Garden Explorers & Earth Stewards

It started with FernGully. I watched it when I was little, my tree hugger instinct took over, and it has never once let go. I was the "weird kid" — the one talking to the trees and other plants, quietly reading aloud outside by our creek and oaks in case faeries might be listening. Nixies in the creek, dryads in the trees, phookas in the blackberry bushes — I wanted to be sure everyone got a story.

And I always, always had a garden. When I was about four, my mother cleared the land directly under my window and told me I could plant anything I wanted. I chose baby's breath and gourds. It was magical watching my plants grow — but even more magical watching the little world I seemed to have helped create, filling up with new creatures and plants I never put there. Not to mention the lovely flower crowns I wove, and the faerie houses I painted and hung from our birdhouse gourds.

That little world under my window is why this curriculum exists. A garden teaches real, tangible academics — science you can hold in your hands, math you can measure with a watering can — but it also ignites our imaginations and our sense of wonder. To this day I still get giddy when I start seeds, and I still sometimes glance out of the corner of my eye in case a little sprite comes to visit. A garden teaches a child that they belong to the living world, and that the living world answers their care. That is the experience I want every student to have — the weird kids and the practical ones alike.

The weird kid grew up, of course: a B.S. in Natural Resources (fish and wildlife conservation) and a B.S. in Sustainability (climate change mitigation via regenerative agriculture), both from Oregon State, along with a School Garden Coordinator certification, years of teaching, and a regenerative farm in Northwest Arkansas. But when I sit down to write a lesson, I am mostly still the four-year-old watching gourds climb past her window — and building a doorway so your students can find that world too.

Book 1, Foundations of a Living Garden, is launching soon — join the launch list below to hear the moment it's out.

This is the very first investigation students run in Week 1 of the curriculum — straight from the book, exactly as it's taught. Soil looks like one brown thing, but shake it up with water and it quietly sorts itself into layers you can see and name.

You'll need

• 3 clear glass jars with lids — quart-sized; Mason jars are ideal, clean pasta or pickle jars from home work too
• Soil samples from 3 distinctly different spots — under a tree, near pavement or a sidewalk, and from a garden bed or grassy area
• Water, and labels or a marker — label each sample with where it came from ("Under the oak tree," "Near the door")

Predict first — that's what makes it science

Before the jars run, everyone makes a prediction, one sentence per sample, just like the garden journal asks: "I think Sample A (under the oak) is mostly ___ because ___." Sand, silt, clay, or a mix? Then one more: which sample will settle fastest? Slowest? Which will have the most material still floating?

The steps

1. Setup: label each jar with its soil source (A, B, or C).
2. Fill the jar one-third with soil. Use one sample at a time.
3. Add water until the jar is two-thirds full. Leave room for shaking.
4. Seal the lid tightly. Really tightly. (If the lid isn't on tight, you have a mess.)
5. Shake vigorously for 60 full seconds — rhythmic and energetic; count it out loud.
6. Place the jar somewhere it won't be disturbed — and do not touch it.

What you'll see

Layers begin separating over the next 30 minutes, then keep going over 24 hours. Sand settles first — the biggest, heaviest particles — with silt above it, while clay stays suspended longest; that's the lingering cloudiness. Give it five days and the layers fully separate, the water mostly clears, and each jar shows you what its soil is made of. Then comes the best part: compare the settled jars to the predictions. Who called it?

Taken from Week 1, Monday, of Book 1, Foundations of a Living Garden — where the jar test launches a week of Soil Detective work, with grade-level tracks for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, journal pages, and a creature hunt to go with it.

Every Friday in the curriculum, students close the week with art or cooking. This is the first recipe of the year — Week 1's celebration of soil week — shared here the way it appears in the book: whole, seed-based ingredients, no oven, and honest guidance for every eater at the table.

Ingredients (default — nut-free, classroom-safe)

• Rolled oats — 2 cups
• Sunflower seed butter (SunButter) — 1 cup — the default, since most schools are nut-free; peanut or almond butter is a 1:1 swap if allergies aren't a concern
• Honey — ½ cup — substitute maple syrup for a vegan version
• Ground flaxseed — ½ cup
• Sunflower seeds — ¼ cup
• Optional add-ins: dried cranberries, chopped dates, mini chocolate chips, shredded coconut

Allergy swaps: tahini (1 cup) replaces the sunflower seed butter for sunflower allergies; tigernut or coconut flour (~1 cup) replaces the oats for oat allergies (add a splash of extra syrup or water if the mix is dry); maple syrup or date paste (½ cup) replaces the honey.

🥗 Keto-friendly version (low-carb, sugar-free)

• Replace oats with almond flour, coconut flour, or hemp hearts (1 cup; reduce slightly if too dry)
• Replace honey/syrup with monkfruit syrup or allulose (½ cup)
• Keep the sunflower seed butter, sunflower seeds, and ground flaxseed
• Add chia seeds (2 tbsp) and unsweetened coconut flakes (¼ cup) for binding and richness
• Skip the chocolate chips and dried fruit (or use sugar-free chips)

Allulose is increasingly favored in T1D-friendly recipes because it has minimal blood-sugar impact; monkfruit is generally also blood-sugar friendly. Sugar alcohols like erythritol or xylitol may impact blood sugar slightly more — verify with your endocrinologist or care team.

Method

1. Wash hands well — always the first step of cooking day.
2. Combine everything in a large glass bowl, taking turns stirring. The consistency should be thick and sticky — add more oats if too wet, more honey or syrup if too dry.
3. With clean hands or a small cookie scoop, roll into 1-inch balls. Place on parchment paper.
4. Chill in the fridge to set.

The full recipe yields about 40 balls, and they keep 5–7 days in an airtight container — the curriculum suggests homeschool families make the full batch anyway and stretch it across a week of snack times.

💙 Nutrition notes — important for T1D, diabetic, and medical-diet families

Per-ball estimates, assuming a standard 1-inch finished ball, from USDA FoodData Central values:

• Standard version (~20g ball): ~85 kcal · ~10g carbs · ~1.5g fiber · ~8.5g net carbs · ~2.5g protein
• Peanut butter version (~20g ball): ~85 kcal · ~9g carbs · ~7.5g net carbs · ~3g protein
• Keto version (~15g ball): ~80 kcal · ~4g carbs · ~2g fiber · ~2g net carbs (or less — allulose is generally counted as 0g net carbs by most diabetic protocols) · ~3g protein

From Week 1, Friday, of Book 1, Foundations of a Living Garden. In the book, the recipe comes with a full cooking-day walkthrough, grade-level jobs for 3rd–5th graders, family outreach guidance for cooking days, and a soil-layers art activity as its Friday companion.