little green fingers

Pocket money, seed packets and odd socks

“How much pocket money do I have?” asked my daughter this week.

“Ummm… probably… let’s say… around about… £5?”

This is, as you can see, more of a question than a statement.  The truth is, I really have no idea.

Theoretically they get £1 a week, but I’ve sort of sidestepped the bit where I hand over any cold hard cash.  Before you write me off as stingy (which, I’ll admit, might have something to do with it), this is actually because they always lose it.  I’m not sure where is goes.  Probably the same place as all the odd socks, every shopping list I‘ve ever written and most spare keys.

I’m now thinking it would just be easier if they spent the £1 quite regularly so I don’t have to function as their walking savings booklet.

Sadly, £1 doesn’t get you much these days, except in charity shops (which are our regular hangout) so imagine my joy the other day when I saw these – cheap seeds and on a 3 for 2 offer.

They’re from Wilkos (or Wilkinsons – I’m never sure which is right).  If you don’t know it, that’s probably be because you’re a posh southerner, but for me it is the natural successor to Woolworths and the filler of many a party bag*.

The children were allowed to get three packets of seeds each (my generosity knows no bounds), and although some were the princely sum of £1.28, others were a mere 54p. 

Best of all, I happen to think cheap seeds are a sign of an unfussy, well performing plant.  I learnt this the hard way.

For the last two years I have had the brilliant idea of growing mini cucumbers on the kitchen windowsill.  Both times I was shocked when I got to the till to find the packet of seeds cost £3.99, and even more shocked to find there were only four – yes FOUR – seeds in the packet. Finally, to add insult to injury, both times, only two seeds germinated. (You could of course point out that none of this should have shocked me on the second year, but that would be very unkind of you, so we’ll move swiftly on…)

This year, I bought a packet of Wilkos' Marketmore cucumber seeds – not mini, a slightly less child friendly skin but quite frankly, they had me at “£1.28 for 50 seeds” (and yes, I know I only wrote last week that “buy cheap buy twice” is an adage to live by but I know you wouldn’t be so mean as to bring this up…)

Best of all, we planted 15 and, four days later, do you know how many had germinated?  15!

In fact, we might grow so many that the kids could sell the surplus, double their initial investment, become veg-based entrepreneurs and never need pocket money again. Brilliant.

 

*I'll also admit that our party bags are often filled with seeds, compost and plant pots rather than the more child-centric plastic tat.  As you can imagine, kids just love coming here.

Terrariums, supergrasses and Hex Bugs

The other day I learnt this lesson: when a child tells you “If I eat any more of this, I’m going to be sick” they aren't always being melodramatic.

Sadly, I also learnt that my daughter is a stickler for the rules.  It didn’t matter how many times I tried to explain that her brother only threw up because I forced him to eat too many beans she just became more and more adamant that “You can’t go back to school for 48 hours after you’ve been sick.”

I could’ve risked it, but sadly Ava would embrace the role of Supergrass.

So I had my son at home “sick” for two days, except he had bundles of energy and required almost constant entertainment.

Bring on the Terrarium (less catchy that "Bring on the Wall", I’ll admit).

Yes, Oscar decided we should make a terrarium as he’d seen one in a book.

Thankfully these are relatively simple and a useful way to distract children for a good chunk of an afternoon.

First you need to find some kind of clear container.  I have seen terrariums made using old plastic bottles, but quite frankly, if this thing was going to sit around the house, I was after something a little more pleasing on the eye. Thankfully I had a fishbowl shaped vase which I’d purchased from Wilkos for the princely sum of £5 which was perfect.

You then need to add some gravel to the base to act as a drainage area for excess water, followed by a layer of charcoal.  This is important as it absorbs the smells which would otherwise arise from a slightly damp and festering environment.  Sadly, it is also supposed to be "activated charcoal" (nope, I hadn't a clue either but apparently this is the stuff you use in aquarium filters and can be bought from a pet shop).  However as ours has an opening rather than being a fully enclosed terrarium I'm hoping we can gloss over the fact I threw in some bits of charcoal from the barbeque.

