kids gardening

How to create fun gardening projects...

kids gardening

THE GIANT PUMPKIN!Some veggies grow really big and I’m sure you’ve all seen Giant Pumpkins; some so big they need to be moved in a wheelbarrow! Sow your own pumpkin seeds in a sunny spot in spring and see

if you can beat the world record for the heaviest pumpkin. It was grown in Canada and weighed a whopping 824.86 kg.

HEY KIDS! GET OFF THE COUCH AND INTO THE GARDEN! How cool would it be to grow your own sweet, yummy strawberries or herbs to put on home-made pizzas?

Did you know that there are flowers that really smell like chocolate and some plants have leaves so soft and hairy that you can pat them?

Here are some great tips and ideas to turn your thumbs green!

THE VEGGIE PATCH TEENY-TINY VEGGIES! Some veggies are really small. Try growing bite-sized veggies like cherry tomatoes or mini beetroots and baby carrots, which look like someone has put them through a miniaturising machine!

PIZZA HERBS!Why not fill a big pot with all of your favourite pizza herbs, like basil, rosemary, oregano and parsley for yummy margarita, chicken or lamb pizzas. Then you can host your own pizza party!

Wouldn’t it be great to cook a dish for the whole family using fruit or veggies that you’ve grown and picked yourself! How about making a colourful fruit salad, strawberry jam or using your home-grown tomatoes to make spaghetti bolognaise.

kids gardening

TRY A POTTED GARDEN!If you don’t have space at home for a veggie patch in the ground, you can easily create a potted kitchen garden.

Choose big, colourful pots and put them in a sunny spot. The bigger the pots, the more veggies you can grow. Fill them almost to the top with potting mix (don’t forget to wear your gardening gloves) and get planting!

There are lots of dwarf or compact growing veggies which do really well in pots like smaller growing bush tomatoes or ones that cascade over the sides. You can also plant mini cabbages, mini cauliflower, mini broccoli, lettuces, silverbeet, baby carrots and baby beetroot.

Make sure you read the back of the label to see how far apart you should plant your veggie seedlings and liquid feed them every two weeks and you’ll be harvesting in no time!

STEP 1 Ask an adult to help you drill holes in the bottom of your buckets for drainage.

STEP 2 Half fill the largest bucket with potting mix and place the middle size bucket on top.

STEP 3 Plant the bottom bucket with strawberries, topping up the sides with potting mix as you go, so that there is a ring of strawberries around the middle bucket.

STEP 4 Now fill the middle bucket roughly half way with potting mix and place the smallest bucket on top. Repeat step 2, only this time plant a ring of strawberries in the middle bucket.

STEP 5 Finally, fill the smallest top bucket almost to the top with potting mix and plant it with strawberries.

Place your strawberry tower in the sun. Water and liquid feed regularly and you’ll be rewarded with a cascading tower of strawberries, so sweet that you can eat them straight off the bush!

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Have a go at this fun project!

STRAWBERRY TOWERWhy not create a colourful strawberry tower dripping with delicious berries.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Three different sand buckets (in descending sizes and in different colours)

• One bag of Potting Mix

• Between six and ten strawberry plants (depending on the size of your buckets)

• Kids Garden Gloves

• A Trowel and Fork

MAKE YOUR OWN GARDEN SIGNS! It’s fun to make your own garden signs! You could use icy pole sticks to date and label seeds that you have sown or make bigger signs with plastic plates or old ice-cream lids and a water-proof marker. You might even like to ask an adult to help you make fancy wooden or metal signs that you can paint with butterflies, snails or flowers. Get creative with fun personalised signs, like “ELISE’S GARDEN” or “SNAILS KEEP OFF!”

SUNFLOWER COMPETITION Why not start a sunflower competition with your family and friends to see who can grow the tallest sunflower. Pick one of the bigger growing varieties like ‘Giant Russian’ or ‘Yellow Empress’, with thick jack in the beanstalk like stems and big happy faces.

For competition winning plants: • sow the seed in sunny position in fertile

soil, protected from wind. • sow seeds by pushing them into the soil with

your thumb and cover them lightly with soil.• water them in with a seaweed based

plant tonic to promote strong healthy roots• keep the soil moist until the young

seedlings emerge and keep an eye out for slugs and snails

• liquid feed your growing sunflowers every two weeks for an award winning result!

The world record for the tallest sunflower is 8.23 metres – that’s taller than the average two storey building!

Do you think you can beat that?

THE FLOWER GARDENTry growing your own flowering plants from seed and watch the young seedlings push their way through bare soil as if by magic.

Experiment with colourful, easy to grow plants like sunflowers, sweet peas, alyssum, nasturtiums and cosmos, or seeds that germinate fast like virginian stock.

Try growing these fun and quirky flowers in your own garden patch:

• Chocolate Cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus) has burgundy coloured flowers that really smell like chocolate – just remember to smell them don’t eat them!

• Venus Flytraps are fascinating to watch. These carnivorous plants lure flies and other insects with sweet nectar, then trap and digest their insect victims!

• Snapdragons – Squeeze the flowers open and shut to make the dragon roar!

• Poppies – Try making your own ‘poppy dolls’. Simply pull down the petals and tie string or ribbon around the stem to form a ‘waist’.

• The Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) has giant bright orange and blue flowers that look like exotic birds.

• The Jelly Bean Plant (Sedum pachyphyllum) has small fleshy leaves that look like jellybeans (but don’t eat them!).

• Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’ has long stems with pretty butterfly-like flowers.

• Lamb’s Ears (Stachys byzantina) has soft, grey, furry leaves that you can pat!

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