Greening Sam and Avery

Day 332: garden update

Between rain storms today the girls and I did a little bit of planting and other work in the garden. It is in a pretty sad state still but we keep plugging away and hoping for the best.

Our tomato plants are just slightly better than pathetic; you can't even really see them in the photo they are so small.

 
 
Still working on the stakes and twine that the beans will be growing on (hence the random stakes that you see). The big area that look like it has nothing growing in it has green pepper plants, once again they are still just too small for you to really see them! 

 
The beans are doing really well! And I think we planted the rows of beans far enough apart (in time, maybe not so much in actual planting distance!) that the crop of beans will not all be ready at the same time.

 
And here are the carrots. Well, at least I think something in there is carrots!! I am thinking we are getting close to needing to thin out our little carrot plants but I am letting them get just a little bit bigger and then I will have to look up what a carrot plant actually looks like to know for sure what I am pulling! HA! (okay, really that is not funny but more just sad.)

We also have basil and cilantro planted, some marigolds finally coming up from seeds that we planted FOREVER ago and some full grown marigolds in pots because Sam and I got tired of not having anything pretty to look at out there!

No, my garden is not pretty or well organized but today I had a three year old digging holes for beans and an 18 month old placing bean seeds in the ground. I just don't think it gets any better than that.

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The Nitty Gritty!

If you want to see beautiful and well planned out garden photos go here or here. Two women that have the most amazing, well organized and planned out organic gardens. I one day hope to be a third of the gradener they are!

So, I am not the blog to read if you want to learn how to garden. I am the blog to read if you want to follow the journey of a mom trying to teach her girls to garden while she learns the skill herself! We are learning together, making mistakes together and celebrating successes (even the very small ones!) along the way.

Day 311: planting day part two

We got all the native plants in the ground today! Woohoo. So fun to plan out where to put them and day dream about what they will look like when they start to spread and fill in the the spaces.

 
From the top going down you can see hostas poking up, a mayapple, two blood roots, another mayapple, the big pink bleeding heart surrounded on one side with trillium (hoping to get a second bleeding heart and then put trillium all the way around) and then two small pink fires. Cannot wait to see it all blooming and spreading!

Then we did some more planting the veggie garden.

 
We got three small tomato plants in the ground. They were getting to big for our little pots and I think the weather is ready! Today was pretty windy so the little things were not having an easy go of their first day outside.

We also put some sunflower plants in the ground that we had been growing indoors as well.

 
The we planted to big rows of beans. Chris helped us with this so that my stress did not make the experience totally horrible for the girls. With two adults and two kids we were able to get the rows dug, get lots of bean seeds in and get everything watered without too much mayhem. I think this was also easier because the bean seeds were so much larger than the carrot seeds; much easier for Sam to handle and me to see where they went!

A bike ride, lots of outdoor play time, our first backyard bonfire, dandelion picking and time with friends topped off our Mother's Day. Hope you all had a great day too!

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The Nitty Gritty!

To see planting day part one go here.

Found a great list of plant and gardening books at a new blog (well new to me!). The list is not specific to young readers, there are books there for a lot of ages so be sure to check it out.  

Day 310: native plants

We have been working hard on one side of our house this year, I showed it off the other day when I talked about our erosion problems. But what you can't see in the photos are the plants that we have in that area.

 
Tthe good plants that you can't see - lots of native ferns, a big bleeding heart plant (just popping up at the far left), several trilium plants and lots of hostas. But you also can't see the bad plants - the HUGE hostas, a half dead holly bush and lots of unidentified weed-type annuals that I can't seem to get rid of. I have a love hate relationship with the hostas. They are big, hold back lots of soil and fill the space beautifully. But the area and the landscaping just scream woodsy, native plants to me which hostas are not. SO, I have been trying to introduce more WI native plants.

Which (FINALLY) leads me to what we did today. We hit up the UW-Arboretum Native Plant sale. This is  a huge event (which we did not really know before we got there!) and a great way to stock up on local plants.
 
Every plant had these great signs that were big and described the plant which made it very easy to see the plants around the crowd and know if it would work or not.

 
So here is everything that I got to help fill in the area around our dry creek bed! It is currently 10:49pm after a date night with my husband and quite frankly I cannot remember what all those plants are called (HA!) but I do know there are two may apples, two trilliums and three other plants that Sam helped me pick out, I will have to tell you what those are tomorrow!