Next you need to add compost.  Usually the advice is a peat-based compost but I’m a tree-hugging peat-free kind of a girl, so this is all we had.  Quite frankly, I doubt it will make much of a difference.

Finally, you get to add the plants. Given the moist environment, it is best to stick to ferns, mosses and lichens because flowers are apt to rot in this sort of atmosphere.  That said, we were somewhat bereft of mini ferns so I let Oscar add a Viola and Hellebore which had self seeded in the garden.  These will give the finished space a bit more interest and we can always swap them out in a few weeks.

The moss and lichen we found on broken twigs and in shady spots around the garden and on a wander down a local lane.  It’s a useful way to get children to look more closely at these less glamorous plants and fungi as there are a huge variety of different ones when you investigate.

Planting is best done with a long-handled teaspoons followed by the artistic arrangement of your other finds. Oh, and dinosaurs always look good (as do plastic pigs and Hex Bugs according to Oscar).

We then just watered the whole thing very sparingly before placing it near the window, but not in direct sunlight.

There are loads of sites devoted to the world of terrariums, some of which are less frightening than others – have a look here and here.

 

On another, completely unrelated note, I received my most exciting parcel ever last week.  It contained an advance copy of my book. I should probably be cool and blasé about such news but I'm really not, so can I just say YESSSSSSS! (I may also have punched the air just then - something I hope you can overlook).

Sadly, it won't be available until February 9th but until then I shall lovingly stroke the pages of this one copy (at least when no-one is looking).

Nasturtiums, kids and frost

Nasturtiums and kids are a great combination.

We filled up one bed with a few plants grown from seed this spring and for a reward we have had an overflowing sea of these colour-rich, edible flowers that has lasted for months. The seeds are a decent enough size for small hands to plant and the flowers (and leaves) have injected colour to salads and vases.

Last night, we had a frost.

Sadly, as you can see, nasturtiums and frost are not such a great combination.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

Playground funding, landfill sites and allium golf balls

'Landfill', 'tax' and 'offsets' - not usually three words I get particularly excited about but right now they may as well be 'Strictly' 'Come' and 'Dancing' for the effect they are having on my adrenalin levels.

Let me explain.

Our local play area - yes, the one I was banging on about last year (here, here and here) - has just been awarded a grant of £45,000 from WREN to complete the final phase of its redevelopment. Anyone trying to raise funds for community projects will know how tricky it's becoming. To be fair, we've been very fortunate to date. Firstly, we were awarded a large grant from Cambridgeshire Play Pathfinder (now, sadly, defunct) which helped build a fort, zipwire, shelter, willow tunnel, climbing logs, sandpit and mound. Then we had enough money from Awards for All to complete a trim trail. But after this we were struggling to find any other funds to complete the final phase.

But, we are lucky.  You see, we live a few miles from a landfill site. Now I'll admit, this isn't usually something you boast about and I'm sure Kirstie and Phil would have something to say on the matter, but I for one am delighted by our location, location, location.

You see, if you live within 10 miles of a Waste Recycling Group landfill site, you are eligible to apply for funding. I won't go into the details here, because it would strain my brain, and probably send you to sleep (it involves the phrase - offsetting tax liabilities - I rest my case), but in essence the cash comes from landfill tax and is there to improve the lives of communities living near the sites.

Funding can be for all sorts of projects in the community, conservation, heritage, regeneration or young people categories and has included such things as installing outdoor gyms, restoring wetlands, redeveloping gardens and creating new play areas. If you think this might help you, I urge you to have a look through the details here - and particularly the bit about Contributing Third Parties.

With our grant we are hoping to complete the entire playground project by next Easter with pathways through the area, a new climbing wall and slide installed on the mound, an earth-based BMX circuit, a new birds nest swing, more picnic tables plus a basketball hoop and all weather playing surface.

Of course, for me, I'm at least as interested in the soft landscaping areas. Those beds planted last year and this have been an interesting exercise in learning what will survive harsh winters, spring droughts, zero maintenance and close proximity to over-excited children.

The best performers have to be the grasses - Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light' and Stipa gigantea - followed by Verbena bonariensis, which not only flowers for an extraordinarily long time, but has also seeds itself very effectively.

