Have you ever used green bean seeds and plants for your nature study? This is a wonderful way to share the complete growing cycle. With your children start your study with the bean seeds, then the plants, then the flowers, then the beans, back to the seed again!
I also want to share a link to one of my gardening entries from 2009 that I think will inspire newbies to gardening. Take a look at this entry and find some encouragement to start even a small garden:
Gardening Doesn’t Need to be Complicated
If you are a member here on the Handbook of Nature Study, you will find this archive challenge in the Crop Plants Challenges ebook. In the book, you will find a custom notebook page to use with your green bean study.
I helped my dad in his garden today…picking corn! He has so much of it that he is tired of eating corn so our family was obliged to take some ears for our dinner. 🙂
He purchased Renee’s Garden seeds and planted three rows and all of it came up and is producing lots of sweet corn.
I was wishing I had some kids that could do a corn nature study using the Corn Study from the archives here on the Handbook of Nature Studyas part of the Crop Plants series we did several years ago.
For now, I will just eat corn until we are tired of it!
Hopefully you all get the link to the newsletter with today’s post if you are a subscriber. If you don’t get the link, let me know. I can’t figure out why some didn’t get it yesterday.
We went camping in Oregon for a week and while we were gone our garden decided to spring into life. I have it all on an automatic drip system so we knew it would be nicely watered in our absence. There were some surprises for us when we got back.
Our green beans have all started climbing their poles and I am afraid that I over-planted this veggie. We love green beans and I may need to learn how to preserve them so they don’t go to waste.
The tomato decided to really grow! It looks super healthy and I can hardly wait for the fruits to appear and ripen…then it will truly feel like summer.
The squash has come alive as well. The plants have green luscious leaves and seem to like the box I chose for them this year.
My patio tomatoes look fantastic…they are from Renee’s Garden in their Container Kitchen Garden Collection.
The Pots of Gold Chard (from Renee’s Garden Container Kitchen Garden collection) looks great too and I hope it is not going to get too hot for it before we harvest. I may pick some smaller leaves and add them to some soup.
The blackberries are thick with fruit this year. We had to trim the vines back because they were beginning to take over their little space over in the front corner garden. We had lots of berry treats in Oregon and it whetted my appetite for our own blackberries that will ripen next month. Then I will have blue stained fingers most mornings as I make my round of the garden, nibbling the delicious sweet berries.
There are lots of flower seedlings in my fence garden and I will share those as they mature and bloom. I can hardly stand the wait. The sunflowers are up tall and look like they will burst open with huge flower heads any day! That is always a fun time as they all start to blossom and the bees and butterflies arrive to enjoy them too.
This year Renee’s Garden sent me my whole seed order as a gift so that I could share my results with my dear blog readers. I love the selection of seeds found at Renee’s Garden and I have grown them in my garden for many years. I usually order them directly from their website but my dad purchased his whole garden seed order at our local Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) which would even be easier!
We got our seeds in the ground last month and we are already seeing tremendous growth in the veggie and flower gardens!
Our Blue Lake pole beans have all sprouted and with the heat we are getting this week we should probably see them double in size. The seeds we planted are from Renee’s Garden Organic Seed Collection. I am so thrilled to have these in my garden that I planted two different boxes with these green bean sesds. I am anxious to see how they taste!
This is something new for our family from Renee’s: Tricolor Zucchini. The zucchini seeds are mixed in the packet and contain three different kinds of squash. The seedlings look strong and are growing like crazy. I have a whole houseful of zucchini lovers so hopefully we will get our fill of squash this summer.
A whole row of sunflowers…which need to be thinned a bit. We have three really big ones which were self-sowed from last year’s crop but there are some little seedlings that we planted from our Renee’s Garden seeds. There are Van Gogh, Chocolate Cherry, and Royal Flush.
We planted plenty of morning glories right in the middle of our back garden. I am hoping they do well here and have been watching them grow week by week. Morning glories make me super happy and I love to draw them in my nature journal…relaxing. The seeds we picked are a heritage blend that are traditionally grown to decorate fences and mailboxes.
There are also some really pretty showy flowers in the garden right now which are not from Renee’s Garden but I want to share with you.
The hydrangeas are very happy this year and this is my favorite color…so delicate.
In my container deck garden there is a beautiful calla lily blooming. This plant always surprises me when it pops back to life after the winter weather. It soon will be a whole pot full of blooms which the hummingbirds and I will enjoy.
It is very hard to believe that it is day lily blooming time but they are all budding out and a few are blossoming.
I love the peachy color of this day lily and am always happy to see it in bloom in my butterfly/hummingbird garden.
There are lots more of Renee’s Garden seeds to share and I will as the season progresses. I am always happy to share our favorite seed company with my blog readers.
