"Kids Gardening Projects
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There are any number of kids gardening projects you could
take on with your offspring! Here are a few ideas to get you going :-)
Weather Station
From measuring rainfall to temperatures, weather stations are fun and very useful to the home gardener.
Find rain gauges and thermoneters at your local garden centre.
Gardeners Supply Co. have a whole range of weather gauging instruments, including this pretty snowflake gauge.( US deliveries )
kids gardening projects at Gardener's Supply Co. - Type 'measure the weather' into the search box on their home page and you will find a number of traditional and digital weather gauges.
Bag 'o' spuds!
A few seed potatoes can be grown in a bag full of compost. No digging and easy to do! Choose a strong bag - a black refuse sack or a custom 'grow-bag'
Pot Painting
A kids gardening project you can do indoors or out... Choose a few plastic or clay pots and paint some snazzy colourful flowers or silly faces on the side. Grow some chives in a pot with a face painted on it, and the chives instantly become a spiky hair style!
Growing something different
Create a mini-greenhouse and grow exotic flowers and fruits. Or how about growing your own Giant Sequoia. Now there's a thought! Crocus Uk already did think of it... ( UK deliveries )
kids gardening projects at Crocus Type 'giant sequoia' into the 'find me more info on..' box on the Crocus homepage.
Scrapbooking
Fill a scrapbook with pressed flowers and leaves or get really creative and produce pressed flower portraits which you could later frame and give as gifts to gardening friends.
Kids gardening projects - where to begin:
I guess the first step is to create the interest if not already there. Find something in the planned project that will appeal to your child's nature. You will know whether the idea of:
carniverous bugs lurking in the cabbages,
stoically digging holes and toiling hard,
or maybe producing flowers to press,
will appeal to your child.
Whatever way you can, get him or her into the garden and raring to go!
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If you decide to create a children's vegetable patch, nothing could be simpler...
Allot the space and prepare as you would any veggie patch. Dig deeply and turn in some well-rotted manure or compost.Rake over, removing any weeds and large stones.
Now you have the prepared land, let your imagination run wild!
Kids gardening projects - edging the veggies:
Create a border round the new veggie patch. There are a number of things you can use for this, depending on your budget or what you have available:
low growing flowers.
split logs pushed in vertically
Large stones / small rocks
narrow length of chicken wire - careful though. chicken wire can bite.
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Check these great seeds out at Nature Hills ( US deliveries )
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For a childs space, my favourite would have to be the low growing flowers. The seeds can be started indoors early spring and the baby plants put out around the edge of the new patch in late spring or early summer.
The other ideas should be at least supervised by an adult. If the child is slightly older and is a whiz with a hammer, then split logs could be a good option.
Large stones or small rocks can look stunning and can be used to grow small trailing plants over. However placing rocks and stones can pinch, so protective gloves are best worn, and preferably protective boots.
Again chicken wire can bite! Protective gloves a must and a little DIY knowledge could come in handy when erecting a small fence.
Kids gardening projects - All Systems Go!:
As far as you can, choose seed types that germinate fairly quickly. Hopefully you may have started off some seeds indoors earlier in the spring with your child, and these plants will make a great start to the garden.
Sow short lines of seeds. Maybe plant one line every day.
It's important to check your garden every day, even if only for five minutes.
It can take longer to get your boots, gloves, hat and coat on than it takes to weed a whole bed if the ground has been prepared properly beforehand!
Daily checklist for the veggie patch:
Pull out any weeds
Water if ground is dry
Watch out for birds stealing the seeds you've sown. Make a bird scarer with old CDs strung up over the veggie patch.
Sow small lines of seeds regularly.
Thin or transplant seedlings as they grow big enough.
There's always something you can do in the garden and it's good to get the fresh air and be in touch with nature every day.
Happy Gardening! More "Kids Gardening" Reading
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