A backyard garden project in Vejle, Denmark designed as a developmental tool for a neurodiverse 7-year-old. The garden gives him incrementally increasing agency over something living -- his own raised beds, his own routines, his own harvest decisions -- while producing tangible, edible output from his work.
A child who independently checks on, cares for, and harvests from plants he chose to grow -- and sees the direct connection between his effort and the food on his plate.
This repo contains the complete planning and documentation for building, planting, and maintaining a raised bed garden across one growing season in Denmark (USDA Zone 7b). Everything is markdown and JSON -- no application code. Fork it, swap in your own site details and crop choices, and you have a full garden plan.
The docs are organized by the order you'd actually use them: figure out what you're building, build it, plant it, maintain it, and prepare for time away.
Start here. These documents define what you're working with and what you need to buy.
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Property Map | Full site overview with sun exposure zones and bed placement |
| Bed Layout | Dimensions, materials, and spacing for both beds |
| Infrastructure Shopping List | Beds, soil, reservoir, trellis, mole mesh -- with Danish product names |
| Spring Plant Shopping List | Strawberries, raspberries, herbs, sensory plants, seeds for W16 planting |
| Warm Season Plant Shopping List | Tomato, cucumber, pepper, basil, broccoli, leek seedlings + sunflower/bean seeds for W21 |
Construction guides for beds and infrastructure. The setup guide is the master sequence -- the others are referenced from it.
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Setup Guide | Master 2-day construction sequence for all beds and infrastructure |
| Soil Layers | Three-layer fill system (drainage, growing medium, top dressing) per bed type |
| Reservoir Build | DIY self-watering wicking system for high-demand beds |
| Trellis Build | A-frame cucumber trellis -- child picks from underneath |
| Slug Defense | Ferramol pellets, evening patrols, passive defenses |
What goes where, and session scripts for planting days. The scripts are designed for short attention spans -- timed steps, sensory transitions, and built-in breaks.
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Planting Grids (A, B) | Per-bed maps with exact cm positions for every plant |
| Planting Day Script | Spring planting session with timing and transition cues |
| Warm Season Sessions | Scripts for W21-W22 warm season transplants |
| Crop Difficulty Tiers | Which crops a child can manage independently vs. with help |
Ongoing care, troubleshooting, and weekend projects.
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Troubleshooting Guide | Common problems (pests, wilting, yellowing) with visual diagnosis and fixes |
| Mulching Guide | Per-bed mulching instructions with material types and volume calculations |
| Bug Hotel Guide | Weekend build activity -- insect habitat with treasure hunt |
| Garlic Autumn Plan | Year 2 garlic planting for October |
Everything needed to leave the garden for 2-3 weeks and come back to living plants.
| Document | Description |
|---|---|
| Reservoir Test Protocol | 5-day dry-run test with daily log and pass/fail criteria |
| Vacation Countdown Script | 3-day pre-departure session script |
| Pre-Departure Checklist | One-page printable checklist (19 items) |
| Neighbor Vacation Guide | Plain-language handoff for someone who doesn't know your garden |
JSON reference data for planning and Home Assistant integration. Each directory has a schema in data/schemas/.
| Directory | Description |
|---|---|
| Crop Database | 27 crop files -- varieties, growth stages, child actions (EN/DA), difficulty tiers, companion plants |
| Bed Definitions | 2 bed files -- crops mapped to cm positions with sensor references |
| Weekly Schedules | 30 weekly files (W15-W44) -- themed names, hero tasks, bilingual prompts |
| Succession Calendar | Sowing/harvest timeline for continuous harvest W22-W43 |
| HA Integration | Home Assistant sensors, plant monitors, and alert rules |
| Sensor Guide | Hardware recommendations for soil moisture and temperature |
| JSON Schemas | Validation schemas for all data types |
2 raised beds -- both corten steel, bottomless on grass in the backyard: Bed A "Family Bed" (230x120x40cm) and Bed B "His Bed" (150x60x40cm).
His Bed (Bed B): Strawberries, radishes, spring onions, sunflowers, edible flowers (nasturtiums, calendula, viola), and sensory plants (lamb's ear, lemon balm, thyme, mint).
Family Bed (Bed A): Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, bush beans, raspberries, lettuce, leeks, broccoli, peas, kale, basil, dill, borage, chives, garlic (Year 2).
Design principles:
- Quick wins for 5-10 minute attention windows -- always something to pick, smell, or measure
- Manual watering is intentional -- it's the daily routine that builds agency
- Staggered planting for continuous harvest (late May through October)
- Companion planting throughout (tomato+basil+nasturtium, cucumber+pepper+radish+borage)
- Vacation-proof with a self-watering reservoir and a neighbor guide
This garden is specific to our site, climate, and child -- but the structure is general. If you want to adapt it:
- Start with Property Map and Bed Layout -- replace with your site
- Pick your crops -- edit the files in
data/crops/or start fresh usingdata/schemas/crop.schema.json - Redo the planting grids for your bed sizes and chosen plants
- Adjust the session scripts for your child's profile -- the timing, transitions, and break structure matter more than the specific tasks
- The Weekly Schedules are keyed to Danish climate weeks -- shift them for your growing season
The ADHD/Autism adaptations (timed steps, sensory transitions, meltdown-resilient sequencing, clear start/end for every activity) are baked into the session scripts and are the hardest part to get right. Read a few before rewriting them.
This project is shared as a reference for anyone building a garden with similar goals. Use what's useful to you.