We haven't gotten them all planted yet, I am hoping tomorrow will be our BIG planting day as I think it will also be time for us to get some serious plants in our garden too. Frost mornings are hopefully a thing of our past.

The view and grounds that we were on at the native plant sale were not bad either!

 
We had a great time and I cannot wait to see what our side yard will look like in a few years when all these plants take root and start to spread!

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The Nitty Gritty!

First I want to share my little soap box about native plants - if you are having landscaping issues or are making changes to your yard I would STRONGLY encourage you to seek out NATIVE plants which means the plants that have ALWAYS been there. The plants that are there in the middle of the woods or fields where humans are not. These are plants that will thrive, spread and look amazing no matter what you do.  Yes there are wildflower seed sets and fun growing kits at every store and great looking plants at every big box store in town but those are not necessarily the plants that are best for your yard, your soil type, your climate, etc. and may not last more than a season or a year or two. The may require a ton more water than what your area is use to getting or may not a lot of additional fertilizer because you don't have the right type of soil. These requirements of non-native plants are not very eco-friendly. Plus, you never know what kind of invasive, new species you might be introducing to your area. Okay, off my soap box now!

"Stomp the Tail" - This is totally unrelated but I wanted to share it anyway because I thought it was so cute! I had a 5 year old's birthday party today that I worked. The theme was just basic; animals. I did an inside program where we examined lots of animal mounts, discussed differences and similarities and then we headed outside to look for signs of animals. When the party was over and the kids were just waiting for parents to pick them up, the mom handed each child a long piece of crate-paper. Each child tucked the streamer into the back of their pants to create a tail. Then, confined to a small area, they were told to try and "stomp" the tail off of the other kids. It was hilarious to see the little kids chasing each other around trying to stomp on the flying tails. They had a blast!

I can see this game being a great active piece to a lesson on animal adaptations. What purpose do animal tail's serve? Why are they different? What special traits do they have? Etc. Could be a really fun way to compare animals!

 

 

Day 308: planting day part 1

Garage sale madness!!  We spent hours today hitting up a ton of great garage sales all over our town today. Sam and Avery were both such troopers, even when it started to rain on us. The rain drops started falling and I said "oh girls I think we better head home" and Sam responded "oh those are just little drops mommy we can keep shopping!"  Love that!

Anyway, between the rain and the shopping we were also able to get some seeds in our garden today! Sam and I planted the carrot patch, a small group of sunflowers and some marigolds. Sam had a blast "helping" to dig all the holes and watering the seeds. I am happy that we got our first session of planting behind us.

Now, most of the time I am pretty patient with Sam. Willing to let things get messy and chaotic when we are working together on projects. But today was VERY hard for me. She did not understand the concept of needing to measure out where to put the seeds, trying to carefully place tiny carrot seeds in a line or gently watering the freshly planted seeds instead of dumping a whole watering can in one spot! I lost my patience very quickly.

I think I struggled today because gardening is new to me. Not general gardening, I grew up helping my mom out in her very elaborate flower garden. We trimmed, weeded, transplanted, split, watered, etc. all of her flowers and plants. But we never did much with vegetables. The careful planning, planting, watering, tending, etc. that is required with veggies is all new to me and I am terrified of messing this whole thing up. I would like to see some real produce come out of this garden and so my stress and nerves turn into becoming a bit more of a control freak than I would normally be.

I need to get over this. I am sure the plants will be fine. Carrots will come up. No they may not be in a perfect row, each plant exactly two inches apart but the excitement and joy that Sam gets when she pulls on that plant to see a bright orange carrot at the bottom will make it all worth it; even if that is the only one!

So, the lesson of the day for me was to relax! Let go of the expectations and perfection. I need to treat this year as a bit of a practice year and be okay with myself if we don't see a huge bounty from our garden this year. The outside time, bonding and learning that we are all doing is making the experience worth it no matter what.

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The Nitty Gritty!

Relaxing is easier said than done! SO if you have any other types for this newbie gardener OR great gardening with kids posts or resources that you use I would love to hear about them. Please share!

I am hoping to add more resources to the Gardening with Kids page on the sidebar so if you share something that fits you may just get a permanent link over on the side!

