A self-paced high school elective on growing heirloom vegetables organically, with planting advice matched to your zone.
Elective Self-paced. It is not part of the daily schedule, so it can be taken over a summer, spread across a year, or left out entirely.
One course, offered four ways. Heirloom & Organic Gardening is self-paced, and the same course is listed under Grade 9, Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12 so it can be counted as a credit in whichever year a family takes it. The lessons are identical; take it whenever it suits.
This elective teaches a teenager how to plan, plant, and keep an organic garden built on open-pollinated heirloom varieties. It starts with what an heirloom actually is and how it differs from a hybrid or a genetically modified seed, then moves into reading your own land: frost dates, days to maturity, sun exposure, soil texture and pH, drainage, and the microclimates that can make two gardens a mile apart behave differently. From there it covers wood-chip no-till bed building, hot and cold composting, starting seed indoors and hardening off, and then crop by crop -- tomatoes and peppers, squash and melons, the Three Sisters of beans, corn, and squash, okra and Southern peas, and the cool-season greens, roots, and brassicas that a fall garden depends on. Later units take up herbs and pollinator plantings, companion planting, an heirloom orchard with fruit trees and berries including grafting and budding, rain barrels and drought-wise watering, organic pest and disease work without chemical sprays, and finally harvest, seed saving, and sharing the surplus with neighbors and the church. Every lesson opens with a verse from the King James Bible, and the themes that recur are stewardship, diligence, generosity, and trusting God for the increase.
This course is unusual in one respect: it adapts to where you live. The first time your student opens it, the course asks for your USDA plant hardiness zone -- the real 2023 map, zones 3a through 11b, with a list of familiar cities beside each one so it is easy to pick. That choice can be changed at any time. Nineteen of the lessons then carry an "In Your Zone" section that appears below the reading, written for one of six climate regions, giving your actual last and first frost dates, your frost-free days, when cool-season and warm-season crops should go in, heirloom varieties bred for your conditions (Glacier Tomato and King of the North Pepper in the cold North, Brandywine and Golden Bantam through the Heartland, Cherokee Purple in the upper South, Clemson Spineless Okra and Seminole Pumpkin along the Gulf), the soil and pest problems typical of your area, and the one thing most likely to trip up a gardener there. The rest of the lessons are written to be true everywhere.
The course is 15 units of 12 lessons each, 180 lessons in all, self-paced rather than tied to a daily schedule. A lesson is a short reading, usually 300 to 600 words, followed by a ten-question multiple-choice quiz that grades itself. The writing is plain high school prose that defines terms as it goes, so a student with no gardening background can follow it. A garden is not required to complete the course, and working through it over a winter is a sensible way to plan a first season. Even so, the material is written for someone who means to actually grow something, and it will settle much deeper with a bed to work in. Where space is short it is honest about the alternatives: seed starting under a shop light or on a windowsill, composting in a tumbler or a worm bin suited to an apartment, and container growing. Climate advice, frost data, and variety recommendations assume North America. The orchard unit deals in trees that take years to bear, so treat it as planning rather than something to finish in a season.
What the course covers
Heirloom, open-pollinated, hybrid, and GMO seed explained
Growing zones, frost dates, soil, sun, and microclimates
Wood-chip no-till bed building and soil life
Hot and cold composting, aged manure, and organic fertility
Seed starting, hardening off, and building a seed library
Heirloom tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons, and cucurbits
Three Sisters planting, nitrogen-fixing legumes, and heirloom corn
Okra, Southern peas, and cool-season greens, roots, and brassicas
Herbs, pollinator plantings, and companion planting
Heirloom orchards, berries, grafting, rain barrels, and organic pest control
What your student will be able to do
Plan a planting calendar backward from your own frost dates
Build and maintain a no-till wood-chip bed and a working compost pile
Start heirloom seed indoors, harden it off, and transplant it successfully
Identify common garden pests and diseases and treat them without chemicals
Harvest, clean, dry, and store seed that will grow true next season
Size a rain barrel system and water a garden through a dry spell
Scope and sequence
All 15 units of Heirloom & Organic Gardening for Grade 11, in the order they are taught.
10Sharing Your Harvest — Blessing Your Neighbors & Church10 q
11Processing, Preserving & Records — Closing the Loop10 q
12Reflection & Next Year's Plan — Stewardship & Growth10 q
One whole lesson, exactly as it comes
This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.
