Welcome to Gardening tips
Article
Gardening Fun With Children
Shaan Randow
Do you recall your very first plant? Your first garden? Perhaps it was the geranium seeds you planted in a milk carton or Styrofoam cup as part of a class project. Perhaps, if you were lucky, it was your own corner of your parent’s garden, staked out and set up just for the plants that you chose. My own garden memories include experiments with watermelon seeds (under the back porch where no one would step on them – and where, with no sun, they never grew), orange seeds (the ones in the garden never sprouted. The one I started in a paper cup on a window sill still grows in my mother’s back yard) and packets of all sorts of flower seeds.
Instilling a love of gardening in children gives them a lifelong gift on which they can draw – for pleasure, for sustenance and to add creativity and joy to their lives. There are so many garden-related activities and experiments that you can do with a garden. It boggles the mind that so many resources and references to gardening with children concentrate on ‘building a sunflower house’ when there are so many more creative ways to introduce children to the pure fun of gardening.
Packets of seeds that are labeled ‘kid gardens’ are one way to go about it – they do usually contain seeds for plants that grow quickly, at least in grownup terms. For a child, though, ten days is an eternity. Instead, take a trip to the local nursery with your child and let them pick one or two flats of flowers already in bloom. Invest a few dollars in a garden trowel and fork, and help your child transplant the seedlings into his own flower bed. That’s the sort of work/reward ratio that a child understands: one afternoon of digging and planting equals a flower garden. As the weeks go on, you’ll find their interest is maintained because they’re into the FUN part of gardening – watering, picking, and enjoying.
When they’re ready to start from seed, include them in early spring seed starting. Instead of buying plants, let them plant them inside to be ready to transplant in a few weeks. Take a tip from science teachers everywhere – plant several flats in regular trays, but plant one very special ‘demonstrator’. Fill a glass with soil, poke seeds down into the dirt against the side of the glass and put it on a sunny windowsill. Your child will have the fascination of watching what happens underground as his seedlings grow – the seed pod splitting, the roots spreading, and finally, the miracle of the first tiny shoots pressing upward toward the light and heat.
There are other very easy gardening projects that yield quick results for children, projects that have the bonus of being ‘winter-ready’. Cut up a potato, making sure that each chunk contains at least one eye. Plant it in a cup of dirt with the eye facing up – and watch it grow. You can do the same with an onion – just bury the onion in soil with the crown showing. It will only take days for the shoots to turn green and begin growing.
For more fun gardening ideas for kids, pick up a science activity book. You’ll find a world of growing and gardening experiments that children can try, including the ever popular ‘cucumber in a bottle’ trick.
About the Author
This article courtesy of http://www.floral-world.net
Bulb Gardening Best products
Bulb Gardening News
bulb gardening
Nurseries and flower catalogs are filled with amaryllis , a holiday tradition. But perhaps you've been intimated by the softball-size bulbs. Are the cheerful, bold blooms difficult to grow? "Don't let their breath-taking beauty fool you," says Betty ...
Read more10 frequently asked amaryllis questions - Houston Chronicle
Beautiful colour and wonderful perfume can be lacking at this time of year but, even if you don’t rate your gardening skills, there are some amazingly easy ways to create vibrancy and life indoors right now. You can grow certain bulbs such as ...
Read moreEasy gardening steps to indoor colour - Daily Mirror
Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center Paperwhites are the best choice for forcing bulbs inside without soil or pre-chilling. Q: My daughter teaches first grade and tried to force tulips and daffodils in glass beads and water last winter. It was ...
Read moreForcing bulbs with no soil - Patriot-News Blogs
After we tuck in our gardens and head indoors for the winter, we gardeners long for a way to satisfy our green thumbs. Many scratch their proverbial gardening itch by growing amaryllis that brighten winter days with magnificent, glamorous blooms ...
Read moreBrighten winter days with blooming amaryllis - Arlington Heights Daily Herald
This year the onslaught of winter seems especially harsh, considering we went from the 60s to the 20s in three days. I really thought I was done with my fall chores, since I’ve been writing about it and plugging along for more than a month now. But ...
Read moreLast minute tasks in the garden - Echo Press
Get the upper hand by thinking ahead. If you want your perennials to flower in a brilliant display of color in the spring, plant them now. Think of September, October and November as key months to plant the most popular bulbs: Crocus, daffodil, glory ...
Read morePlant bulbs now to bring spring blooms - Carroll County Times
Although poinsettias of all stripes and colors remain the best-selling holiday plant of choice, there are a number of good, winter-blooming options. Here are some elegant and carefree holiday houseplant suggestions: — Amaryllis: These bulbous ...
Read moreTry some untraditional holiday plants - Houston Chronicle
Traditionally, wire netting with half-inch gaps is recommended; either peg it down on the surface of the soil, or use it to make inverted baskets under which you plant the bulbs and which you then peg down. However, these methods take time. Other ...
Read moreBunny Guinness: Q&A - Daily Telegraph
Getting sick in the fall really does bite. Just when you're getting in the groove of the endless fall chores both in the house and outside the garden, you start getting that lump in your throat that makes it painful to swallow, you perspire a little ...
Read moreThe toll of too many fall chores - Seattle Post Intelligencer Blogs
I have been pulling the garden apart now that the fragile beauty of autumn is crumpled. Seed from the Tagetes patula 'Cinnabar' has been saved and the summer pots turned out and soil revitalised with seaweed meal to make way for the bulbs and ...
Read more