little green fingers

Collecting flower seeds with children

 
Photo credit: Will Heap/Kyle Books (Image from 101 Things For Kids To Do Outside)

Seed collecting is perfect for the lazy gardener.  Whenever someone looks sniffily at your bolted lettuces or wonders why you haven't been deadheading the flowers, you just have to say in lofty tones, "oh, I'm going to be collecting those seeds of course".

It is also a great garden activity for children so I made sure to include it in 101 Things For Kids To Do Outside.  They can begin by creating their own homemade seed packets by decorating plain envelopes.  When I do this activity with pre-school gardening club, the children tend to make fingerprint flowers which are simple but look really effective.  Older children can get a little more artistic with paints or coloured pencils.

Also, very importantly, they need to include the name of the flower and some growing instructions (easy to look up if you're not sure).

Some of the best seeds to collect are from annual plants. Because they only live a year, they have lots of seeds they want to scatter.  if you have plants like cornflowers (Centaura cyanus), pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis), poached egg plant (Limanthes douglasii) and nasturtiums, just leave the old flowers on after they have finished booking and wait unto the seeds are ready to be released.

I also like to leave the odd lettuce and radish to bolt as it's good for children to understand vegetables have flowers too and that this is how they can produce more seed.

The easiest way to check if they are ready to be harvested is by putting a paper bag over the seedhead and then shaking it inside the bag - if it releases its seeds, they're ready for collecting.

Next, cut off the seedheads into a labelled paper bag (use a different one for each type), and then, when you've finished collecting, carefully put the seeds into the correct packets.

One tip: some plant seeds are poisonous if eaten (although not those I've listed here) so to be safe I ask the children to follow the simple rule - never put any in your mouth and always wash your hands after handling seeds. 

How to plant a bulb bucket

"There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza, dear Liza, there's a hole in my bucket. dear, Liza, a hole.

"Well plant it, dear Henry. And please stop repeating yourself."

OK, so the original song might have been slightly different, but my version makes a lot more sense.

If you have a bucket with a hole or a slit, it may not be great at carrying water, but it's perfect for planting bulbs in the autumn. In fact you will need to make a few more holes (with a drill for plastic or a hammer and nail for metal - and, obviously, done by an adult). You can explain to the children that this will stop the compost getting too soggy because plants need to have air in the soil as well as water.

As they will have to wait a very long time to see their flowers, and given that kids aren't known for their patience, it can be a good idea to decorate the bucket for some instant colour.  We used acrylic paint pens on ours (but then, as you probably know, I use acrylic paint pens on almost anything.  Some days our cat even looks at me nervously... and keeps walking).

Next, the children can fill the bottom of the bucket with a shallow layer of stones or pebbles (this stops the holes getting bunged up) and then add some potting compost, firming it down as they go.

You can use different types of bulbs in a single bucket, just remember to leave some space between them and plant each bulb to the depth of three times its height.

You can even have more than one layer of bulbs. For example, large alliums, followed by hyacinths, small daffodils and then crocus near the top.

Make sure the children keep their bucket well watered if there hasn't been much rain. They can check if is needs watering by pushing their finger in about 5cm.  If the soil is dry there, it needs a drink.

This project is from 101 Things For Kids To Do Outside.

Tomorrow... the autumn treasure memory game.

 

The summer holiday 'I'm bored' jar

As Charles Caleb Colton once wrote, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"... or in other words, I've totally nicked this idea from someone.  

Yes, a month or so ago a friend shared a link to the Somewhat Simple website and its 'Mom I'm Bored' Jar.  I've since found these all over the place in various different guises but the core of the notion is the same: stockpile a load of ideas to keep the children entertained when bordeom sets in, add these to a container and then throw in a few chores just to create a sense of jeopardy when they venture to dip in their hand.

With the summer holidays just over a week away, I decided to make my own yesterday. Of course, this being me, I've added rather a lot of garden-based or outdoor activities including many I tested out for my book.  And yes, a third of the ideas count as 'chores' but, to be honest, the novelty for the kids of putting on a load of washing or polishing windows make these almost more exciting than the others.

