We started gardening in 2021 as a way to get outside, grow our own food, and spend time together tech-free. When we decided to homeschool, it was really natural to extend our studies into the garden. After all, it is the most beautiful classroom and naturally grounds our nervous systems. If you have yet to experience the beauty and calm of a garden, or have burnt out over the hot summer or a hard season, then I hope this post inspires you to consider how a garden may help you as you learn alongside your child(ren). Here we go—
- Connect your Native American studies to your garden by planting a Three Sisters Garden.
- Explore early American history by planting a European Settler Kitchen Garden.
- Expand your geography studies by planting a Continent Garden with plants, practices, and structures used on that continent. Here are some photos from our Asia Garden from our Kindergarten homeschool year.
- Experience hands-on science with a Pollinator Garden and Monarch Waystation. Register your yard too! You could pair this with raising butterflies and ladybugs, then releasing them into your blooming garden. Expand this study with older children by learning about different types of pollination and how plants multiply. You could further expand this by learning about bees.
- Go in depth on the history of medicine, and plant a Medicinal Garden. Older students may really enjoy expanding this into creating tinctures, oxymels, salves, and more. The Apothecary’s Wife by Karen Bloom Gevirtz is a great deep dive into the history of the transition from kitchen medicine to modern day pharmaceuticals.
- Take Charlotte Mason’s Tea Time & Poetry to the next level by planting a Tea Garden, then harvest and prepare your own tea each week and read your poetry in the garden. A number of good plants for this are perennials, so you could make this garden part of your landscape.
- Expand your business studies by planting a Market Garden. Have your student create a business plan, keep track of costs, and measure harvests. Will they be profitable in year one? What about year two? Will they sell subscriptions (CSA), at the farmer’s market, or specialize and sell to wholesalers?
- Experience chemistry by becoming a soil scientist and studying the same plants in soils with different ph levels. Did you know that hydrangeas turn blue in acidic soil and pink in alkaline soil? What if you try to propagate blueberry bushes into both types of soil? Follow the scientific method and see what happens. Extend your study by reading about Elizabeth Coleman White and how she domesticated blueberries into the varieties we have today.
- Test growing in different mediums with a Nontraditional Garden. Inoculate logs to grow mushrooms and discover the Kingdom of Fungi! Grow plants hydroponically in a DIY system or go high tech with a Tower Garden. Read about our experience growing in a Tower Garden here. Recycle straw bales from fall decor and create a straw bale garden for your spring plants.
- Take your handiwork projects to the next level and plant an Artist’s Garden. Grow violas and other edible leaves and flowers, then preserve them for cake decorating by brushing with a mixture of egg whites and water, then dusting with sugar. Or, dry them and make flower sprinkles. Grow high pigmented flowers and berries and make your own natural dyes and paints. Grow the Van Gogh Sunflower Mix from Sunflower Steve, then recreate the famous painting from your garden.
As you can see, there are endless options to bring your studies to life through gardening. Most of us have been conditioned to view learning through segregated subjects, but as Charlotte Mason said, “Education is the science of relations.” I see these relationships connect in front of me in our garden, and I hope you will build your garden and see the magic too!
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This post was created without the use of AI to develop the ideas and content herein. All photos are my own. I believe traditional ways of learning and writing should be preserved and modeled to our children. Studies are already showing the phenomena of “digital dementia” in young people as a result of tech use. If this resonates with you, will you consider following and sharing my work?
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