Planning
One fun way to decide what to plant is draw a garden mural.
Hang a big piece of craft paper on a wall labeled “What I want in the garden.” Children then draw and write their ideas for the garden.
Once you have a list of what you want to plant, now you can design your garden plot.
In large gardens, many people plant in rows with similar veggies together. However, when working with youth in small plots, why not add an art element to your gardening project by creating patterns out of the vegetables you’re growing. It is easy to create a simple geometric pattern like those used in quilts.
Materials needed to plan:
- Pencils, colored pencils, and large erasers
- Photographs or clip art of quilt squares (I’ve included a few examples you could print or trace bigger)
- Photos of garden plants available for your gardens, color printed
- Masking tape
Time to Design!
Each Growing Gardener will choose a quilt square design. They will then tape the photos of plants in a cool, unique design. Children may also draw their veggies if preferred. Photographs of plants can be sorted into three categories: use me for big spaces, use me for small spaces, and use me for borders. Here are some suggestions, but you are not limited to:
- Use me for big spaces: lettuces, spinach, beets, broccoli, tomatoes
- Use me for small spaces: radishes, edible flowers, beans
- Use me for borders: onions and carrots (their tall, slender habit makes them great for outlining)