Bartholomew - Square Foot Gardening with Kids: Learn Together: Gardening Basics: Science and Math: Water Conservation: Self-sufficiency: Healthy Eating

Learn Together:

Gardening basics Science and math Water conservation Self-sufficiency Healthy eating

MEL BARTHOLOMEW

First published in 2014 by Cool Springs Press, an imprint of the Quayside Publishing Group, 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401

2014 Cool Springs Press

Text 2014 Square Foot Gardening Foundation

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Digital edition: 978-1-61058-982-6
Softcover edition: 978-1-59186-594-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bartholomew, Mel.

Square foot gardening with kids : learn together : gardening basics : science and math, water conservation, self-sufficiency, healthy eating / Mel Bartholomew.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-59186-594-0 (sc)

1. Vegetable gardening. 2. Square foot gardening. 3. Gardening for children. I. Title.

SB321.B284 2014

635--dc23

2013039020

Acquisitions Editor: Mark Johanson

Design Manager: Brad Springer

Layout: Ryan Scheife, Mayfly Design

Special thanks to our Junior Square Foot Gardeners who helped out with this book:

Ava Dilley, Eli Dilley, Aspen Danielle Foy, Autumn Glory Foy, Nate Gilg, Chloe Laun, Luke Laun, Anna Lukens, Graham Markert, Leo Pernu, Cole Schiele, David Sutch

H i, Im Mel Bartholomew, the founder of Square Foot Gardening, and Im happy to have written this new book. Ive been meaning to write a book on gardening with kids ever since I started teaching Square Foot Gardening almost forty years ago. The reason is simple: kids love to play in the dirt and watch their plants grow into food. In fact, kids have always been my best and most enthusiastic students.

Square Foot Gardening is more than just another activity to entertain children. It is also an ideal way for parents, grandparents, teachers, and leaders to teach a million useful lessons on practically every imaginable subject. If you are looking for a way to learn, have fun, and bond with the youngsters in your life, you wont find a better, healthier, more positive (and fun!) vehicle than building, planting, and harvesting an SFG together.

Square Foot Gardening with Kids is all about kids and gardening, but it is written mostly for adults because you are the ones who will be doing most of the teaching. In the pages that follow, youre going to find lots and lots of ideas for how to get kids involved with a Square Foot Garden, and how to teach them lessons from math, to reading and writing, to art. Just keep in mind that you know your childand yourselfbest. If math in the garden isnt going to fly and might turn your kids off, well then move on to another subject. Sometimes, you dont need anything more than to be teaching children the value of growing their own food and the simple pleasure of getting out in the garden and being a part of nature. But however you choose to engage your kids, youre going to find plenty of examples of how to approach different learning and life subjects through the teaching lens of Square Foot Gardening.

Building, planting, tending, and harvesting your own kid-sized Square Foot Gardening box is a fun and rewarding project for kids as well as adults.

What Is Square Foot Gardening?

I developed the idea of Square Foot Gardening 40 years ago and I have spent most of my time since then talking about it and teaching it to new Square Foot Gardeners. I have a lot to say about itnot just about how it is done, but also about how much good it can do in the world. Youll figure this out pretty quickly as you read through my book. But having said that, Square Foot Gardening with Kids is specifically about kids and teaching and learning and having fun. Ill give you enough information about the method as we go along that you can teach the material. But if youre new to the method and are serious about learning all the intricacies and benefits, youll need to look somewhere else. May I suggest the second edition of All New Square Foot Gardening that we published in 2013?

Following is a concise introduction to the nuts and bolts (and some of the whys) that anyone starting a Square Foot Garden needs to know.

My book, All New Square Foot Gardening, will answer practically any question you might have about the SFG method. It is a good background source, but you and your kids can easily make your own kid-size box and garden using just the information you find in Square Foot Gardening with Kids.

A kid-size Square Foot Garden is a simple planting box thats 3-ft. square and is divided into 1-ft. planting grids (the full-sized version is a 4 x 4-ft. box with 16 squares).

A Square Foot Garden takes all the work out of gardeningno digging, no weeding, no kidding! A simple, easy way to grow fresh, tasty food.

The Simplestand BestGardening Method

Before you start teaching or learning anything with SFG, you need to know the basics of the method. Thank goodness the method was very simple to start with, and I refined it recently to make even simpler. I like to say that Square Foot Gardening is as much about what you dont need, as what you do need. With SFG, you dont need a lot of room in your backyard, you dont need good soil, you dont need backbreaking work constantly digging and weeding, you dont need tools, and you dont need fertilizer, pesticides, or insecticides. SFG is an all-natural, organic way to garden. You wont need a lot of time, and you wont need aspirinbecause youre not going to be doing the type of digging and weeding or other traditional gardening work that makes you exhausted and sore. That simplicity is what makes SFG the perfect activity to do with kids. Even young ones will understand the basics right away, and because they wont be digging and weeding half the day under the hot sun, theyll enjoy it and stick with it.