Living Root Garden School • Design • Name: ______________________
🔍 The Case
The case of the yard that talks — your yard is telling a story about sun, water, and wind. Read it.
Follow the sun: watch your yard in the morning, at lunch, and in the late afternoon. A tomato wants the all-day sunny spot, and lettuce is happier where afternoon shade saves it from the hottest hours — and the sunny spot in winter is not the same as in summer, because the sun takes a higher path in summer and a lower one in winter.
Follow the water: go outside right after a rainstorm and watch where the water runs and where it sits. A puddle is the yard saying 'this is my lowest spot' — high ground dries fast, low ground stays damp, and in flat Florida even a dip of a few inches changes everything.
Feel the wind: grass bent sideways and a tree with more branches on one side than the other are both wind clues. The windy corner is a tough neighborhood for a young plant, and the calm corner behind a fence or a hedge is the yard's cozy room.
Rule out the lookalikes: listen to the weeds, because they only grow where conditions suit them. Dollarweed shows up where the ground stays soggy, purslane shows up where it is hot, dry, and sunny, and clover shows up where the soil is short on nitrogen — but a damp spot under a tap is not a low spot, so check your puddles after real rain.
Ask: Which spot in your yard do you think gets the most sun — and where do you think the rain ends up after a storm?
Try: Sketch your yard and mark the sunny spots, the shady spots, the wet spots where puddles appear after rain, and the windy corner. Note what the weeds are growing where. Watch from dry ground — storm drains, ditches, and flooded spots are never play areas.
Stretch (Teens & Growers ready for more): Track one sunny spot and one shady spot at three times in one day — morning, midday, and late afternoon — and log how the light moves across both spots.
Tell: Fill in the log below — date, what you saw, what surprised you — then finish this sentence in words or a labeled drawing: “The best spot to plant in my yard is ___ because ___.”
Date
What I saw
What surprised me
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
🛠️ Build It
Draw your yard as a treasure map — X marks the sunniest spot, and a wavy line marks where the rain goes.
🗣️ Be the Teacher
Show someone the sunniest spot and the puddle spot in your yard and tell them what each one means — in your own words, no reading off the packet.
🏅 I can…
☐ I can read what a yard is telling me.
Portfolio check
☐ Guide read
☐ Case solved
☐ Ask, Try, Tell done
☐ Build It filed: Yard clue map + sun-tracking log
☐ Taught someone
☐ Badge earned: I can read what a yard is telling me.
Living Root Garden School • livingrootgarden.com/homeschool/ • Free — print as many copies as you like. File this sheet with your portfolio log. Sprouts do the Read, the Case, and Build It; Growers try the Ask, Try, Tell stretch when ready; Teens do the whole packet — including teaching it back.