Thanks!

Day 304: garden labels

Today was really windy and I was hesitant to try putting bean and carrot seeds in the ground with so much wind. The picture in my mind had me with a handful of tiny seeds waiting for Sam to put them in the ground, a big gust of wind would come along and blow all the seeds out of my hand. That would NOT be good. So we decided to wait and not put any seeds or plants in the ground today. Sam was pretty bummed.

But we did plan out exactly where our plants would go and work on getting our plant labels ready.

 
I had a store bought set that I wrote our plants on and then we had the rocks that we painted a while ago.

We put one green marker in the ground in the area where we wanted certain plants and segregated off some areas with the big, wood garden stakes. Once we had the plan designed. I gave the rest of the stakes and rocks to Sam. Her job was to find the matching stake (knowing that the rocks were the first letter in the label) and place the stake or rock in the same area. This was a great letter recognition and matching activity for her.

 
Then Sam decided the garden needed it's first watering! The soil that we got was pretty lumpy so I thought a little water might help me to break up some of the clumps. So we set up the hose (rain barrels at our house are empty! can't believe I am actually saying this but...we could use some more rain!) and let Sam go to town for a little while.

 
So just because I am super excited about our garden I want to tell you the plan. In the picture above at the very far end we are planting marigolds and basil around the stepping stone and door (we don't ever use that door so there is no worry of having to step over the plants). At the back, behind the wood garden stakes against the house will be LOTS of dwarf sunflowers. Then carrots, beans and green sweet peppers will be the bulk of the garden. Tomatos will be placed at the closest end and around the corner of the house.

Sam also found our very first visitor to the garden.

 
We were very excited about this find and Sam informed me that the bee was looking for our flowers. Sam told me we needed to get our flowers in the ground soon so the bee could find them! So sweet.

Hope you all had a great Sunday.

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The Nitty Gritty!

With our gardening really intensifying we have been going back to some of our favorite gardening books to keep up the enthusiasm and excitement.

Wish we had more space to grow even more veggies this year! Although maybe I should wait and see how this goes before I get too ambitious!!

Day 300: we got dirty

Can I just stop for a second to acknowledge the 300 that is in that title?! I cannot believe it has been 300 days! AWESOME! 300 days of teaching, learning, playing, observing, enjoying, exploring and growing. It has been a challenge and a joy all at the same time. 65 more days and we have made it to the year mark.

You may be thinking, what then? I have no idea! We will have to wait and see...

It is very fitting that we tackled a HUGELY physical and messy outdoor project on our 300th day.

The delivery man dropped 4 cubic yards of compost/topsoil mixture on our driveway and then dropped 5 cubic yards of wood chips/mulch on our driveway. Yikes.

The girls and I got right to work!

 

 
And then Chris got home (which clearly excited Avery) and we really got busy!

 
 
Sam was actually a big help (as big of a help as her little arms would allow) and Avery really got into picking up the mud by hand and putting it into the wheelbarrow!  I just adored watching both of them work so hard right along side Chris and I.

 

The raised bed garden got filled with compost/topsoil mixture! We filled it fuller than we want it because we are assuming it will settle in a bit.

 
We also put down the dirt in areas around the house that needed some re-grading so that water would be flowing away from the house and into areas of the yard that we want it to.

The mulch did not all get spread tonight, our backs just couldn't do it all in one night. But we got a TON of it done. This is an area that I have worked on quite a bit since we moved into this house a year ago.  It use to just be weeds and invasives all along the back of the house. I have cleaned it out and transplanted a lot of plants from other areas into this area. The neatest part to me about this little flower garden that I have built back here is that no plants have been purchased to spruce up this area. It is all just splitting of other plants, transplanting, moving rocks or harvesting from other people. Love that!

 
The picture is a bit fuzzy because it was starting to sprinkle but I am super proud with how this is looking compared to what it looked like when we bought the house.

 
We have more mulch and more work to do on the garden but I am super excited about what we got done tonight! And I love that the girls were right there with us, helping, learning and working hard, every step of the way.

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The Nitty Gritty!

