“If you wish to make anything grow, you must understand it, and understand it in a very real sense. ‘Green fingers’ are a fact, and a mystery only to the unpracticed. But green fingers are the extensions of a verdant heart.”
I've been dreaming of growing our Spring garden since we moved to our new home in November for several reasons— as a creature of habit, I feel lost and idle without a garden to tend to, and the girls seem uninterested in spending time in a backyard with just a lawn of grass. In every home we’ve moved into its been my top priority to add our personal touch and color to the landscape; and if there isn’t a garden, we grow one. These past few months have been somewhat of a slow process.
Ultimately, the garden is the heart of our homeschool life. No matter how big or small, it provides us many moments of education in leisure and in class hours. In the primer years, I invest a lot of time teaching the girls how to grow their own herbs, flowers, and vegetables from seed, They also learn how to take notes of their observations and illustrate our kitchen garden's slow changes throughout the seasons.
x jena
photos & garden notes
01/05 Sandie, Leia, and Ema helped to sow the first seeds of the new year to jumpstart our spring garden. Ideally we would be using terracotta pots, but instead, we are using reusable seed trays and plastic pots from my parent’s house.
01/16 This unused space was truly an answered prayer. It replaced the 4 cedar garden beds my husband built in California with Evie, which we sold to someone before we left.
02/12 Once I pulled out the weeds and amended the soil in February, I transplanted the seedlings into the beds. I bought marigolds, lavender, mint, sage, basil and rosemary seedlings from the store to fill the beds in; and also transplanted chives my mom was growing at her house. We had experienced significant rain, but thankfully the bed had excellent drainage. However, all seedlings showed signs of poor growth with little to no sunlight during those months.
03/05 Snails and slugs have already caused a lot of destruction in the beds over the last month— the marigolds, zinnias, and rows of collards and kale (on both sides of the row of arugula) have been devoured.
03/13 Sandie measures the growth of our plants and records it in her nature journal.
03/05 Approximately two dozen Giant Cactus Zinnias were planted in this tray, but 1/4 of the seedlings vanished overnight.
3/05 Chamomile sprouting
4/24 Once I transplanted it along the border of the garden bed, gastropods had a feast.
3/20 Lupine
4/24 Majority of the lupine got eaten after being transplanted into the garden bed.
3/20 Rows of seedings (lacinto kale, collard greens, marigolds, and ruby red chard planted alongside the arugula) keep getting devoured after every succession planting.
3/29 Planted a row of chives in the back to deter pests, and thyme in front for texture and ground cover. This area should be full of a dozen zinnia plants, but more than half has been eaten up.
3/29 Kale sprouting between a row of arugula and chives.
4/24 No luck in kale seedlings when direct sown into beds. Every succession has been devoured by pests. However, the arugula still stands and the chives are growing wonderfully!
3/29 Morning routine.
4/03 April showers and the view from my work desk.
4/3 Trellis for Dwarf Sugar Peas
4/6 Leia playing in the Resurrection Garden.
4/10 Dill is always better freshly picked!
4/10 Ema’s Easter Resurrection Garden, turned into a little home for her figurines.
4/10 Beet seedlings covered with a repurposed plastic egg tray to protect it from snails. Crushed egg shells also line the front of the bed.
4/22 Dwarf Sugar Snap Peas flowering
4/24 Cilantro flowering near basil and dill
4/24 Morning duties before the rain clouds rolled in on a perfect gardening day.