The container itself is just an old cliptop jar that has been sitting in the cupboard for years whilst I fail, yet again, to pickle a single vegetable. I made and stuck on a stencil of 'I'm bored' and then coated the glass with a special frosting spray.   I added a homemade tag, some ribbon and then simply printed, cut out and folded the ideas.

If you want to do the same but, quite frankly, can't be bothered to think up the activities, please feel free to print and download my 96.  And if you want to send your kids over to polish my windows or weed my garden, that's OK too.

Download I'm bored

Christmas trees: the makeover

Three years ago I bought a potted Christmas tree.  It had a price tag that made me audibly suck in air and quickly calculate how many bottles of wine could be purchased for the same amount (a perfectly reasonable exchange rate mechanism to my mind).  However, it was Christmas, and I really wanted the tree, so I bought it anyway.

Ever since though I have divided the price by the Christmases served to justify the purchase, potting it on each spring to keep it going for another twelve months.  But sadly, the rest of the year, it is not particularly enticing: no spring blossom, no autumn colour, no berries, no fruit.

So I thought we might give it a little makeover.

This is why the kids and I spent the other afternoon painting old pine cones in acrylic paint colours.  I had put a quick undercoat on them first so the colours had a bit more 'zing' (technical term). Finally, we wrapped a little piece of wire on each and loosely attached them to the tree (tight wire could damage the stems).

You can see the results (and messy process) in this film.  It also covers another essential seasonal decoration - pussy willow stems... hung with eggs, chicks and rabbits (although as Archie quite rightly pointed out, "rabbits don't go on trees").

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Making Child Friendly Christmas Wreaths

This is not an easy time of year to persuade children to head outdoors.  Unless it snows. Or Santa gets ideas from the Easter Bunny and hides gifts in the garden.

As neither of these look likely, you could try to tempt them into daylight this weekend by having a go at wreath making instead.

Being slightly Christmas-obsessed, I've experimented with a few different versions and I think this is the most child friendly - and probably the cheapest way to do it too.

To make a frame, get some thick green garden wire and wrap it twice around a plant pot to make a double circle, twisting the ends together and leaving a little extra wire at the end to make a hook.

Remove the ring from the plant pot and then take a second piece of wire and wrap this round and round the ring.  This holds together the two loops of wire as well as creating lots of spaces you can slot foliage into.

Now you're going to need some lengths of ivy.  If you've none in your own garden, you can probably ask around friends and neighbours. It tends to grow rampantly so they'll be a plentiful supply somewhere.

You'll need about 10-15 strands of ivy for each wreath.  Take one end and slot it between two pieces of wire before wrapping it around and around the ring and securing the other end the same way you did the first.

The just do this again, and again.... and again until you can't see any wire showing and the wreath base looks nice and full.

You can also hunt outside for things to decorate your wreath.  Pine cones, berries (avoiding the poisonous ones is always a good idea...) seed heads and nuts all work well.  You can wrap a piece of thin green garden wire around each and then use this to poke into the wreath base and secure the decorations.

I've even made a film showing you how to do this.  Excitingly it includes a cameo appearance from our cat Eric who has an alarming tendency to disappear completely at times due to my dodgy editing.  I call it the Schrodinger Cut.

 

Making cress head elves

OK - so if you couldn't find any Paperwhite bulbs to drown in gin (and anybody who missed my last post will now be seriously confused) - here's another idea for some Christmas decs: cress head elves*.

Admittedly cress is not renowned as a Christmas garnish but I fully expect Heston Blumenthal to be using it to stuff his turkey within twelve months.

If you want to try this out with the kids - here's what to do:

1. Cut some green paper so it is the same height as a loo roll inner tube and wide enough to go around it. Add a strip of glue to one end of the paper, wrap it round and press the glued end firmly to secure it.

2. Cut a piece of red paper, half the height of the green piece, wrap it round and again glue it onto the bottom half of the tube - these will be the elf's natty red trousers.  Cut a strip of black paper for the belt and glue this around the elf's tummy where the pieces of red and green paper join.