On top of this, I'd put in a good word for Centranthus ruber (which spreads like billy-oh but that's no bad thing in this situation), Achillea 'Moonshine', Sambucus 'Black Lace' (quick to establish and a great, dark backdrop), Veronicastrum virginicum 'Fascination' (great height and no need to stake), Stachys 'Silver Carpet" (great weed-suppressing groundcover - vital when weeding is so haphazard) and Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm' (brilliant colour and long lasting).

And just a few last words of caution. Never plant alliums in a children's play area. They apparently look like enormous golf balls, all teed up and ready to be batted as far as possible across the grass.

 

June blues, head jumping and self seeders

There are some months in which the days pass in a blur of joy and excitement.  I think we can safely say June was not that kind of a month for me.

Not to say that there were moments of blur, but mostly this was of the stress-flavoured, brain-aching variety. 

As a result I have been neglectful - of my children, my blog and, inevitably, my garden. Sadly, this is often the fate of a family garden.  As much as you may wish to be out there beautifying your patch, there is always something more pressing (often a child's hands, either side of your head, as they scream in your face "but you promised we could make cakes/get out the paddling pool/jump up and down on your head until you surrender!" - delete as appropriate).

I suppose there are different ways of coping with this lack of garden time.  Some go for minimalism with a lawn and almost nothing else.  Others decide to plant the sort of indestructible, low maintenance shrubs beloved of supermarket car parks. I have gone a different route.  I've delegated the planting to the plants.

Yes, walking around this week I have realised that there are huge number of plants that I have never placed - they simply arrived there one day. And to me this is the perfect way to plant a family garden. The plants are free and plentiful which means that you don't need to wince every time they get hit by a ball or tramped through by the kids.  They've already told you they suit the site and soil because they've chosen to grow there and, because they put down roots directly into the soil, you've no need to worry about settling or watering them in after planting.

So I thought I would share with you some of my favourite self seeders:

Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove) - yes, OK, so there's the whole 'isn't it poisonous?' thing but as this should really only be an issue if my children sit down to foxglove sandwiches I've decided this is an acceptable risk (although as Archie decided this week to snack on cat food, I might need to reassess)

Verbena bonariensis - a floating haze of purple that works just as well at the front as it does at the rear of a bed.     

Alchemilla mollis (Lady's mantle) - frothy yellow/green flowers and a magical way of holding water on its leaves (self sows best into a gravel garden)

Euphorbia characias 'Wulfenii' - this has milky white sap which is a skin irritant but I blithely ignore this fact because it also happens to be one of my favourte plants and I have to say the 'plants or children' question is vaguely reminiscent of the 'Daddy or chips' debate.

Viola labradorica 'Purpurea' (Dog Violet) - tiny blue flowers and sultry purple foliage in the spring.  Also, makes very useful groundcover for a shady border.

Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower) - looks great alongside other wildflowers but equally good in a blue border.

Nigella damascena (Love-in-a-mist) - wins the prize for weirdest looking seed-pods but also lovely cornflower-esque blooms in early summer.

Hesperis matronalis - supposedly this phlox-like flower also comes in purples and pinks but I only seem to get the white version.  Not that I'm complaining - it flowers for weeks and sets seed in a relatively contained way.

Aquilegia vulgaris - on the self-seeding front it border on the over-prolific, but there is nothing lovelier than a sea of aquilegia seedlings with their distinctive leaves - plus they provide a range of blue and pink blooms throughout spring which also work brilliantly as cut flowers.

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) - at least I think this is what I have (it's really very inconsiderate of plants to arrive in the garden without labelling themselves)

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) - This is supposed to be on the 'highly invasive' side but personally I have found it spreads in a terribly polite manner and its daisy like flowers are very popular with the "we like flowers to look like flowers' brigade (AKA the kids).

Papaver somniferum - these are as often catagorised as weeds as much as wildflowers but the children love them (let's not get into that whole poisoning the kids argument again right now) so we shake seedheads all over their gardens.

 

Having just reread this list I realise my garden looks like it was designed by Lucrezia Borgia.

