Fall Garden : Planting the seeds

As most of the kids were heading to their first day back at school this week, my kids were heading to Bowen's Farm Supply store to pick up some seeds to start planting our fall garden. I can't think of a better place to learn then a garden, and I find that the more time I spend there with my children, the happier we all are. Both Jetta and Pilot wanted to plant their own garden, so I helped them pick their seeds and get started. We are planting Beets, Collards, rutabagas, turnips, chard, kale, and broccoli. On this morning of planting we started by getting our hands in the dirt and learning about the natural ecosystem in the soil with the roots from spring and summer plants and worms and bugs all helping to create a perfect environment for life to start.  We practiced being gentle with the seeds and the soil and talked about how we would care for these little seeds each day to make sure they got enough water to sprout. We felt and observed how each seed was different and learned about how much sun and space each plant would need to grow.  We also decided that we would need to make signs for our garden to identify the plants and to make our garden more beautiful. So we got out our paints, found rocks from around the yard that would be perfect for the job, and created some colorful little pieces of art for the garden.  Now, we just have to tend the garden each day and wait for the first little spec of green to appear.  We can hardly wait.