3. Cut some arms for the elf out of green paper and cut out and glue on gloves in red paper at the end.  Attach the arms to the tube with glue and use the black pen to draw on some buttons and add a line to form the trousers.

4. Cut out the elf's face from a piece of white paper and draw on his (or her) features with a black pen. When you are happy with it, put a little glue on the back and stick it to the tube.

5. Cut out the elf's feet from the green card.  Make sure there is a tab of green card sticking out above the feet and attach this to the inside of the toilet roll inner using sticky tape before folding up the feet section so they stick out from the bottom of the tube. Then add a decorative belt buckle by sticking on a pompom.

6. Put some cotton wool in the yogurt pot until it nearly reaches the rim, firming it down as you go, and then wet it with some water.

7. Carefully sprinkle some cress seeds over the top of the cotton wool before sliding the yogurt pot into the end the tube.  Leave your elf on a sunny windowsill and make sure the cotton wool stays damp.  You will see cress seeds beginning to sprout within a couple of days.  When they are about 4-5cm high you can snip them off to add to salads or sandwiches.

This project can be found (along with 35 others) in my book - Garden Crafts for Children.  And, hey, come to think of it, that would make a great Christmas present too (Did you notice how I did that?  Pretty smooth eh?)

Oh - and you can also make a grass head version - here's someone much more competent to show you how:

 

 

*This is not the first time I've talked cress head elves on Little Green Fingers, but I have refined and slightly improved their look (rather like Miley Cyrus - in reverse).

Teachers' presents, Swedish superstores and alcohol

I don't mean to panic you, but it's less than a month until the end of term. Unless your children go to private school, of course, in which case I believe they broke up sometime in late October - possibly last year. Still for the rest of us parents we'll soon be faced with the perennial question - what to buy for teachers? 

My answer to this question (as to so many) is usually 'alcohol'.  However, when you add on teaching assistants and lunchtime supervisors (don't you dare say dinner ladies), my children end up clinking into school like some pre-teen lushes. 

So this year I thought ahead.  I know.  It's unusual. Don't worry, I'm sure it won't happen again. 

Yes, I decided to plant up some Narcissii Paperwhites.  This is an absolute doddle, easy enough for children to do, and will give you scented white flowers over Christmas.

The first thing you need is a glass bowl.  I bought ours at Ikea and they were only £1 each (although the cost to my soul of wandering around the Swedish monolith looking for the exit is incalculable).

If you want the children to decorate it, let them lose with some acrylic paint pens.  This will last while the flowers have finished blooming but can be washed off afterwards meaning you can reuse the bowl.

Next, place a few centimetres of gravel in the base and place the bulbs on top.  It's worth stripping off the dark jackets so you see the white bulbs beneath as they'll be on show.*  You can buy Paperwhites in many places - the cheapest way is to purchase them in bulk from a wholesale bulb supplier online but many have now sold out so you may need to try your local garden centre.

Try to fit in as many bulbs as possible so they support each other as they grow up. You can then add some decoration to the top - more gravel works well or else try adding some moss (I just rake mine out of lawns at this time of year).

Finally, add some water so it comes up to just above the base of the bulb.

Place it on a sunny windowsill - and that's it.

In about 3-4 weeks you should have lovely scented white narcissii on show.  The only problem you might encounter is the plants getting leggy.  This descriptor is a good thing in catwalk models, but is rather frowned upon in the land of bulbs.  To stop the overlong stems flopping, you can tie a bow of raffia or ribbon around their middle. 

Alternatively, you can try to dwarf your plants. 

How do you do this?

Guess what?  The answer is alcohol (see - told you). More specifically a 5% alcohol solution you use in place of the water.  If you need more advice on this, see below (3.15 minutes in).

 

*Some people can find daffodils a skin irritant so, if you want to play safe, you can use gloves (although you'll find the peeling tricky)

Curiosity, toilets and beans

For a couple of months my five-year-old's trips to the toilet have been accompanied by some disturbing noises.

No, not those sort of noises but rather the unmistakable sound of heavy porcelain being scrapped across the cistern.  