I have been eagerly anticipating this month’s focus on garden flowers and crops because I love planning my garden and spending time enjoying it. Using the flowers and plants in our yard, nature study is more personal and meaningful. I encourage you all to try to study one garden flower from the Handbook of Nature Study this month. If you are overwhelmed with the choices, pick a petunia for the up-coming brand new study that I will post later this month.
Contents of this edition of the newsletter include:
4 fabulous articles sharing different garden related activities for your family
May Study Grid – actually two grids this month!
Garden Flowers – printable notebook page
Nature Study Spotlight Family
Lots of extra links this month
Chart correlating the Outdoor Hour Challenge garden flowers and crop plant studies with the Handbook of Nature Study
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Our crop plant study as part of the June Newsletter suggestions focused on corn. Yes, corn. We haven’t had much luck in the past growing corn but we wanted to try again this year as part of our Three Sisters Garden where we plant corn, beans, and squash as companions. (There is an official Corn Crop Plants Challenge on my sidebar. You can just observe an ear of corn and make an entry if you wish.)
We did some reading beforehand and realized that we needed to plant more corn than we usually do so it will have a better chance of pollinating. We planted the corn in mounds and have let it grow to around six inches high before planting the beans around the corn and then pumpkins in alternating mounds between the corn. You can find complete directions HERE on Renee’s Garden website (love this website).
Here are our young corn plants. We have been using homemade compost to enrich our soil and every time I dig around to weed the mounds I find oodles of earthworms. I am hoping that is a good sign for our corn and its health.
We had to put tomato cages around each mound for now to keep the critters out…..human kind and canine kind as well.
I noticed that there is a potato growing in the row so we decided to leave it and see what happens with it. We have never grown potatoes but there must have been one left in the compost when it was dumped in this section of the garden.
We read in the Handbook of Nature Study that corn study can take place in the spring as soon as the leaves appear and that because the corn plant grows so fast that it is a great season long study. We will be watching anxiously as our corn grows and in Lesson 168 in the Handbook of Nature Study there are many interesting observations to make as the plant grows.
You can purchase a set of notebook pages to go along with all the Crop Plants studies in the Handbook of Nature StudyHERE. There are also challenges listed on the right sidebar of my blog to go along with them.
We are also anxious for our green beans to start their vines…our poles are ready!
Don’t forget to post and then share your crop plant study with the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Here is the link to ENTER.
From last year….fields of pumpkins not too far from our house….taken as we cruised along in the car.
Pumpkin is one of our favorite ingredients for goodies in our family. Pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie are all partaken of year round. We started our pumpkins at the start of the Crop Plants Challenges but although the vines look healthy, there are plenty of blossoms, I fear we will not have a pumpkin crop from our garden this year.
It is a very good thing that Grandpa has been growing pumpkins right from the start and has been sharing his plants with us as they progress.
As part of our pumpkin study, we decided to make a pumpkin pie totally from scratch. This meant a phone call to Grandpa to ask if we could have one of his pumpkins from his garden. He responded quickly, “Of course!” He even delivered it to us and we got started.
Cutting the pumpkin was done with a big knife.
The guts of the pumpkin were scooped out first with a spoon but eventually that was set aside and bare hands were used. Lots of gushing around was done, seeds spilled on the floor, and strings stuck on the counter but it was ready to be cooked. We used a baking pan and the microwave to steam the pumpkin which took about 15 minutes at high.
Afterward we us used a food mill to smash the pumpkin and measure out exactly three cups of gorgeous golden pumpkin puree.
My youngest son actually made this pie all by himself…..crust and all. He used this recipe.
It took us hours to make the pie by the time we cut the pumpkin, cleaned it out, steamed it, pureed it, mixed up the crust, mixed up the pie filling, and baked it to perfection. Was it worth it? Absolutely! My son now has a great appreciation for how much work goes into a pumpkin pie from scratch. He also learned a lot about the structure of the pumpkin. Lastly, he was so proud of his pie and dished it up for dessert with a big smile on his face.
We have been enjoying fresh tomatoes from our garden for quite some time now. There just is no comparison between homegrown and store bought tomatoes. I actually don’t like the store bought ones very much. It wasn’t until I grew my own tomatoes that I learned what a tomato really should taste like.
We did a bit of research into various kinds of tomatoes. There is a farm near our home that grows a variety of heirloom tomatoes that are amazing in color and shape. We are inspired to give a few a try next year. Does anyone have any experience with a particular variety? Source for seeds?
We completed our study with a few tomatoes from the garden, closely observing the seeds and flesh of the tomato.
The notebook page was filled out and filed away in the nature notebook.
But as usual, most of our time was spent outdoors in the garden looking at the plants, blossoms, and ripening tomatoes. There are quite a few blossoms on each of our two remaining tomato plants. The weather is still pretty hot and I think we have a good chance of having tomatoes at least until the end of the month.
