I am participating in the blog tour over at Minnesota Country Girl, where I provided a guest post for her series: “Summer in the Outdoors: A Series of Gardening, Foraging, and Nature Studies”
In preparing for writing the post, I was faced with a little bit of a dilemma:
I run. I hike. I love the outdoors, but I am not a gardener. Sure, there was that fluke summer, years ago, where I managed to grow a vegetable garden in my dad’s back yard, and it was successful. I think, though, that my dad may have been behind the scenes helping that garden to boom.
We bought our house wanting to garden. I would really love to put a kids’ garden area in, and it would be awesome to give my kids the skills that, despite my parents’ best efforts, I just didn’t pick up. So, the question is: How does one teach children the skill of gardening when one is not a “green thumb?”
Most of the advice I found for gardening with kids assumes that you already sort of know what you’re doing when it comes to gardening, or at least that you haven’t killed every plant you’ve attempted to grow over the last (mumble) years of adulthood.
To solve this problem, I came up with a way to create a lesson plan and “course” on gardening that would benefit both myself and my kids this summer. I’m really excited about it, and I decided that I would share my planning process in the guest post. I’m a classical homeschooler by nature, so I was already familiar with one of the resources from when my oldest and I tried (and failed at!) gardening when he was 8.
Join me over at Minnesota Country Girl where I have the privilege of guest posting for Summer in the Outdoors: A Series of Gardening, Foraging & Nature Studies.
Published by Ronda Bowen
Hello there, and welcome to my page! I have been working as a full-time freelance writer and editor since 2008 when I decided that while I rather enjoyed philosophy, the Ph.D. program I was in was not a good fit for my life goals. Since then, I have published many papers and articles, started two blogs, worked as a senior editor for a magazine, served on the board of a start-up non-profit organization, and walked across fire.
I strongly believe that it is important to work to make the world a better place – one project at a time. I’ve worked with Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build program to construct living quarters for those in need, written content for Stonewall Alliance, and edited the newsletter for my local natural foods cooperative. One of the blogs I founded, Activism My Way is dedicated to helping people get involved with causes they feel passionate about.
Although my academic background is in philosophy and social and political theory, my heart has always been in writing fiction and poetry. I have a novel in progress, and I am working on putting together a collection of short stories to share with readers. I also worked as part of a creative team on a project with a hip hop artist that involved world-building and creating an amazing back story to a concept album. I have worked with several authors to edit their novels (as well as dissertations, children’s books, journal articles, and non-fiction projects).
Non-fiction topics I have written about include pop culture and philosophy, project management, business startups and management, insurance, technology, and much more. I also have created web content for a wide variety of clients (ranging from gas station owners to hotels to lawyers), and I’ve had an opportunity to interview some amazing people (Michele May, Kevin Sorbo, Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Mark Victor Hansen to name only a few). Needless to say, I love what I do.
I enjoy photography, and my subjects these days are usually my children as well as food, beverages, craft projects, and other such things for my blog, Wining Wife™. My favorite subjects are landscapes, nature (particularly clouds, flowers, and trees), and architecture.
View all posts by Ronda Bowen
Just a Secular Homeschooler 
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