Gardening for LifeBy Wayne & Connie Burleson
“Planting seeds for those in need”
Saddleback Church PEACE Plan … teaching module
Saddleback Class Outline
• Introduction WHY GARDENS?
• Soils/compost (the foundation to success)
• Garden construction/garden location/raised beds
• Planting/plant spacing
• Garden care: water, weeds, ownership
• Which vegetable to plant
• Vegetable harvest and replanting
• Seed saving techniques
• Sharing the harvest and teaching others
• Why pray over the gardens?
• Training trainers, building passport: trust, caring, needed education
• Closing YOU CAN DO IT! Planting seeds for those in need
What is the real PURPOSE
behind teaching people
how to grow their own food?
To bring hope, health, and healing to those in need
• Small gardens are very easy to assemble and they draw crowds
• Simple. Anyone can do it. Anywhere in the world
• Requires very little water (safe to use waste water)
• Gardens are constructed without money or commercial fertilizers
• Very easy to take care of (less work, less weeds, less water, more food)
• Highly productive from very small spaces
• Can produce 45 kilos (100 pounds) of food from a 4’ X 4’ area
• Each home can construct several of these handy small kitchen gardens
• Literally help feed millions of people
• Also an evangelistic outreach – presents an opportunity to share the good news
• Empty stomachs have no ears
Introduction WHY GARDENS?… Planting seeds for those in need …
These gardens are sustainable, lifetime, hand-up endeavors,
not a hand-out
Teaching with
photos helps
A Church Demonstration Garden
Small Village in Rwanda, Africa
Growth in 61 days
Success in Africa
Step #1 Soils/compost (the foundation to success)
How to make your own Top Soil
Go On a Treasure Hunt - Searching for Hidden Resources
Step 1 Walk-about looking for then bag up the following?
•Old dry livestock dung
•Leave mold
•Black looking top soil under bushes
•Old dry chicken manure
•Anything looking like dark soil
Step 2 Dig up sod from garden plot 1.3 meter by 3 meters,
and then remove old plants and root for plot
African Cow House
= decomposed
organic matter
Mix with native soil
which makes great
topsoil
How to Make Good Compost
Ingredients needed:
Repeat all layers until
1 Meter high
Add small amount of wood ash
Add water to dry layers
Vegetable waste ------
Thin layer old manure -
Thin layer top soil-----
Green grass 30 cm ---
Dry grass 30 cm----
Bottom layer maze for air ->
Why compost? Compost is decomposed organic matter
that has turned into black colored humus that is called “black
gold.” Compost makes excellent organic plant food. Millions
of micro-organisms digest (eat) the dry grass and green grass
causing the pile to heat up. Compost does not feed the plants
directly. Instead it feeds the soil microbes which in turn
release insoluble minerals for the plants to feed upon
(fertilizers). This amazing process makes your garden a
sustainable food factory - if you keep adding compost to your
soils.
Step #2 Garden Construction; Garden location; Raised beds
2.64 Meters
1.32
Meters
Step #3 Planting/plant spacing
Why have a grid
How to Precisely Plant Your Seeds
30 Plants
Per
Square
Onion Seeds
Green
Onions
Small
Carrots1 to 2 cm deep
Take your time and plant each seed correctly for good success
Mr Brite 16 Plants
Per
Square
9 Plants
Per
Square
4 Plants
Per
Square
1 Plant
Per
Square
Radish
Carrot
Onion Sets2 cm deep
Pea
Beet
Bean
Spinach
2.5 cm deep
Lettuce
Swiss chard
Broccoli
Marigold1.5 cm deep
Tomato
Pepper
Cabbage1.5 cm deep
Cucumber
Cantaloupe2.5 cm deep
Potato 8 cm deep
For 1 or 4 plants per square make a small dish shaped depression in the soil and place the seeds in the center. Water only where the seeds are located
These
Plants
Can also
Be started
from
Transplants
33 cm
33 cm
Mr Brite
Tomato
Pepper
Squash
Cucumber
Lettuce
Swiss chard
Radish
Beet
Cabbage
Spinach
Carrots
Beans
Which vegetables seeds to plant
What do you love to eat?
Step #4 Garden care:
Water, Weeds, and Ownership
Wise water use
This lady in Shone, Ethiopia, Africa is a
very good gardener as she knows how to
place valuable water on each seed zone,
which saves her much labor - hauling
hard to acquire water for her garden.
Ladies washing dishes and clothes in Malawi.
Look where the water is going!
Question:
Could you dump this waste water safely on a small
kitchen garden?
Re-cycled Water
Don’t let your soils see daylight
Mr Brite One smart farmer
Cool shaded soils = 22 deg C (72 deg F) = holds water,
Adds soil nutrients and slows weed germination Hot bare soils - 55 deg C (130 deg F) = evaporates water fast,
Cooks and kills valuable microorganisms, no added soil nutrients and weeds can germinate
Why Add Mulch to Your Gardens
Don’t Weed Instead Cultivate
Step #6 Vegetable harvest and replanting
Add a scoop of compost and
replant harvested squares
One Radish growing in Ethiopia
Harvest
Seeking information outside the box
Radish leaves have 3 times the nutrient
value as the roots And taste great!
One Radish makes
a great salad
Think Holistically
from seed to stomach
Salmon River Pumpkin (A Winter Squash)From Seed to Seeds
A Life Giving Story
Seed saving techniques
SpinachPick out the strong
plants and let them bolt
into a flower stalk and
go to seed. Pull the seed
stalks out of the ground
and let dry. Thresh the
seeds into a container.
Pumpkin
Cut ripe & mature
pumpkin open.
Remove seeds.
Wash with water.
Place on screen or
cloth to dry.
Pepper
Let ripe to full
color, no sign of
disease.
Remove seed
off core and
place on screen
or cloth to dry.
Cucumber
Let ripen past
edible stage and
turn yellow. Cut
lengthwise, scoop
seeds out seeds
and dry
Lettuce
Allow plant to bolt,
to form a seed stalk.
Cover to protect
from birds & rain.
Harvest seeds for 2
to 3 weeks. This will
require repeated
harvesting.
Onion
Let a few plants
form round
flower clusters.
When dry, pick
and thresh the
seed out.
Tomato
Pick ripe
tomatoes from
several plants.
Squeeze seed
out, wash and
spread on cloth
to dry.
Beets
Biennial as it takes
two year. Store roots
for several months,
replant to grow
seeds, harvest seeds
when dry.
Certain plant varieties will cross-pollinate with other members of their same family. If you
are raising your own pure seeds, only plant one variety within that family.
Visit www.seedsavers.org for more information
Sharing the harvest and teaching others
Why pray over the gardens?
Who made the very first garden?
Can a person make a plant grow?
Gardens open the doors to teaching others & building life giving skills
Closing YOU CAN DO IT!
Planting seeds for those in need
Gardening for Life
2010
Production Photos
A Wheelbarrow full of Lettuce
Large early potatoes from one plant
1,000 Carrots in 4’ X 8’ box
Double Cucumbers
Pick one get 2 more
100’s of tomatoes from few plants
Gardening for LifeBy Wayne & Connie Burleson
“Planting seeds for those in need”
Saddleback Church PEACE Plan … teaching module