First-level Certification

CERTIFICATION LEADERS:
At the end of this lesson, encourage the Young Women to each pull 10 weeds, put them in the trash bags provided in the garden box, and take the weeds to the dumpster.    

The first plant to identify is the tomato plant?

 Tomato will grow everywhere there is a flower. Notice the tiny little green tomatoes.  They will get bigger and turn red.

2.  The cucumber plant.  Can you find a cucumber plant?  The blooms (flowers) are where the cucumbers will grow?

Touch a cucumber leaf.  What do you notice about the leaves?  Cucumbers are climbing plants.  Can you find the little curly vine the cucumber holds onto the string with?  These are called tendrils.

3.  Basil.  Basil is a herb often used in Italian dishes.  All of the basil plants in the garden grew from the seeds from the plants we grew last year.  That's why they are everywhere and not in neat rows. Break off a leaf and smell of it.     

4.  Crabgrass.  Crabgrass is a weed.  It looks a little like corn when it's small.  This is the best time to pull it up.  

As Crabgrass grows it forms a star shape.  

If Crabgrass gets big it will take a shovel to remove it.  

Sometimes it's hard to tell which are the plants that are supposed to be in the garden, and which are the weeds.  We planted the garden in neat rows near the water pipes, and everything else is a weed except the basil which is everywhere.  The arrow on the left is pointing to weeds in the middle of the box.  Those need to be pulled out.  The arrow on the right is pointing to crabgrass weeds outside the box.  These will try to grow inside the box and choke our plants.  

6.  Lemon Balm?  Break off a big leaf from the top.  What does it smell like?  Lemon Balm is in the mint family.  This can be added to water for flavor.