MATERIALS:
Six 4-5 foot poles, six square feet in your yard or garden, a rubber mallet, twine or sting, beans and or sunflowers, a shovel, compost or garden soil, permission, help from at least one other person
TIME FRAME:
60 minutes + growing time
PROCEDURE:
- With permission to dig and help from a friend, pick a spot in your yard or garden that is big enough and gets enough sun to support your living teepee
- With your shovel, gently loosen up the soil in a five-foot circle
- You can use a rope to help you create your circle before you start digging
- Carefully place your poles, standing up, evenly in a circle, leaving a little more space between the two that will become your doorway.
- Using your rubber mallet, hammer your poles down into the earth about 6 inches
- Next, leaning the poles into each other, hammer them down another few inches so they are sturdy.
- With the top ends of the poles leaning against each other, tie them together nice and tight
- Pack the dirt down around your poles using either your hands or your feet
- Once the dirt is good and packed down, loosen up some of the soil right around the base of each pole, but not too deep…only about an inch or two.
- Mix your compost or gardening soil into the loosened dirt and plant your seeds along the outside of your teepee poles
- Water regularly and enjoy!
REFLECTION:
What can your living teepee be used for? Will you track its germination and growth? Who will you share your teepee with? Are there other plants you could make a teepee out of?
TIPS & IMAGININGS:
If you have any extra stepping stones in the yard (and have permission), you can easily add a few stones to the inside of your teepee to create a little seat if you prefer to not sit directly on the ground. Before putting up your teepee, you can paint your poles different colors!
xoxo,
M
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And… now that I’ve called you LISA, Melissa, I hope you’re forgive me!!!! DUHHHH.
I hope you re-run this post in the spring, Lisa… what a great idea for those with kids at home. I’m going to concoct one for the grandkids next year!
No worries, Mary Ann! And yes, there will be a special post in the spring that will include this activity! Hope you’re having a great week!
I love this idea! I wish my yard were a bigger because I would totally do this. We live in a townhouse and hence have quite a small yard. Most of it is a deck.
I have a 9′ x 3′ garden that I plan on expanding to be the entire area that’s not deck. It’s ambitious but after a great garden year (this year), I’m hooked and want more.
I’m totally keeping this in mind if we ever move though. So lovely for children!
xoxo
I have an idea for an adaptation! I may include it when I pull together a special post including all of these activities early in the new year (just in time for those of us planning the 2014 garden)!