We noted the smell of the tomato plant when you rub it and how it makes most of us itchy after working in the garden. This year is the first time we have pruned our tomato plants as they grew and it seems to have helped in two areas. First, we seem to have larger tomatoes and secondly, the plants don’t bend and break so much.
We use a wire tomato cage around each plant to help support the branches but before trimming, the branches still try to get really long and scrawny. We trim those off as they start to stick out over the path.
Tomatoes are a great crop to grow in your garden. If you didn’t get a chance this year, make sure to plan to grow a few in your yard next spring and summer. You will not be disappointed.
Inside Preparation Work We have come to the last of our crop plant challenges. This week we will be observing tomatoes. Since there is no section in the Handbook of Nature Study for the tomato, I found a couple of things that will help you share information with your children. You might like to read the article and watch the video in preparation for this challenge.
1. Read pages 20-21 “Gardening and Nature Study”. This small section will remind you of the value of keeping a garden or at least a small box or container with a few plants to observe.
2. Make sure to get fresh tomatoes to observe during your follow-up time. The ideal way would be to pick them from your own garden but buying them at the grocery or at your local farmers market will work just as well. If you can, have on hand two different kinds of tomatoes to compare during your follow-up time: cherry tomato, plum tomato, beefsteak tomato, green tomato, or different heirloom varieties.
Outdoor Time3. Make sure to spend 10-15 minutes outdoors in your backyard or a near-by park. If you have tomatoes or other crop plants growing in your garden, make sure to spend some time observing the plants, insects, birds, or other living things that visit from time to time. Collect a few leaves or flowers to put in your press and then in your nature journal. You might check on your seasonal tree to see if it has changed since your last observation.
Follow-Up Activity
4. Take a few minutes to talk about anything your child found outside that was interesting. Use the Handbook of Nature study, previous challenges, or local field guides to learn more information. Give you child a chance to express in their own words something they experienced outdoors.
5. If you have a real tomato to observe and taste, you can make a journal entry to record a sketch or thoughts about the tomato. (If you purchased the Crop Plants notebook pages, you will have a page to record your observations.)
Here are some journal ideas to get you started:
If your tomato has a stem and leaf, make sure to sketch those in your journal.
Measure the size of your tomato with a measuring tape.
Compare different tomatoes.
Cut your tomato crosswise and observe the seed pattern.
Describe the texture of the tomato skin and the inside flesh of the tomato.
Take time to observe the smell of the tomato and record your description.
Remove some seeds and compare them to other seeds you have studied during the crop plant challenges. (size, shape, location, color, texture)
Make a watercolor painting of your tomato or just its cross-section.
New for this series of challenges are custom made notebook pages for each crop plant we will study. I have designed simple to use pages that will complement each challenge and will be an easy way to start a nature journal. Each of the eight notebook pages is in full color, but they are just as great in black and white.
“Red, shiny, green leaves and yellow spots. It is oval in shape with a bulge on top. The leaves are short with small black lines. It is cool to the touch and slightly fuzzy. It is extremely sweet.”
Quote from my son’s journal page
I didn’t need to do much encouraging to get the boys to participate in this nature study challenge. They are always eager to help in the strawberry box. In fact the box belongs to my middle son and he keeps it well tended.
Funny thing is that many times he comes up into the house empty handed….wonder where those berries go between the garden and the kitchen?
Pick, wash, eat….you can’t get any fresher than that!
We used the lesson ideas in the Handbook of Nature Study to focus a little on the strawberry and to see what we could learn. Then we went out to our garden to investigate our plants. We have two varieties of strawberries: June berries and Everbearing. We have a big crop of berries that we harvest early in the summer and then we have plants that keep on producing a few berries all summer long.
We observed the blossom and leaves.
We saw this little berry where the petals of the flower had just dropped off and the berry is just starting to poke out and be seen.
We found a little bit bigger green berry to compare to the others.
Here are some berries growing large and pink. Look at all those seeds on the outside of the strawberry.
Like I said, not many berries end up in the kitchen but we did manage to bring up some to complete a nature journal page before they were gobbled up as well.
Here in California strawberries are a popular crop and you don’t have to go far to find a roadside stand selling fresh berries of all kinds. My husband has been working down in the Monterey area and they have strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries growing commercially there. He is loving the fresh fruits and promises to bring some home when he is able. He has been working on the Lockheed Fire since last week and we are missing him terribly. He is our hero though and I know that he doesn’t mind doing his job when the need arises.
Hope you enjoy your strawberry study soon and don’t forget to share your blog entries. Crop Plants Notebook Pages – Companion to the Crop Plants Challenges
Custom made notebook pages for each crop plant challenge. I have designed simple to use pages that will complement each challenge and will be an easy way to start a nature journal. Each of the eight notebook pages is in full color, but they are just as great in black and white. These notebook pages can be purchased for $2.50.
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