More on Planting a Garden for Family Home Evening

Earlier I posted pictures on how to grow tomatoes for Family Home Evening. You can also plant melons, using Verlin Simmons' suggestions:

1. Dig some mounds of dirt and then make a hole in the center of each mound. It will look somewhat like a volcano. Kids may enjoy making the volcanoes. In each hole add potting soil.

2. Plant melon seeds in the potting soil. Pat the potting soil down. Water with 2 quarts of water. If the seeds surface after you water them, simply poke them back down in the dirt.

3. Put clear plastic over each volcano and shovel dirt around the edges so the plastic stays in place. This creates a greenhouse for the melons to grow under. There is about 3 inches of space between the planted melons and the top of the plastic (because the center of the volcano is 3 inches lower than the sides of the volcano.

4. Keep plastic on all summer. When plants grow tall enough to touch the plastic, cut an X (or a t)in the plastic for the plants to grow out of.

5. Other plants that are already grown and purchased from a nursery can be planted with clear plastic also, but cut the holes as you put each one in the ground.

The tomato plants planted on April 11th are already double the size they used to be. Two and a half weeks later there are three tomatoes each on 2 of the 3 plants (still green, though). They really grow well in their plastic cages.

As you work on your family garden, you can talk about faith being like a seed and then watch it grow all summer. Remind children of how small the seeds were in the beginning of the summer. Our faith also grows much like these seeds. See Alma 32: 28-41.