little green fingers

How to grow magic roots

(Photograph: Kate Whitaker)

This project from 101 Brilliant Things for Kids to do with Science falls under the 'indoor gardening' category - which, given the vagaries of Easter weather, is no bad thing.

You Will Need:

Scissors

Suitable plant

Small clear container

Water

Pots (optional)

Potting compost (optional)

Plants are pretty good at making lots more of themselves - and not just from seeds. In fact they can quite often grow new roots from a tiny snipped off stem which is a bit like growing a new pair of feet out of a tiny finger - except much less weird.

Usually this clever work goes on under the ground but some plants will let you peek at what they do because they'll even produce new roots in water. If you want to watch the magic in action, first you'll need to find some suitable plants to snip. Many herbs are good to try such as rosemary, mint, sage, tarragon, lemon balm, thyme and oregano.

Cut about 15cm from the end of a plant stem without flowers, strip off any leaves on the bottom half and then place this 'cutting' in a small container of water on a sunny windowsill. It's good to find a container with a slightly narrower top as this will help hold the stem upright.

You should change the water every few days so it stays fresh - you can use tap water but rainwater is even better as it contains less chemicals and more nutrients.

Amazingly within 2-6 weeks (depending on the plant) you should start to see roots begin to grow out of the base of the stem. You can keep them this way, harvesting their new leaves if they are herbs, or else carefully plant them in small pots of compost and try growing them on.

Tip: Unlike leaves, roots prefer to grow away from light so you could use darker glass containers or even wrap some paper around the container.

If you haven't caused enough mayhem yet:

Why not try taking other leaf, root or stem cuttings from different plants and see how many you can grow. Which do better - those in water or those in potting compost? Why do you think this is?

The Sciencey Bit

Roots which grow from somewhere other than the original seed or from the main root itself are called adventitious roots. When plants are grown from other parts of a plant such as a stem, leaf or root cutting this is called vegetative propagation and results in the plants being genetically identical to their parents

How to make floral sun catchers

(photography: Kate Whitaker)

Another project from 101 Brilliant Things for Kids to do with Science - and a good one to get going on because you're going to need to allow the children time to press flowers. Start now and they should be ready to construct these suncatchers before the end of the holidays.

You Will Need:

Flowers

Paper and newspaper

Heavy books

Paper plate

Sticky backed plastic

If you're called an attention seeking show off it's usually a bad thing - unless you are a flower of course. Then the only way to respond is 'thank you - I try my best!' and wait for the pollinating insects to notice you.

Sadly these bright colourful flowers aren't usually around for long, but you can capture a few of them to keep. To do this, pick your flowers (make sure they are dry) and lay them carefully between two plain pieces of paper. Now slip these between a couple of sheets of newspaper, before sandwiching the lot between some heavy books. And wait... for a couple of weeks (sorry!).

Now cut the centre out of two paper plates (bend in the middle and snip to start you off) and then draw around this inner circle twice onto the back of your sticky backed plastic paper. Cut these out but make sure you add about 1cm around the edge so it's bigger than the paper plate hole.

Peel off one circle and stick it to the back of a paper plate so the sticky side is showing through the centre. Now you can get artistic and arrange your pressed flowers for the maximum impact - if you get stuck, pretend you're a flower - they’re great at creating a showy look.

When you're happy with the design, peel the back off the other circle and place it, sticky side down, on top of the flowers, sealing them in. Smooth this out and then add glue around the paper plate edge before sticking the other plate on top to create the frame.

Now you can either use sticky tack to attach your suncatcher to the window or else use a hole punch to create an opening through which you can thread wool, string or ribbon to hang up your suncatcher. As the light shines through it will illuminate the colours - and possibly confuse a few bees who might try visiting.

Tip: You can paint or decorate the top paper plate to make a more elaborate or colourful frame.

If you haven't caused enough mayhem yet:

You can try making a different sun catcher each month with flowers in bloom at that time. And why not use your pressed flowers to decorate placemats or coasters cut from card - just cover these in sticky backed plastic to protect them.

The Sciencey Bit

Petals are specially adapted leaves which are very colourful because they are used to attract pollinating insects like bees and butterflies. These creatures come to drink the nectar and gather pollen but when they fly from one flower to another they also transfer some grains of pollen between them which pollinates the flowers. Pollinated flowers can then go on to form fruits and seeds.

How to crystallise flowers

Photography: Kate Whitaker

This is one of the projects from my new book - 101 Brilliant Things for Kids to do with Science.  Considering this book took me half of last year to write and nearly killed me in the process, I have been rather remiss about mentioning it on this blog. This is because I bought a pub with some friends and got distracted (yes really).

Still, with the Easter holidays upon us I thought I might share a few of the more garden-related projects from the book on my blog.  The first is one of my favourite, touching as it does on both flowers and cakes.

As with all my books, the projects are aimed directly at the kids - because let's face it, who wants grown ups getting involved and spoiling the fun. Oh and there is some actual science involved too so we can all feel terribly educated whilst still munching on cakes.