Cutlery holders, Peppa Pig and Pre-School Gardening

I have to admit something rather embarrassing.  My youngest son isn't exactly a fan of gardening.  It's not that he hates it, it's just that it plays a very poor second to Peppa Pig... and cars... and trampolining... and the playground... and, well, pretty much everything.

This is particularly tricky as I run the gardening club at his pre-school. This has, in general, been a great hit with the children and most will come and do some planting, sowing or harvesting.

And then there's Archie.

He wouldn't plant bulbs, or sow carrots, or plant nasturtiums, or show the remotest interest in anything - not only at pre-school but also in our own garden.

But he is nothing if not surprising because this week, after months of indifference, when I asked if he wanted to stay on and have his packed lunch at pre-school he said "No, I want to do gardening with Mummy".

"Really?  Are you sure?  Well that's... er...  Did you actually say 'gardening'?"  It's fair to say I was quite surprised.

But thankfully, I had a few bedding plants to hand, plus some new planters I had found.  These were actually cutlery holders from Wilkinsons but in perfect child-friendly shades and at £2 a pop, pretty good value containers.

You need to line the sides, but this is easily done with sections of old compost bags, and the holes on the bottom are perfect for drainage. Then Archie simply added a few stones to the bottom to stop the holes clogging up, added compost, planted up and watered in (or more accurately, flooded).

When we'd finished, I was starting to feel quite excited by his new-found love of horticulture.

"So, shall we plant something else?"

At which point, he gave me a look that said "Nice try" and wandered in to watch Peppa Pig.

 

Inception, windowsills and giving away mini greenhouses

I watched Inception at the weekend. For anyone unfamiliar with the movie, it's an impressively shot tale in which there are dreams, within dreams, within dreams and being able to tell what is reality and what is merely your subconscious is tricky.

Well, not that tricky really.  I think I've sussed it.  Look at the windowsills.  If it's a dream, these will be elegant affairs with a few well chosen objects on display.  If it's reality, they will be overun with such a mountain of detritus that just the thought of trying to clear them will bring you out in a cold sweat.

At this time of year mine are usually in a particularly dire state.  Not only is there the usual melange of invitations, cards, photos and confiscated Nintendo DS' but also at least half a dozen different sowings from tomatoes to beans, fighting for light and life.

Not this year.  Oh no, because I have a greenhouse (and yes, I am able to work this statement into almost any situation). However, I realise not everyone has the space, inclination or sheer luck to get their hands on one of these, so I've also been testing out a mini greenhouse.

This one, from Homebase, is offcially called a '2 Tier Grow Rack' and, if I'm honest, I wasn't expecting great things.  First of all it's very inexpensive (it was £20.49 and is now reduced to £13.49) and my father's adage of 'buy cheap, buy twice' came to mind. But getting it out of the box, it felt reasonably strong.  It was also very easy to put together with all the poles labelled.  It would only take a normal person about five minutes (or 10 minutes for someone who fails to read the instructions and is simultaneously juggling a mug of tea and flapjack).  The only tricky bits were the mesh grill shelves which initially pinged off whenever I tried to attach them onto the framework although they eventually behaved themselves.

When constructed you have a two-shelf structure and cover with enough height to grow on some good sized plants and best of all, the strength and space to hold 12 seed trays (which should equate to at least three clear windowsills).

Also, the mini greenhouse is perfect for children with everything being at their height and the front section unzipping easily to allow for watering and ventilation.

It does need siting somewhere relatively sheltered as it's not anchored to the ground and wouldn't hold it's own in strong winds.  We popped ours against a wall in our side passage which worked perfectly.

If you fancy messing with your mind and creating some Inception style clear windowsills of your own, I have two of these mini greenhouses to give away.  All you need to do is leave a comment below and I'll draw a name from a hat in a week... probably whilst standing in my greenhouse (see, I told you I could work it into any situation).

Cutting gardens, Scrabble words and the need to be right

I love being right. Yes, yes, I know everyone loves being right but I really love being right.

Sadly, this seems to be a genetic fault, transferred directly down the Isaac bloodline.  My daughter has it (and oh, won't that make for a fun time in those teenage years) and my eldest brother definitely suffers from it. In fact he once called me whilst holidaying with friends in Scotland so I could look up his latest offering on the Scrabble board as no-one believed it to be a real word. It was, but, as I said (so wisely, I felt) at the time "NIck you can be right, or you can be popular, but you can't be both".  And do you know what - I was right (which felt good, of course).