It turns out that Archie was keen to discover what happened when he flushed the loo so was removing the lid each time. That's the thing with children, they are instinctively, constantly and, when you're reassembling a cistern five times a day, annoyingly curious.

Inspired by this, I decided to try some dual planting with the children at pre-school gardening club last week.  I gave then each two runner bean seeds.  One they planted in a pot of compost, the other was placed down the side of a clear beaker that was filled with damp kitchen roll or napkins.  They were then able to taken them home, place them side by side on a sunny wondowsill and have an insight into what was going on beneath the soil.  And after their curiosity was sated, they still had a bean plant which could be transplanted into the garden to grow, flower and fruit.

Now all I need is a see-through cistern.

Flower arranging with the under 5s

Diplomacy is a fine art and a beautiful thing to see in action.

For example, when Emma, the pre-school leader said to me: "I was thinking it might be a good idea to put some dates in for gardening club, what do you think?" I nodded vigorously and committed to coming in once a week for the rest of the term.

In fact it was only later that I realised what she really meant was  "Dawn, you useless woman, it's been weeks since you showed up, so even though it's harder than nailing jelly to the wall, I will make you put dates in your diary."

Clever eh?

Still, this doesn't mean I've gone as far as actually planning what to do each session.  At the start it was easy - we've been sowing seeds and then planting out more tender crops, but, with only one small raised bed and a few pots, there is a limit to what we can do (especially as our first harvest is still a week or two away).

So on Thursday I decided to go off-piste a little.  Rather than our usual edibles, I chose to focus on ornamentals and asked the children to do some flower arranging.  Luckily I have a ready supply of flowers in the garden, so I nipped out in the morning and cut lots of relatively short stems from my geraniums, lamiums, Alchemilla mollis, catmint, perennial wallflower, mint, sage and, pretty much anything else in bloom.

I pulled off the lower leaves (two and three-year-olds would struggle to do this without pulling off the whole stem) so they wouldn't rot in water and put each type of flower and foliage in a separate jam jar with water.

We used disposable plastic cups for vases and each child put a few stones in the bottom so they wouldn't get top heavy and fall over.  Then they poured in some water - some even managed to stop before the top - and began "arranging".  I'll admit we didn't talk in great detail about the principles of balance, contrast, proportion and colour but I just about managed to explain that it was a good idea to use foliage alongside the flowers and that using more than one of each flower would look less bitty.

In the end, despite one or two embracing "minimalist" compositions, all the children went home with an arrangement and were sweetly proud of their efforts.  If you're doing this at home with a bit more time and one-to-one supervision, you could use jam jars rather than plastic cups - or even find some miniature vases.  These could then be decorated with stickers or acrylic pens and you also wouldn't need the stones (although pebbles or coloured marbles can actually look rather fetching in the bottom of a flower jar).  You could also take the children into the garden with craft scissors to cut the flowers in the first place.

And in other news...

Our NGS opening went rather well the other weekend.  Despite one of my children clutching a sick bowl most of Saturday morning and another making an unnecessary trip to A&E, we were just about ready on time, had 160 people visit over 2 days and even sold more than half our plants. Even better, the three gardens jointly raised over £2000. Nice.

Pussy willow, iris pots and anarchy

Spring isn't here yet.  I just wanted to make that clear.  It won't in fact be here until two minutes past eleven on Wednesday 20th March.

If you hadn't guessed, I'm a bit of a pedant about this whole spring business.

Or at least I was.

Now I'm just getting very, very, very bored of winter.

So I'm cheating.

The children and I have decided to hurry spring on.  That's why we've cut pussy willow stems, flowering cherry twigs and brought inside tray loads of Iris reticulata in pots.

A bit of kitchen warmth is enough to encourage the iris to come into flower a week or two early, and the same trick (with a sprinkling of sugar in the water to give the plant some food) works on the pussy willow and prunus.

We've even hung the pussy willow stems with eggs for decoration.  And yes, I know it's not Easter for another two and a half weeks either, but hey, we're just crazy rule breakers round here now.  

Why not try it too?  It'll be anarchy - but on a very small, floral, faintly scented level.