One quick green note - I am so happy we were able to get local municipal compost to put into our garden. This was a big deal for me and something that I am very excited about. Our town contributes to a HUGE municipal compost facility that they sells the compost to landscape companies and garden centers. I knew I wanted to use some of that in our garden. If our compost were just a bit further along we would have started with our own compost but with the amount that we needed and the fact that our compost has only been up and functioning for a year meant that we would need to purchase the compost.

If you are planning on doing some green gardening this season I would suggest looking at the articles below -

The 8 Principles of Successful Water Harvesting

Recycling Stuff for Your Garden

Gardening With Creative Containers

For the Youngest Beginner

Tips and Tricks for Bugs and Weeds

Okay, I think that is enough to get you started! And if you need help picking what plants to start with check out the Gardening with Kids page on the sidebar for some great options!

Day 293: re-potting

The weather is not cooperating in allowing me to get plants into the ground. So my tomato and pepper plant seedlings needed some re-potting love today.

Sam and I spent some time taking the little seedlings and putthing them in their own little pots. Since we were making the mess and had all the potting soil and pots inside anyway I decided to let her repot her house plant from her room as well. It was starting to look a little droopy from what I assumed to be lack of room from the store bought pot the plant came in.

Before we could re-pot it though we had to paint the pot!

The same method we used for painting snowflakes a while back is how we spelled out Sam on her flower pot. She had a great time.

And I also wanted to share a video with you tonight! This is as close as Avery gets to a word these days. If you come over to our house this is the most likely thing you will find Avery doing, standing at the window and screaming her word for birdie.  I am not even going to try and describe what she is saying, you will just have to watch.

 

She is in love with birds! And apparently the window opening knob. 

So, that was our Wednesday.  What did you do today?

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The Nitty Gritty!

Love the tape method that we used for the flower pot. So simple and since Sam is not into painting shapes or real patterns yet it works out great. She loves that her flower pot says her name!

Re-potting plants is also a really great time to do a lesson on the way plants work and what they need to grow. When we pulled Sam's house plant out of the small pot the rots were all wrapped around the outside of the soil. We had to pull them apart and loosen them a bit before we put the plant into the new pot. Sam thought they looked like hair or noodles. But I told her all about how they sucked up water from the soil and the plant used the water to grow. She really liked seeing the bottom of the plant.

We also talked about how plants need space. This is one thing that people don't always immediately think of when you ask them what plants need to survive. But plants need for space is why so many seeds have developed ways to spread themselves out (by floating on the wind, attaching to animals or humans, being carried by water, etc.). It is a very critical need for plants but a difficult one to describe and show to little kids. Re-potting plants and showing how crowded those roots can become is a great opportunity to teach this concept.

Day 266: we cheated

So, I think if you can cheat at gardening I have found a way to do it!

We went to a local garden center yesterday in a downpour to try and find a tray-type potting system. I just don't have room anywhere in our house to have a whole bunch of little pots sitting in the sunlight. Plus a bunch of little pots are much more likely to get knocked or pulled over causing a huge mess.

When I asked the clerk what kind of tray they had for starting seeds indoors she said they hadn't gotten their new ones out yet and they ordered something a little bit different, would I be interested in taking a look. I said sure (really I didn't have a clue what could be so different). Then she showed me these.

They are just like those little grow pots that are now being sold everywhere. You add some water, push the seed down in the middle and then watch the soil magically GROW! AMAZING!!

They didn't grow very fast after we added the first amount of water. Sam just loved pushing the seeds into the middle and I was thrilled that she was able to do this all by herself.

I actually pulled out half of the little rod soil discs so that in another week or so we could plant more.

So the toothpicks...I wasn't sure how in the world I was going to remember what plants were which when they started growing and we needed to transplant them into the garden. Toothpick were my solution! Green for peppers. Red for tomatoes. I am pretty impressed with this idea! We put them in before the soil had really softened enough which is why they are all leaning over but now they are each standing up straight and easy to see which is which!

I did let the girls go outside for just a little while today to do some "real" planting and playing with the new garden tools. Again, I let Sam do all of this work on her own. She filled the pots, pushed in the seeds and then watered the pots. Yes, there was a HUGE mess, seeds were dropped and lost, more than one seed went into some pots and they were probably all over watered. But if you could have seen how proud she was when all the pots were filled, it was TOTALLY worth it.

