Home: Table of Contents

Unit 1: Soil

Unit 2: Organic Soil Management

Unit 3: Plants

Unit 4: Plant Applications

Unit 5: Crop Management

Unit 6: Composting

Unit 7: Marketing and Certification

Unit 8: Practical Applications

Appendix

Fundamentals of Organic Farming and Gardening
An Instructor’s Guide - Revised for 2009

Unit 1 – Soil

Unit Overview
Soil is described in terms of physical and biological components.  Both of these are important in establishing a foundation of knowledge about soil, in order to manage it in a sustainable manner.

Lesson Text (Word doc)
Lesson Plans (Word doc)

Teacher Demonstrations
1. Types of soil in labeled tray
2. Size of soil particles represented by different size balls
3. Examples of live, dead and decomposed leaf

Video
Whippoorwill Hollow Organic Farm Video (.mov format)
Focus Questions (word doc)

Student Experiments and Activities
1. Soil Organisms (word doc)
2. Soil Food Web Activity (word doc)
3. Soil Quality Card (word doc)

Power Point Presentations
1. Unit presentation (ppt)
2. Factors which affect soil structure (ppt)
3. How the soil food web benefits plant life (ppt)