Inquiry 5 – Adventuring in my Backyard: Experiments in Food-growing

My partner and I are lucky to have a backyard and even more lucky to be able to grow some veggies in it. If nothing else, growing a bit of our own food has been an adventure! And right in our backyard! When we got home after a summer away, we were happy to find that our kale plants that we left had gone to seed. Not only that, but they had self-seeded! This left us with hundreds of kale seeds to save for the spring and, much to our delight, loads of tiny kale plants growing just about everywhere. Earlier in September, we also planted some spinach starts, mint, and arugula seeds. Since then, our garden has grown and is now full of a smorgasbord of greens and herbs. With a messy garden and garlic planting season upon us, I decided to spend an afternoon outside trying out some new things.

Project 1: Plant the garlic

We planted garlic last year and saved a couple of bulbs to plant this year. To add to the garlic mix, we also bought a couple of varieties from a local farmer. October-ish is usually garlic-planting season and it finally feels like October, so it was a great weekend to plant it. I also decided to try planting some of the garlic in an amongst our greens as an experiment in companion planting. We’ll see what happens come spring! I’m going to have to be careful to remember where they actually are… all part of the adventure!

Project 2: Initiate leaf mulching experiment

Last year, when we planted garlic we left the soil bare for the winter. This year, we thought we’d try covering the soil in a layer of leaves, hoping that they’ll break down and enrich our soil while also giving our garlic cloves a little bonus layer of protection. We haven’t tried this before so we’ll have to keep an eye on it and see what it’s looking like.

Project 3: Attempt to propagate mint

We have a mint plant in a pot in our yard that has absolutely exploded, so I thought I’d try propagating it directly in soil. I have tried doing this in water before, but never directly in soil. Another experiment! I took a cutting from our mint and plopped in directly in another pot. We’ll see how it goes!

School Gardens and Backyard Adventuring

I think that school gardens provide ample opportunities for adventure and are a great way to bring an adventurous approach to learning about a host of topics. In my limited experience growing a garden, there has been plenty of curiosity, lots of challenge, a dash of wackiness, and most of all, lots of fun! When I worked on the Southern Gulf Islands running youth programs, one of our summer programs was centered around the school and community garden and involved all sorts of activities growing food and maintaining the garden space. During the school year, a couple of the classes at the school maintain the garden, planting everything they need for pizza, and harvesting it for a pizza making feast with their school-yard cob oven (coolest school ever). During the summer, we fixed fences, saved seeds, ate tasty berries, painted garden labels, played lots of games, and had lots of fun. I was lucky to be able to learn a lot from the garden manager and hope that in future schools I work in there is a similar space for incorporating a bit of food-growing adventure into learning.