Gardening Project Progress

Since the warmer weather has arrived our gardening projects have really come on.  Here is the Bee Garden which we planted in March.  Find the original post here.  Boy commented 'that's coming along rather well isn't it?'
Then there are the edible plants we planted.  The carrots are not doingas well it has to be said.

Then there are the mixed salad leaves and spring onions.  Some have been slightly nibbled by the snails but we have enjoyed some baby salad leaves a couple of times - yummy!

Our radishes are getting there and will be ready to eat in a week or so.

Then we have the Sunflower Race!  Boy's plant is still leading at 65cm tall while Girl's is just behind at 63cm.

If you fancy some garden projects it's not too late!  Visit your local garden centre and get some plants or seeds.  Young children will really enjoy the process of growing and caring for plants and there are loads of learning opportunities if you get out into the garden and involve the kids!

Mud Pie Kitchen - National Trust

Today we visited East Riddlesden Hall which is a National Trust place near to our home.  We haven't been here since last year and we had intended to go to fly a kite in the wind but we found a wonderful children's area in the gardens.  I am always impressed with the way the National Trust make an effort to include young children.  They had created a fantastic Mud Pie Kitchen.

Included was a bucket of compost, various containers and other kitchen utensils, some watering cans and pots to make mud pies in.  Also, some herbs and plants nearby, some shells.

It was the kind of thing you could very easily set up at home.  Just use stuff you have in the kitchen.

The children dived straight in mixing some herbs and grass into the compost and adding water.

They made a lovely pie each which we left with other children's creations.

Both children really enjoyed this and we will definitely be setting up something similar at home soon.  To find out what we created at home click here.

Sunflower Race -part 2

Our sunflower race continues and with the sunny weather came the chance to transfer them to larger pots outside.

Both sunflowers have now clearly outgrown the plastic cups they were planted in.  We filled two bigger plastic pots with compost.

We planted the seedlings and gave them a bamboo cane for support.

Then we watered them and measured them for our chart.  Boy's is still in the lead but Girl's is gaining on him.  Boy's measured 29cm whilst Girl's is now 27cm.  It's still not too late to plant sunflower seeds.  Have a look at my previous post for information on planting http://mrsm-adventuresplay.blogspot.com/2011/04/sunflower-race.html

Planting & Growing Project - progress

Just a little update on the children's planting and growing project.  Spring is most definitely here in our small garden.  The spring flowers are up and make the place look a whole lot more cheerful.

Our little dwarf apple tree has sprouted some leaves too.

The seeds we planted about 10 days ago are starting to make an appearance.  The salad leaves and radishes are up, but we are still waiting for the spring onions.

The carrots are still to come up but our little bee garden is doing nicely.

I'm hoping to be able to make a little salad from the things we are growing.  Boy is really enjoying this project and it's a great way of talking to him about how things grow and develop and change over time.  We've also had time to talk about how plants make food using light through photosynthesis - thanks to some library books!  Girl has enjoyed talking about flowers and painting and drawing and sticking pictures of them.  She has learnt to say 'flower' during this project too.  We will be moving on to a new theme of Easter soon but we've learnt so much through these couple of weeks focusing on planting and growing and we will certainly keep following the progress of the things we have planted.

Making a Mini Sensory Garden

We had a friend come to visit today and, as the weather has been so nice, we decided to continue with our planting and growing theme by making a mini sensory garden.  There are many plants we could have chosen to enjoy with all our senses but we decided on a strawberry plant (lovely pretty white flowers to look at and then a yummy feast to enjoy), a lavender (gorgeous smelling purple flowers and leaves are fragrant too), and a sage (great herb to add to meals and the leaves are furry and soft to the touch).  We have sighted our sensory garden next to our music area so that we can include hearing as one of the senses too.

We went to our local farm shop this morning and got some nice bright green pots, the plants and also a decorative windmill to make things a bit more interesting.

We filled the pots with compost, put in the plants, and watered them.  Simple!  The sunshine was lovely!

It's nice to have something tactile like this in the garden.  You could even do this on a balcony or in a small yard or on a doorstep if you haven't got a garden.  We are looking forward to watching it grow and our friend has taken his home to enjoy too!

Sunflower Race

We are having a sunflower race.  The children planted a sunflower seed each about two weeks ago as part of an activity I prepared for toddler group.  This is a really easy activity.  You need; plastic cups or plant pots, sunflower seeds, compost, water.  Fill the cups/pots with compost and push a seed into each cup/pot.  Water and place on your windowsill.  Your seed should sprout in around a week.

Today we had our first official measure.  Girl's is on the left (lagging behind!) and Boy's is on the right.

Boy took on the very important task of measuring the height of each plant.  Here are the results.

We will measure every week or so.  In a few more weeks these plants will be put into larger pots and go outside.  As the plants get taller you will find that they need a support.  Sticks and canes can be bought from Garden Centres for this purpose.

We watered the plants too - they definitely needed it!  This is a really great activity for introducing the simple ideas about life, growth and caring for living things.

Planting & Growing Project

Having spent a whole week looking and bubbles we're moving on to a planting and growing project now.  There are loads of play and learning opportunities with this particular theme and so I anticipate that this will run for a couple of weeks.  First, we took a trip to the library in the local town to return our bubble books and get some books about all things green fingered.

There was a lot to choose from!  On the way home we went to one of our local garden centres to choose some seeds and other goodies for the garden.

For the last few years we've made a bee garden.  Put simply, it's an area where we plant bee friendy seeds and usually add some kind of bee decoration.  In the past we've also made a bee house using bamboo canes but the bees have never made a home there so this year we're just sticking to the plants.  You can buy packets of mixed wildflower seeds at garden centres and these are ideal for this.  We got a packet of 'creepy crawly' seeds by Unwins (aimed at children!).

We don't have a large garden but even in our small patch we like to have a go at growing edible plants.  Boy chose spring onions, mixed salad leaves, radishes and carrots.  We are growing all of them in pots.  It's nice to be able to show children where their food comes from, even if it's only enough for one meal!

Boy also chose a plant which we've potted up.  He liked the look of it, and wanted to take care of it.

Girl was having her sleep time whilst we did all of this so I've kept one or two things back to do with her at a later date.  Our garden in certainly looking brighter now that plants are popping up.