Living Root Garden School • Design • Name: ______________________
🔍 The Case
The case of the yard that feeds itself — draw a yard on purpose, where every plant lives in the spot it loves best.
Start with a map, not a shovel: sketch the house, the fence, the big tree, the sunny corner, and the puddle spot from your landscape reading. Measure with footsteps if you have no ruler — one big step is about a yard.
Use zones: things you visit every day go closest to the door, things you visit once a week go farther out. Herbs you snip while cooking live on the doorstep, salad greens a few steps away, vegetable beds close enough to water without a hike, fruit trees farther out, and the wild edge for pollinators and lizards farthest of all, because it wants to be left alone.
Match each plant to its spot: sun-lovers like tomatoes, peppers, and basil get the all-day sunny corner, shade-lovers like lettuce in summer and mint get the afternoon-shade spot, and wet-feet plants get the low damp corner. Give everything room to grow — that tiny seedling will be a bush by summer.
Draw the paths first, then fill in the beds around them: feet go where paths go, and plants do not grow where feet go. A path of mulch or stepping stones also keeps your shoes out of the mud after an afternoon thunderstorm.
Ask: Which plants do you think belong closest to the door — and what will happen if a sun-lover lands in the shade?
Try: Draw your yard design on paper: zones with daily things close and weekly things far, paths, and where each plant goes. Mark the sunny corner and the puddle spot from your landscape reading, and cross out any plant that would wrestle its neighbor on paper — not in the dirt.
Stretch (Teens & Growers ready for more): Measure the yard in footsteps, put a scale on the map, and budget the plants: how many fit, what they cost, and when each one goes in.
Tell: Fill in the log below — date, what you drew, what surprised you — then finish this sentence in words or a labeled drawing: “My design puts ___ in the sunny corner because ___.”
Date
What I saw
What surprised me
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
🛠️ Build It
Draw your dream yard from above, like a bird sees it — paths, zones, and your favorite plant in the middle.
🗣️ Be the Teacher
Explain zones to someone in your own words — why the things you visit every day live close to the door and the wild things live far away.
🏅 I can…
☐ I can design a yard where every plant has its spot.
Portfolio check
☐ Guide read
☐ Case solved
☐ Ask, Try, Tell done
☐ Build It filed: Design map (+ budget for teens)
☐ Taught someone
☐ Badge earned: I can design a yard where every plant has its spot.
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.