Along the side of the ‘Bunny Shed’, the children’s garden has a newly renovated vegetable patch. In the past, we planted seeds and the resident deer, rabbits, and ground hog had a feast when the plants came up. A walk in the wildflower garden will take you by ground hog mounds. And if you’re lucky enough to see the ground hog, you’ll see how large and healthy it is. Fresh veggies are good for you.
This spring a crew of volunteers designed and installed a critter-proof garden. The old beds were removed. A protective cage was made by laying chain link fencing on the ground and enclosing the whole garden in a fence which was attached to the bottom fencing. Then the beds were laid out. Two of the raised beds are made with 2 X 10 inch lumber and two are made from raised bed kits, available at your local building supply store. Then the raised beds were filled with fertile soil.
There are four beds. The middle bed is ‘The Three Sisters’. This is a Native American farming technique. The Three Sisters are corn, beans, and squash. Corn is planted in the middle of a mound of soil. When the corn is six inches tall, beans and squash are planted around the corn. The beans run up the corn stalks and fix nitrogen in the soil for the corn. The squash cover the soil with their prickly leaves and stems, which conserves moisture in the soil and discourages weeds and pests. It is also a completely nutritious diet. The corn and beans have all the amino acids humans need and the squash has vitamins and oil. Some Indians added a fourth sister, Rocky Mountain bee plant (Cleome serrulata), to attract bees for pollination. Today, this technique of putting plants together that benefit each other is called companion planting.
The second bed is the root garden. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peanuts grow there.
The third bed is the winter garden, for crops that do well in the cold, like collards, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and celery.
The fourth bed is the long garden. It is a square foot garden. A four by fourteen foot bed was divided into square foot sections with twine, creating 56 squares. The reasoning behind this is to make each area accessible without stepping on the soil which compacts it. It is easy to space plants correctly in the grid. The close planting shades the soil and conserves moisture and discourages weeds. The many plant varieties prevent the spread of pests and diseases. When one crop is finished, you pull it out and start a new crop. You can also stagger your planting times of the same vegetable to extend the harvest. The long garden has squash, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, okra, and Crowder peas.
The perimeter of the entire garden outside of the fence is planted with flowers to attract bees and other pollinators.
The purpose of the children’s garden is to be fun, entertaining, and educational. The vegetable garden demonstrates different ways of growing crops and the children love seeing where food comes from. It’s not the grocery store.
