For Day 3, we will meet in Mott 8
Agenda for the day:
- 1030-1130am Dave Gibbs from Oryana's will guest speak with the class about organic healthy eating and GMOs
- Discuss companion gardening
- Seed ID game
- Discuss square foot gardening
- Work on sfg diagram
- Learn about GMOs
- Watch video
Learning how to garden can be a critical tool to you and your family's success if done well. While gardening may seem very simple to do, it is, in fact, quite complex. There are so many factors to consider when gardening: climate and growing zone, types of seeds, types of foods, space required for growing, natural predators, watering, composting, soil type, and many more! Gardening is something that anyone in a survival situation must learn how to master in order to be successful over a long period of time.
Companion gardening - It takes more than good soil, sun, and nutrients to ensure success in a garden. Plants have to grow well with one another.
Some are friends and some are foes! Learn more about companion planting or what is also called companion gardening.
Examples of Companion Plants [click here for list of compatibles]
Tips for Your Vegetable Garden
Incompatible Plants (Combatants)
Sometimes plants may be helpful to one another only at a certain stage of their growth. The number and ratio of different plants growing together is often a factor in their compatibility, and sometimes plants make good companions for no apparent reason.
Some are friends and some are foes! Learn more about companion planting or what is also called companion gardening.
Examples of Companion Plants [click here for list of compatibles]
- Blueberries, mountain laurel, azaleas, and other ericaceous (heath family) plants thrive in the acidic soils created by pines and oaks.
- Shade-loving plants seek the shelter provided by a wooded grove.
- The shade-lovers in return protect the forest floor from erosion with their thick tangle of shallow roots.
- Legumes and some trees, such as alders, have symbiotic relationships with bacteria in the soil that help them to capture nitrogen from the air and convert it to fertilizer, enriching the soil so plants can prosper in their presence.
Tips for Your Vegetable Garden
- Some plants, especially herbs, act as repellents, confusing insects with their strong odors that mask the scent of the intended host plants.
- Dill and basil planted among tomatoes protect the tomatoes from hornworms, and sage scattered about the cabbage patch reduces injury from cabbage moths.
- Marigolds are as good as gold when grown with just about any garden plant, repelling beetles, nematodes, and even animal pests.
- Some companions act as trap plants, luring insects to themselves. Nasturtiums, for example, are so favored by aphids that the devastating insects will flock to them instead of other plants.
- Carrots, dill, parsley, and parsnip attract garden heroes -- praying mantises, ladybugs, and spiders -- that dine on insect pests.
- Much of companion planting is common sense: Lettuce, radishes, and other quick-growing plants sown between hills of melons or winter squash will mature and be harvested long before these vines need more leg room.
- Leafy greens like spinach and Swiss chard grown in the shadow of corn
- Sunflowers appreciate the dapple shade that corn casts and, since their roots occupy different levels in the soil, don't compete for water and nutrients.
Incompatible Plants (Combatants)
- While white garlic and onions repel a plethora of pests and make excellent neighbors for most garden plants, the growth of beans and peas is stunted in their presence.
- Potatoes and beans grow poorly in the company of sunflowers, and although cabbage and cauliflower are closely related, they don't like each other at all.
Sometimes plants may be helpful to one another only at a certain stage of their growth. The number and ratio of different plants growing together is often a factor in their compatibility, and sometimes plants make good companions for no apparent reason.
- You would assume that keeping a garden weed-free would be a good thing, but this is not always the case. Certain weeds pull nutrients from deep in the soil and bring them close to the surface. When the weeds die and decompose, nutrients become available in the surface soil and are more easily accessed by shallow-rooted plants.
- Perhaps one of the most intriguing examples of strange garden bedfellows is the relationship between the weed stinging nettle and several vegetable varieties. For reasons that are unclear, plants grown in the presence of stinging nettle display exceptional vigor and resist spoiling.
Square foot gardening - the practice of planning and creating small but intensively planted gardens. The practice combines concepts from other organic gardening methods, including a strong focus on compost, densely planted raised beds and biointensive attention to a small, clearly defined area. This method is particularly well-suited for areas with poor soil, beginner gardeners or as adaptive recreation for those with disabilities (Bartholomew, 2005). The phrase "square foot gardening" was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in a 1981 Rodale Press book and subsequent PBS television series.
Conventional gardening can require heavy tools to loosen the soil, whereas in square foot gardening methods the soil is typically not walked on and thus not compacted, and it remains loose and more easily workable due to the composition of the recommended soil mixture. Weeds may be easier to remove due to the light soil, and accessing them can be easier as raised beds bring the soil level closer to the gardener.
Using specific soil mixtures within the beds can help to increase water-holding capacities, so that the garden needs less additional water than in systems reliant on the native soil. In the "All New Square Foot Gardening" book, Mel Bartholomew recommends the following soil mixture: one-third compost, one-third peat moss, and one-third vermiculite. Water is also spared by hand-watering directly at the plant roots, so that there is very little waste and tender young plants and seedlings are preserved.
Densely planted crops can form a living mulch, and also prevent weeds from establishing or even germinating.
Natural insect repellent methods such as companion planting (i.e. planting marigolds or other naturally pest-repelling plants) become more efficient in a close space, which may reduce the need to use pesticides. The large variety of crops in a small space also prevents plant diseases from spreading easily.
Click here for a chart on square foot gardening space requirements and some basic tips on square foot gardening.
Conventional gardening can require heavy tools to loosen the soil, whereas in square foot gardening methods the soil is typically not walked on and thus not compacted, and it remains loose and more easily workable due to the composition of the recommended soil mixture. Weeds may be easier to remove due to the light soil, and accessing them can be easier as raised beds bring the soil level closer to the gardener.
Using specific soil mixtures within the beds can help to increase water-holding capacities, so that the garden needs less additional water than in systems reliant on the native soil. In the "All New Square Foot Gardening" book, Mel Bartholomew recommends the following soil mixture: one-third compost, one-third peat moss, and one-third vermiculite. Water is also spared by hand-watering directly at the plant roots, so that there is very little waste and tender young plants and seedlings are preserved.
Densely planted crops can form a living mulch, and also prevent weeds from establishing or even germinating.
Natural insect repellent methods such as companion planting (i.e. planting marigolds or other naturally pest-repelling plants) become more efficient in a close space, which may reduce the need to use pesticides. The large variety of crops in a small space also prevents plant diseases from spreading easily.
Click here for a chart on square foot gardening space requirements and some basic tips on square foot gardening.
What are GMO's? Why should we care? Watch the video here and let's discuss.
Let's also talk about how kids can get involved about learning about pesticides here.
Let's also talk about how kids can get involved about learning about pesticides here.
Homework: Design and draw a small companion garden bed - 4x8ft. using what you know of square foot gardening and companion gardening. What would you put in this bed and why?