Week 1, Lesson 1
Hello students!
Welcome to your first week of the Leaf'd Box Plant Education Kit. We are so excited that you have decided to join us on your learning journey this semester and can't wait to grow with you. This semester you will learn how to plant, grow, harvest and cook your very own vegetables.
There are two lessons in each week, with 10 weeks of content. These lessons are designed to follow along with the gardening process, so that you can read and watch your instructional videos and then go out in the garden to apply what you’ve learned.
This program is created for all ages and can be adapted to fit your own learning pace. We have included activities, quizzes, and have provided additional handouts throughout the course. Your teacher is able to assign you what is best for your curriculum needs. If you have any questions on how to complete certain gardening tasks, your teacher or parent can contact us at info@leafdbox.com for help.
Get ready to have an amazing school year! Gardening is a great opportunity to learn about science, and also be in the outdoors. Grab your gardening gloves and let's get started.
MESSAGE TO EDUCATORS:
We recommend you adapt these lessons to the needs of your students since every student is different! If your student is younger, they may need help with quizzes (or you can skip them all together). If your student is older, you may want to add additional resources to their learning plan. We are providing a growing and educational guide, but you know your students best!
Materials Recommended To Complete Course:
- Garden bed / gardening area
- Fertilizer
- Water source
- Spade / shovel
- Notebook & pen (for activities)
- Kitchen / cooking supplies
LESSON 1
For our first lesson, we will begin by preparing our gardens for our plants and seeds. In your plant kit, you will see 10 plants and 3 seed packets. These are all plants that are gardening staples and will teach us the basics of gardening both vegetables and herbs.
PREPARING YOUR GARDEN
- To start preparing for your garden, open your plant kit.
1. Stand your plants upright in their plastic container and 1/2" of water in their trays. This will hydrate the plants to give them a boost from being shipped in the mail. These plants are called plantlings (or sometimes seedlings). Plantlings are plants that are newly grown plants from seed. We have carefully grown the plants in your kit at our headquarters and have shipped them to you for a headstart on the gardening process for you!
2. Place your plants in the sun for half of the day. By having water and sun while your plantlings are still in their trays, you are introducing them to their new surroundings. This is called hardening your plants. You will need to put your plants in the sun for 1-2 days, where they get sunshine for about 5 hours per day.
WHAT IS HARDENING?
- Hardening is the process of introducing your plantlings to their new environment. These plantlings were grown at our headquarters in Ventura, California which is probably very different than the climate of your backyard garden. When you are hardening your plants, you are letting your plants warm up to the new air and sunlight. Gardeners all over the world harden their plantlings before they put them in the ground to let the plants adjust to their forever home! This is really common when gardeners move their plants from indoors to outdoors (like from a green house to an outside garden!) You will want to harden your plants for 1-2 days before planting in the garden to prevent putting your plants into shock. Shock will stunt the growth of your plants, and we definitely don't want that to happen!
DIY Plant Food - ACTIVITY
- To help your plantlings grow and thrive, it’s important that the soil is full of nutrients! So today we will be making plant food- it’s super easy! First, grab some bananas and chop them up into pea-sized pieces. Take your banana out into the garden and mix it into your soil. As the banana breaks down, it will release nutrients for your plant babies to soak up and enjoy.
Great job on day 1 of learning how to prepare your garden. Make sure to watch your lesson videos and enjoy learning!