New Zealand Garden Swap Newsletter

Garden Swap Website - Newsletter Cover - Page 2 - Page 4

GARDENING WITH YOUR KIDS can be a rewarding experience!

Here are a few fun things to try.

PLANTING INITIALS

Dig out a small bed in a sunny area, then let the kids sow their initials with the seeds of radishes, lettuce, pansies or some other quick sprouter. For very young children you may want to first lay out the pattern with flour. If they are older and more artistically inclined, let them get creative. Another idea is let them carve their initials with a nail on a small pumpkin or passionfruit. As they grow the initials remain as a scar on the skins.

CUKE IN A BOTTLE

Take a one or two litre plastic drink bottle and poke several ventilation holes in it. When tiny cucumbers are just starting to develop, gently insert them through the opening of the bottle.

( Leave them attached to the vine though!)

Shade the bottle with some cucumber leaves so the small cukes won't cook from too much heat. Then watch it grow inside the bottle!

PIZZA WHEEL

One garden design kids can relate to is a Pizza Garden. It's colourful, intriguing in shape, yet small enough for a child to manage. Create a wheel with a circle of rocks or bricks. Use wood or stones to dissect the wheel into equal sections so there is room for a variety of plants. Deciding what to plant can be fun. If you want to end up with a bed that looks like a pizza, mix clumps of yellow and red annuals ( the cheese and the sauce ) throughout the plot. Small circles of darker red annuals could be the pepperoni. Use firewood logs round the edges for the crust. Or turn it into an edible patch. The end result is only limited by your imagination.

VENUS FLY TRAP

Growing a meat eating plant can hold a child's interest. The Venus Fly trap is undoubtedly the nest known carniverous plant. Hairs lining the trap cause it to shut quickly when insects brush against them. Digestion takes several weeks, the bugs provide essential nutrients to the plant, so it doesn't need fertiliser, then the trap dies and it forms another one. Since the Fly traps like a warm humid atmoshere try to emulate the conditions by growing it in a homemade terranium. Soak a 50-100mm layer of spaghnum moss for 30 minutes in water. Squeeze out excess and put the moss with a handful of sand in a wide mouth glass container, such as a goldfish bowl. Place the Fly trap in the container and cover the roots. Keep the moss damp and try not to wet the foliage. Cover the terranium with a piece of glass and keep in a light place. Drop live insects in from time to time so the child can watch the "eating" process.