You Will Need:

Edible flowers

Caster sugar

Container

Shallow bowl or plate

Bowl

Egg white

Water

Fork

These brilliant cake decorations will make everyone gasp and say 'wow - those flowers look almost real'. This gives you two equally appealing options: either look smug and take the praise or roll your eyes, sigh and say "that's because they are real... obviously".

But before you get to this happy stage you need to prepare your crystallising station. Place your separated egg white in a bowl, add a tablespoon of water and whisk this gently for a minute with a fork to break it up a bit. Then put out a container with some caster sugar in it, a plate or shallow bowl and a piece of greaseproof paper.

Next go and pick a few edible flowers, ensuring they are clean and dry - rose and sunflower petals work well, as do violas, primroses, cornflowers, pansies, pelargoniums and borage. Just make sure you get an adult to double check you have the right flowers and if in doubt - don't use them (some flowers are actually poisonous!).

Now grip the flower by the stalk or, if you are working on petals, carefully hold one end between your finger and thumb. Use a small clean paintbrush to coat all the surfaces - front and back - in a thin layer of the egg white mixture.

Take a pinch of caster sugar and sprinkle this over the flower until it's covered then lay it, very carefully, face down, on the greaseproof paper. In an hour or two it will have become quite solid and you can check for any uncoated bits you need to redo.

After you've let the flowers dry for a day you can carefully remove any stalks or sepals that are left on and then use the flowers to decorate cakes and puddings. And if you have any left over you can store them for a few weeks between sheets of greaseproof paper in an airtight container. After all it's always good to have a few 'so-impressive-you'll-gasp' decorations to hand - just in case you need that lovely smug feeling. 

If you haven't caused enough mayhem yet:

Why not try crystallizing some edible leaves? Mint leaves are ideal and look great alongside the flowers.

The Sciencey Bit

Bacteria and fungi would usually cause these flowers to decay and rot but to stay alive they need water. Sugar is a hygroscopic substance, which means it draws water molecules from the flowers by absorption, stopping the bacteria and fungi doing their work.

How to grow cress initials

I need some cheering up. Between hard Brexits and orange presidents, it's not looking like a good week.

Usually I rely on my garden for solace but it's either too wet, too cold, or just too January for my liking. Thankfully the new world order has yet to rob me of windowsills, and there are no swingeing tariffs on cress seeds, or cotton wool... yet. So I have cheered myself by trialling some child-friendly seed sowing ideas for this bleakest of months.

This is perfect for kids - not only is it very easy, it gives quick results and uses their own initial so panders to the egotistical view of all small children (and possibly Presidents-in-waiting).

First you need a gravel tray or, even better, a colourful plastic plate.

Next get the children to take long sections of cotton wool and mould them into the shape of their initial on the plate.  If they wet the cotton wool this makes it hold in place far more easily.

Place some cress seeds in a  small bowl or on a plate so the children can take pinches between their thumb and forefinger. They then need to hold this very close to the cotton wool before sprinkling it on.

Finally, place the plate on a sunny windowsill and make sure it doesn't dry out by dribbling water onto the plate for the cotton wool to absorb.

In about a week they should have cress seeds which can be snipped or pulled up to use in salads and sandwiches.

Oh, and there's no reason this method won't work just as well for micro leaves so you could even spell out a whole name in cotton wool with a different crop on each.  Good seeds to try are basil, broccoli, beetroot, cabbage, chard, chervil, chicory, coriander, dill, fennel, kale, kohl rabi, mibuna, mizuna, mustard, orach, pak choi, radish, rocket, sorrel or spinach.

Cake decorating with edible flowers

My daughter has big ideas. Lots of them. This is brilliant and I love her for it.  The only downside is I often get dragged into these ideas and, quite frankly, they're exhausting.

Take last week for example.

"Mummy, can we make some cupcakes? Archie wants to take them in for everyone in drama club.  You know... for his birthday."

I should point out that Archie didn't seem aware that he wanted to do this and showed no interest in taking part but Ava was enthusiastic so I thought it wouldn't do any harm knocking up a dozen little cakes.

"We'll need 48."

"What!"

"And they'll need decorating."

As I said... exhausting.

Thankfully, I had just taken delivery of Petal, Leaf, Seed - a new book by my friend Lia Leendertz. It's utterly gorgeous and full of inspiring recipes using... well.... petal, leaves and seeds not surprisingly.  But what caught my eye was a beautiful petal cake. Genius, I thought, we can decorate using flowers!

In her recipe Lia used marigold and cornflower petals but we're a little early in the season for those. Thankfully she has a section going through all sorts of edible flowers and I realised that my garden was full of one of them - forget-me-nots.

So we topped the cakes with a little butter icing and the children set up a production line picking off the tiny blue flowers and dotting them on the cake. As Lia says, fresh flower decorations need eating the same day or they will shrivel up and look less appetising but, surprise, surprise all 48 cakes were consumed in a morning.

"That went down really well. We should do it again!"

I ignored her.