Anyway, this need to be right is being tested at the moment because I am in the midst of trying out lots of children's projects for my book. Some I have done many times, but others I have simply planned in my head and on paper. This means that one or two, when tested, just won't come right. In particular my (if I might say) genius idea for a miniature knot garden has been abandoned because the seeds weren't quite as sure about it as I was.

Then again, sometimes the plans come to fruition. Our rainbow cutting garden took a great deal of planning to find the right bulbs with the right colours that would come out at the right time. Then it was a matter of planting up, waiting and hoping.

But look!  It worked.  And you know what that means don't you?

Yes - I was right (but not necessarily popular...)

Show-and-tell seed packets

I am an incredibly thoughtful person.  Unfortunately, it really isn't the thought that counts.  It's pulling your finger out and turning that thought into action.

Sadly this is where I fall down.

Thankfully, some people are much better at this which is why, a few days ago, the children and I received a parcel of delights.  It came from Dave, an old friend of my husband's and his family, and now of ours.  He lives in the States but is a self-confessed anglophile and when over here, always makes the effort to catch up. Not only did he come bearing gifts on his most recent visit but on his return home, put together another package to send over. 

These were seeds he'd bought at the Philadelphia Flower Show from the Hudson Valley Seed Library.

Isn't this exactly how seed packets should look? And read?

Each of the packs is designed by a different New York artist and folds out into a flower shape.  What's more, they're of good enough quality that you can keep and even frame them. Then, of course, they elicit that Pokemon card style twitch telling you to collect them all.

Plus the names are so much more exciting than your run of the mill seeds; we have Tiny Tim Tomato, Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry, Calico Popcorn, Good Bug Blooms and Green Zebra Tomato.

All this makes them perfect for children.  If you still need convincing, I'll tell you that the reason I can only photograph four packs is that Ava has taken the fifth in to 'Show and Tell' today - and there wasn't even bribery involved.

Of course, I've no idea how we'll get on with the actual growing.  Most are heirloom seeds adapted to a New York State of Mind, but even if we fail, we can always just sit back and gaze lovingly at the packets.

Oh, and in other news...

...I survived the Ideal Home Show.

No-one threw fruit.

Some people even asked questions.

Best of all, my face healed in time - or at least well enough that Lancome was able to disguise any residual horrors.

Also thank you to everyone who left their 'perfect family garden' feedback - all of which was invaluable particularly as I was still tweaking the talk with two hours to go. Some may view this as disorganised, but actually it's a well respected technique to keep it 'fresh in the mind' (I used to work in PR - can you tell?).

Charity shops, genteel skip-diving and miniature flower arrangements

 


I'm a sucker for a charity shop.  Seriously.  It's like a genteel version of skip-diving with added feel good factor.

What's more, I have successfully passed on my passion to the kids.  In fact it wasn't even a hard sell.  Once they worked out that a pound of pocket money could purchase all sorts of bounty usually beyond their means, I had willing apprentices.

This half term, we have been indulging our charity shop fetish with a certain focus.  Last year we planted a cutting garden and it's about to bear it's first fruit.  As most of these will be midgets in the cut flower world - muscari, species tulips and miniature narcissi - I needed something to display them in which wouldn't completely swamp the blooms.

To be fair, we did scour five shops, but in the end our dedication was rewarded, eight receptacles (vases might be overstating it, especially as one is actually a teapot...) and most of them perfect for the smaller displays.

What's more, we didn't even wait for the cutting garden.  Instead, we raided the grandparents' patch and came up with these floral creations - two are mine, two are Oscar's (I won't say which is which as I worry it may not reflect well on my skills). As well as being great for short stemmed flowers, the small bowls are perfect for floating flower heads (which, let's face it, are often the unplanned reasult of child-based flower cutting).

For those who care about such things the 'arrangements' (and yes, I use that term loosely) include aconites, rosemary, Ballota pseudodictamnus, snowdrops, Viburnum tinus, Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn', crocus and hellebores.