We plan on building some kind of deer fence around the garden. We don’t know what to do about the jackrabbits - they dig and climb, I’m just thinking of the poor old farmer in the Peter Rabbit stories. We’ll see if this whole thing works. It might just take a couple of years before we get it right!

Hope everyone’s doing well. Love you, Jen

This jogged a memory in my long forgotten inventory. In approx 1973 when my middle son was approximately 2+ we planted a huge garden on our 5 acres on Oakhill Rd. I will never forget we were pretty inexperienced and planted 48 tomatoe plants, corn, zucchini etc. We anxiously watched our plants and soon had little green tomatoes popping out everywhere. The purpose of this comment is to let you know deer evidently love tomatoe plants. We woke up one morning to 48 chewed off plants. It may have been a blessing because I have no clue what I would have done with that many tomatoes.

Sharon, I’m very honored to have you stop by here! I’m having great fun with your book and look forward to the next one. We’re planting the garden and also will make the sunflower house - I’m personally most excited about that project! Your artwork is beautiful, too - really completes the book.

Bebemiqui and Tara, thanks for stopping by, and best wishes for your gardens.

Cindi, wow, what an amazing father - still gardening at nearly 90! Wonderful traditions to pass down, and your own children will have special memories of gardening with Grandpa.

Leah, first, congrats on the new baby coming! It sounds like you all are doing a fabulous job with your gardens!!

Renae, we aren’t quite sure how we’ll handle the animals. There is so much wildlife out there, and the deer and jackrabbits are voracious eaters, and quite skilled at getting to stuff they want. I have visions of me breaking down in tears when the deer munch up my sunflower house and the rabbits chew up my carrots. Maybe deer don’t like sunflowers?

Tipper, I’m so sorry you had a rough spell. Hope you are stronger for it. Chitter’s story makes me smile. :-) Good for her for having a generous heart in the end.

Our little garden is doing fairly well, considering the animals continue to walk through it. We need to replant some seeds, but my daughter is thrilled with her strawberry plants.

You seem to be doing a wonderful job with JoJo. I loved that photo and I loved it that you like my book Roots Shoots Buckets & Boots. Check out my new blog at sharonlovejoy.blogspot.com, I am writing from Sunflower House and A Little Green Island. Now working on the Green Granny Gospels due out in ‘09. Lots of projects in nature, gardening, art, cooking, and traditions. I hope you will enjoy it as I enjoy your blog. Keep up the great work!
Blessings, Sharon Lovejoy

Marilyn, congrats on your new home; now you get to make it your own by digging to your heart’s content. :-)

TopVeg, hey, I visited your site and appreciated your potato patch information - there is a crop that’s successful where I live.

Mrs. Darling, oh, do you have to remind me that my dirt is hard?! Yes, I’ll have to work with it. Luckily, my neighbor has a lot of cows that do a lot of business. :-)

Linnet and Jeff, I agree, the pizza patch garden was my favorite from the book. The sunflower house is also one of my favorites - sort of a little fairyland for kids - and adults!

Heather, sounds like you and Jane both have soil issues! We do too, to a degree. The volcanic content of my soil is what saves us, but I’ll still be needing to feed it quite a bit. I didn’t know Pennsylvania soil was so difficult! Your kids look like they’re having so much fun with their gardens.

SmallWorld, what do you folks plant? When do you start? And thanks a ton for answering my American Heritage Girls questions!!

Sher, I agree, it’s AMAZING that I plant a seed and can get a meal (many meals) out of it. Wow. If we didn’t know it to be true by experience, we may never believe it.

Mandi, yes, there’s not much better than a garden for teaching some important truths! And your comments about communism vs. individual enterprise are right on target. I love how you described harvesting potatoes as digging up treasures! You are an Idaho girl for sure! Okay, now you’re in Washington, but still. :-)

Love,
Mandi

To see if there is a troop in your area, go here: http://ahgonline.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=20666

To read more about starting a troop, go here: http://ahgonline.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=19416

About AHG vs. GSUSA: There are lots of good articles here, some of them include comparisons of AHG and GSUSA. Hey, you can even read my article that was in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! (That’s the one titled “Homeschooling and AHG.”)
http://ahgonline.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=19336

You can read about our journey from GSUSA to AHG here:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/SmallWorld/75854/

I’d love to help you get started!

We went to the library yesterday and Rachel and Issac got out a pile of gardening books. We didn’t see that one. They are having fun with their little raised gardens –we will see how they turn out. If it works well we will likely add a bigger family garden to the mix. (Our soil is completely fill and PA clay. Nothing grows except crab grass. Raised gardens are a big thing around here.)