Organic Edibles and Ornamentals

This unit teaches site-appropriate selection, organic cultural practices, propagation, maintenance, harvest, and postharvest handling for vegetables, culinary herbs, berries, fruits, nuts, and cut flowers. It builds on foundational soil, site assessment, and pest-management skills from earlier units and prepares students to integrate crop-specific production plans and prepare harvest/postharvest strategies in the culminating unit.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze site, climate, and seasonality data to select appropriate vegetable, herb, berry, fruit/nut, and flowering plant species and cultivars for an organic home garden and justify selections in a written planting plan.
• Apply organic planting and maintenance techniques (including soil amendments, irrigation choices, companion planting, and crop rotation) to develop a 12-month production calendar for a mixed edible and ornamental garden.
• Demonstrate propagation, pruning, and non-synthetic pest/disease-management methods for vegetables, herbs, berries, fruit/nut trees, and cut flowers through hands-on lab tasks and performance assessments.
• Evaluate harvest timing and postharvest handling practices for produce and cut flowers, creating a harvest and storage plan that maximizes quality, shelf life, and compliance with organic standards.