Plant families, soil life, and the Back to Eden method, from tomatoes and squash through herbs, berries, and companion planting.
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.
About this course
Plant families, soil life, and the Back to Eden method, from tomatoes and squash through herbs, berries, and companion planting.
Botany & Gardening for Grade 12 runs to 15 units and 180 lessons, each closing with about 10 questions that grade themselves. Every unit and every lesson title is listed below, and one whole lesson is printed further down exactly as it appears in the download.
Scope and sequence
All 15 units of Botany & Gardening for Grade 12, in the order they are taught.
These photographs appear in the lessons themselves, not just on this page. Every one is freely licensed and credited to its photographer at the foot of this page.
Introduction to the Back to Eden MethodUSDAgov / Wikimedia Commons / Public domainVermicompostingChristophe.Finot / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0Pepper Botany & Plant DevelopmentNASA/Megan McArthur / Wikimedia Commons / public domainStowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn — Heirloom WhiteUnknown (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Every lesson, by title
All 180 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.
Unit 1: Back to Eden Gardening Philosophy & God's Design 12 lessons
1Introduction to the Back to Eden Method10 q
2God's Original Garden — Eden10 q
3Observing Nature's Patterns10 q
4Wood Chip Mulch — The Foundation10 q
5No-Dig Gardening Principles10 q
6Water Conservation in BtE Gardening10 q
7Site Assessment & Sunlight10 q
8Garden Bed Layout & Design10 q
9Raised Beds vs. In-Ground BtE10 q
10Tools & Equipment for the BtE Garden10 q
11Garden Journaling & Record Keeping10 q
12Faith & Stewardship in the Garden10 q
Unit 2: Soil Science, Composting & Fertility 12 lessons
12The Complete Back to Eden Garden — Putting It All Together10 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: Leafy Greens & Brassicas · Lesson 9
Water Spinach — Big Leaf White Stem Varieties
Water Spinach — Big Leaf White Stem VarietiesEric in SF / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Water Spinach — Big Leaf White Stem Varieties
Water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica), also known as kang kong, water morning glory, and ong choy, is one of the most productive leafy vegetables in tropical and subtropical horticulture. Widely consumed across Southeast Asia, East Africa, and parts of Latin America, it produces more edible biomass per square foot than almost any other leafy green in warm climates.
Botanical Identity
Botanical name: Ipomoea aquaticaFamily: Convolvulaceae (morning glory family) Relation: Closely related to sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas); distantly related to ornamental morning glory
Big Leaf White Stem Varieties
The "Big Leaf White Stem" type is the most productive and most commonly cultivated variety group for food production:
Stems: Hollow, white-stemmed; up to 18–24 inches long
Leaves: Large, arrow or heart-shaped; vivid green; 3–5 inches across
Flavor: Mild, slightly sweet; tender when young; stems have pleasant crunch
Growth rate: Extraordinary — new shoots ready to harvest every 7–10 days in peak growing conditions
Other types:
Narrow Leaf / Green Stem: Smaller leaves, green stems; slightly more peppery; better adapted to drier conditions
Red Stem: Ornamental and culinary; anthocyanin-rich stems
Growing Requirements
Climate: Warm-season tropical crop. Thrives in temperatures of 75–95°F. Not cold-hardy.
Water: Semi-aquatic — grows in water 4–10 inches deep (traditional floating garden culture) or in moist, wet soil. Will also grow in standard garden beds with consistent heavy irrigation.
Soil growing method:
Plant in rich, consistently moist garden soil
Water deeply and frequently — never allow soil to dry out
Space 12 inches apart; pinch tips to encourage branching
Aquatic growing method:
Plant in containers in 4–8 inches of water (pond or water tank)
Stems root wherever they touch water
Extremely productive in this system
Propagation: From stem cuttings (most common) or seed. Take 6-inch cuttings; plant in moist soil or water. Roots in 7–10 days.
Harvest and Cuisine
Harvest: Cut tender growing tips (top 6–8 inches); the plant regrows from nodes below the cut. Harvest every 7–14 days throughout the growing season.
Asian cuisine preparations:
Stir-fried with garlic: The classic — high heat, garlic, soy sauce or shrimp paste
Blanched: Briefly boiled, served with oyster sauce (kang kong oyster sauce — Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian)
Soups and curries: Added at the last moment to retain texture
Raw: Young tips eaten fresh in salads (mild varieties)
Nutrient Content
High in vitamin A, C, B vitamins, iron, and calcium
Protein: 2–3% of fresh weight — higher than most leafy greens
Traditional medicine uses: diuretic, anti-inflammatory
The Fruitful River Bank
Ezekiel 47:12 envisions trees on both banks of the river — leaves that do not fade, fruit that is not consumed. Water spinach, growing along wet margins, harvested repeatedly without exhausting the plant, is a humble earthly illustration of the inexhaustible provision God designs into creation.
The first three of this lesson's 10 questions
What is the botanical name for water spinach / kang kong?
Spinacia oleracea
Basella alba
Ipomoea aquatica
Ipomoea batatas
Show the answer
Answer: Ipomoea aquatica
What plant family does water spinach belong to?
Amaranthaceae
Convolvulaceae (morning glory family)
Brassicaceae
Asteraceae
Show the answer
Answer: Convolvulaceae (morning glory family)
What is the distinguishing physical feature of Big Leaf White Stem water spinach stems?
Hollow, white stems up to 18–24 inches long
Solid, fibrous stems that can be dried
Thin, wiry stems that require trellising
Red-streaked stems with prominent nodes
Show the answer
Answer: Hollow, white stems up to 18–24 inches long
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 12 supply list gathers what the rest of the year needs.
Download Botany & Gardening — Grade 12
Free, and free of everything else. 17 files, 57.2 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.
Every photograph on this page is used under a free licence, and is credited here as that licence requires. Photographs are part of the curriculum itself, so they travel with the download as well.
Introduction to the Back to Eden Method — USDAgov / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Vermicomposting — Christophe.Finot / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Pepper Botany & Plant Development — NASA/Megan McArthur / Wikimedia Commons / public domain
Stowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn — Heirloom White — Unknown (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
Water Spinach — Big Leaf White Stem Varieties — Eric in SF / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0