[♪ INTRO]
It’s a beautiful morning outside, Squeaks!
It really is brighter out today.
A few weeks ago, it was still dark out this early in the morning.
Winter must be coming to an end, and you know what that means…
Yup!
Spring is right around the corner.
In spring, we get more sunlight and the weather warms up!
My favorite part of spring is that the plants start to grow again.
Well, if you really want to watch to see how the plants start growing in spring,
I think I have just the idea.
Why don’t we start a vegetable garden here at the Fort?
If we grow a garden, we can watch the plants at all stages of their lives,
and see how they grow and change over the spring, summer, and even fall.
I think that I know the perfect place where we could
give our new little plants everything they need to grow.
Let’s take a look!
Alright, we’re looking at an old planter box in The Fort’s backyard.
It’ll need a little bit of work before spring,
but it will be a perfect place for our new vegetable garden.
What do you think, Squeaks?
Oh, you’re right that there aren’t any vegetable plants growing in here right now.
Maybe I should explain more.
The plants aren’t ready to grow today, and we don’t have seeds to plant yet.
Before we start growing our new plants,
we actually have a lot of tasks to do in order to get ready for spring.
It’s a good thing that you’re getting started early!
Huh?
Oh, hi Juniper!
We didn’t see you there.
Juniper the Earthworm lives in the Fort’s greenhouse
and she helps with all the gardening that goes on around here!
That’s right!
I heard someone talking about starting a new garden,
so I thought that I’d come over and see what you were planning!
I’m a worm, so I love everything that has to do with soil and dirt!
That includes gardening and helping plants to grow from the ground up!
We’re planning to grow a vegetable garden in this planter box in the backyard
so Squeaks and I can study the plants as they grow this spring.
Oh, that’s lovely!
I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job taking care of these plants,
but we should also make sure that this space has
everything you’ll need to make plants happy so they’ll grow!
Hmmm… what do you think the plants need, Squeaks?
Yes!
Plants need water and sunlight to grow!
That’s right, and since plants can’t move around to find water and sunlight,
they also need to be planted in a place that gets enough of those things.
Before you plant anything in it, you’ll want to observe your garden bed closely.
How much sunlight does it get every day?
Is the soil sandy, or more like dirt, or even hard like clay?
How much water is in the earth here?
I sent one of my remote control garden-bots out there to help us take a look.
What do you notice?
Yeah, the soil is nice and dark, and it’s not super wet or super dry.
I agree.
This dark soil is full of good nutrients, or things that help plants grow,
but you may need to water it a bit more once your plants are ready to grow.
Now, different types of plants all have different needs,
and they may need different amounts of water and sunlight.
I’m also seeing that there’s not much shade here,
so you’ll want to pick plants that do very well in direct sunlight.
The sun will be shining right down on them for a few hours every day!
You may need to water your garden on drier days,
and you’ll still want to pick plants that can handle a bit of rain.
Wow, you know so much about gardening!
Say, would you like to help us with our new garden project?
There’s still so much we could learn from you about plants!
I would absolutely love to help out.
Thank you so much for inviting me!
How about we meet up soon to create a planting calendar.
That’s a special tool that will help us to make decisions about our plants.
What do you think, Squeaks?
Sounds great to us!
You bring your plant knowledge, we’ll bring the snack!
Looks like we’re in for a really fun new project with Juniper!
If you’d like to join us as we grow a garden all together,
or spend more time with Juniper, Squeaks, and all of our friends,
be sure to hit the subscribe button.
We’ll see you next time, here at the Fort.
[♪ OUTRO]