Gardening... What was I thinking?

Gardening... What was I Thinking?

Theme 3: Teachers as Readers

Well to be quite honest, I have the mind of a 9 year old. I find one idea and stick to it and then switch it up. Some call this ADHD, I call it constant learner! :) So for now I put the Italian books aside. I mean we have a whopping three and a half months til we leave. Aaron laughs, as I explain how three months is a lifetime and let's not forget the super long plane ride, let alone even longer drive to Ohio where we are flying out of. Now in my rat's nest (the area on the floor between my bed and end table) are my Italian language phrase book and Frommer's guide. Both filled with colorful sticky notes.

In the last few weeks, I have decided becoming a gardener would be awesome. Who doesn't want to grow their own fruits and vegetables? It will be a hobby and I always love to learn a new hobby.

So for my first source of information, I received a copy of the Farmer's Almanac from a friend. Hello information overload. After taking notes from here, I decided to put together a gardening folder. I even made tabs to keep my readings organized. However, I get very overwhelmed with non-fiction and explanatory papers, so I put this aside for now and I figured I would use it for a reference tool.

For more reading, I went to www.lowes.com. Lowes has a great how to section, which I love because forget all the magazines they sell in store, when they have articles posted on their website. From there, I searched the gardening articles and started printing away.

Ex article: http://www.lowes.com/cd_Vegetable+Garden+Basics_1264080256_

As I read the article(s), I felt myself gravitating towards the headings. Certain things about gardening does not pertain to Florida. Certain items can be direct seeded, because our soil and temperature in late March and August are perfect for allowing those seeds to germinate. But using the headings allowed me to not get stuck reading information that was not pertinent to me. To me this was extremely important while reading gardening articles. I have a horrible non-fiction reader and I find myself really hanging onto the NF text features when I negotiate and make my way through this genre. For example, another article I read was about raised beds and why they are awesome for Florida gardens. So I started researching how to build a raised bed. Some websites had wonderful articles, but I felt myself gravitating towards the ones with diagrams because it took all the text that was there and made it visual for me. I now had a diagram with labels.

Another thing that helps while negotiating the text in the articles is my binder. I find myself asking what the purpose and main idea of the article was because some talk about multiple topics. I then place the article in the correct tab category, but place a note in the secondary to remind myself I have an article that may help in another section.

Now that I have planned a wonderful vegetable garden, I actually have to do it. Aaron tells me to wait til we get back from Europe since so many vegetables can be planted in August. Which is a great idea, but I think it is his way of getting out of building me a raised bed until then! :)