Unit 8: Beans, Peas & Corn — The Three Sisters & Nitrogen-Fixing Wisdom · Lesson 7
Companion Planting Beyond Three Sisters — What Grows Well Together
Companion Planting Beyond Three Sisters — What Grows Well Together
Companion planting is the art of growing plants that benefit each other. The Three Sisters is the most famous example, but it's far from the only one. Basil repels many insects and improves tomato flavor. Marigolds (not an edible, but an ornamental flower) attract beneficial insects and repel harmful ones. Radishes grown next to squash confuse pests. Carrots and onions discourage certain beetles. The principle is simple: different plants have different pest problems, different nutrient needs, and different growth habits. Combining them thoughtfully can reduce pest damage, improve flavor, and use space more efficiently.
The Rules of Thumb
Tall with short: Tall plants (corn, pole beans, sunflowers) shade short plants (lettuce, spinach, carrots), which actually prefer dappled shade in summer. Heavy feeders with nitrogen fixers: Corn and squash are heavy nitrogen users. Beans fix nitrogen. Follow beans with heavy feeders, or grow them together. Aromatic herbs with vegetables: Basil, thyme, and sage release oils that repel insects. Grow them around beans, squash, and brassicas (cabbage, kale). Avoid root competition: Beans need shallow soil, root crops need deeper soil. Don't plant them directly adjacent where roots tangle.
Real Examples
Beans + Basil: Beans attract beetles; basil repels them. Plus, basil and beans are delicious together in cooking. Lettuce + Taller Plants: Lettuce bolts (flowers early) in heat. Plant it under taller crops for afternoon shade. Carrots + Onions: Onions repel carrot rust flies. Radishes + Squash: Radish roots grow quickly and don't compete; radishes confuse squash vine borers. Marigolds Anywhere: They attract beneficial insects (pollinators, predatory wasps) and add beauty.
The first three of this lesson's 10 questions
What is companion planting?
Planting seeds next to each other at exactly the same depth
Growing plants that benefit each other through reduced pest damage, improved flavor, or more efficient space use
Growing only one type of plant per garden bed
Fertilizing plants with compost
Show the answer
Answer: Growing plants that benefit each other through reduced pest damage, improved flavor, or more efficient space use
Why might basil be planted with tomatoes?
Basil fixes nitrogen for tomatoes
Basil repels insects and improves tomato flavor
Basil and tomatoes need identical water schedules
Basil prevents all tomato diseases
Show the answer
Answer: Basil repels insects and improves tomato flavor
What is a benefit of growing lettuce under taller plants?
Lettuce will grow taller
Lettuce needs full sun to thrive
Taller plants provide afternoon shade, preventing lettuce from bolting in heat
Taller plants produce more seeds
Show the answer
Answer: Taller plants provide afternoon shade, preventing lettuce from bolting in heat
Another 7 questions follow in the lesson itself, each one graded the moment it is answered.
What comes with the download
180 full lessons
Across 15 units, each with objectives, a teaching passage written to be read aloud, guided practice, and homework.
1,800 quiz questions
Graded the instant they are answered, each with the explanation of why that answer is right.
A gradebook that works
Every score kept, a running average maintained, and a breakdown unit by unit — all in the file itself, nothing sent anywhere.
Progress and attendance
Tick lessons off as they are finished, watch the completion bar fill, and mark days present, absent, or excused.
Report card and certificate
Both printable, with your student's name, the grades, and the dates already filled in.
Backup you control
Export every record to a file you keep, and read it back later. A lost browser cache cannot take the year with it.
An answer key
Hidden from the student by default, there for the parent marking the work.
Nothing that phones home
No ads, no affiliate links, no analytics, no fonts fetched from elsewhere. Unplug the network cable and every one of these files still works.
What you will need
Drawn from the materials named across all 180 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.
No lesson in this course names a material of its own, so there is nothing to buy before you begin. The Grade 11 supply list gathers what the rest of the year needs.
Download Heirloom & Organic Gardening — Grade 11
Free, and free of everything else. 17 files, 20.3 MB in total. No account, no email address, no payment. What you download carries no advertising, no affiliate links and no tracking of any kind.
Use it on a screen
Open any of these straight from a folder or a USB stick. They run in the browser with the network cable unplugged, and nothing is ever sent anywhere.