momma, this is one of satan's tactics. He'll keep us busy busy and distracted with the "crisis" at the moment (you know those things that pile up, or the mischief of a particular lil' one, or even our slothfulness) and we aren't attentive to the important issues. If they are left "uncut"  they will spring up later where you least expect them. Take the time to do what is important in God's eyes. Upcycling your latest yardsale find or making Pintrest meals can wait for a slower season of your life. When your children are young focus on the basics and train little hearts. Don't let the weed seeds fall on the fertile ground of their lives. You are working with the Master Gardener, Jesus Christ to "train them up in the way they should go" not the way they want to go. 

A glimpse at my week...............

                          Luke Alexander Colvin graduated from our home school !

The farmer turned the soil and disked the sod till we had reasonablly soft soil to plant                                                                           in. 

                Our new raspberries, blackberries and elderberries are coming to life!

Living frugally has always been our focus. With many mouths to feed and being careful stewards of what the Lord gives us, I try to find ways to use everything. These biscuits from Saturday were going stale, so I split them, buttered them and then set them on a griddle to freshen them. With homemade jam and honey, no one complained about stale biscuits!

Our new flock of  chickens were given a new run!

We planted potatoes as a family (with even one grandchild "helping") Monday evening until a hard rainstorm drove us from the field. 

The farmer and I planted 50 new asparagus crowns. That's a dramatic decrease from our 10,000 plants on our old farm!

My yogurt this week came out nice and thick...I've learned a lesson about making it in the Instant Pot, make sure it REALLY comes up to a boil (or 180 degrees) before cooling it. I trusted the machine and got two weeks worth of loose yogurt. I froze that yogurt in ice cube trays for smoothies this summer.

This week I made a 3X batch of bread so I could spend more time outside in the gardens. I fermented it overnight in this 3 gallon bucket. 

I got the itch last week to spring clean my new porch and dress it up a bit like I did at my old farmhouse. (The "quiant country cottage above was replaced by a "modern" farmhouse with a wide porch.) I rarely buy anything new, I just look around and regroup things to give a fresh look. I'll be adding plants to the wagon and adding to this until the farmer turned carpenter starts renovating the outside of our home. 

              I made sourdough flatbread pizzas for lunch one day this week. 

I picked our first salad this week! This scoop was made from an old honey container and I've used it all week watering seedlings, scooping potting soil, and then picking and washing the lettuce. 

The farmer bought a family pack of chicken breast on sale this week for $10. By dividing it up into three planned meals I'm set for the week ahead! Meat doesn't always have to be the star of the meal.

May God bless you and keep you this week as you serve HIM in your home. Be watchful for the weeds in your children's lives and stop to enjoy the beauty of the garden you are growing in them....there IS a harvest ahead!

Abundant Blessings,

The Farmer's Wife,

Val Colvin