In this last photo Avery started "throwing" the soil at Sam with the little rake! So messy but also so funny!

This is what our growing station looks like right now.

No I am not planning on transplanting the African Violet outside! It just also happens to sit on this table. And no that is not a nice, real silver serving tray that they are sitting on. It is plastic!! We will have much more to add to this table in the next couple of weeks. Glad it has sides that fold up!

How is your spring gardening going? Any tips, tricks or ways to cheat?!

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The Nitty Gritty!

I have no idea if this grow kit, tray thing will work to actually produce transplantable plants but it just seemed to easy and perfect for gardening with little ones. I loved it and Sam is loving it too. Win-win so far.

The little pots that I am using are those biodegradable ones that they say you can plant straight into the ground. I also don't know if that really works if it stunts the plants growth for a while. We will see. I suppose you could just take the plant out of it like you do with a normal pot but I am not sure how wet/partially decayed the inside of the pot will also be.

Our outdoor garden is still not even close to being ready for plants. We are struggling right now to even find time to work on it. Packed weekends and a husband that is working late every night to study for his last (keep your fingers crossed) actuarial exam (if you don't know what that is don't ask, they SUCK and are worse than any exam you could possibly imagine but are required, all NINE of them, in order to have a career as an actuary) means that we don't have much time to put down landscaping ties and set up the garden. But it is freezing cold and snowing outside this week anyway. So its not like the plants could be going into the ground even if the garden was ready! We will get it done.

Even if all you are going to do is container garden I absolutely would suggest trying out one of these grow kit things. Sam LOVED watching the soil grow and so did I. It is just too cool.

Day 249: before pics

I owe you all a winner! Why doesn't anyone remind me of these things? Good grief.

 

WINNER of Nature Smart IS....comment #33 (thank you random.org).....Butterfly Wishes and Wonderland Dreams!  You have 48 hours to send me an email with your address so I can get the book in the mail to you.

Thanks to everyone that commented and helped spread the word!

On to some before photos. Today while the girls were having some outdoor playtime I decided to take some before photos of some areas of our yard that I am going to be giving a complete makeover this year.

First up is our garden. Right now it looks like this!

 
But eventually it will be a raised bed garden filled with tomatoes, peppers, green beans, flowers and carotts. There will be stepping stones leading to the garage door and a beautiful urn-style rainbarrel on the far end. The rain barrel has a planter in the top where we will plant some basil. That big bush will get moved to another part of the yard (maybe, if we can get it out).

Another part of the yard that I am excited about is this area.

 
 
Right now it is just a cluster of evergreen trees (including an amazing blue spruce) and a dumping ground for old broken swingset parts. Not a fun or safe place to play. BUT when I am done with this area it will be a cozy little hideout complete with seating and room to move around. We will dismantle the old climbing structure and trim back the lowest branches to open it up a bit more. I think the girls are going to love this area, at least I hope they do!

We are also going to be adding a mud kitchen but I haven't completely decided where that is going to go, so no before photo of that one! The girls are excited to start working on these areas and to have new places to play. I think Sam is getting frustrated that we just keep talking about; everytime we go outside I mention the garden or her "hideout"!

Are you making any changes to your backyard this year to enhance your children's outdoor play? Or do you already have great natural playscapes? I would love hear about what you have or what you are planning!

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The Nitty Gritty!

This post was actually inspired by Butterfly Wishes and Wonderland Dreams. She posted about the fairy hideout her girls were creating and it got me thinking that I should share my ideas for our outdoor play space as well! I am hoping she will be posting soon about all the AMAZING changes she told me she is making to the rest of their yard this year because it is going to be incredible. I wish I was her kid!

For some great ideas of things you can do to your outdoor space you can check out these sites.

A Fort Of One's Own: Making Hideouts

25 Ways to Improve Your Outdoor Space

Sunflower Sunroom

Let the Children Play - Series on How to Create Irresistable Play Spaces for Children

 Forestry Commission - Nature Play

Day 223: greening her room

I posted about a book a while back that gave lots of ideas for how kids can be greener in their own rooms. Didn't see that post? Go here to read about a great book!

Today I decided to take some of my own advice!

We got a house plant for Sam's room.

 
It is just one small plant. But once we have proven we can keep it alive and not make a mess with it I am hoping to be able to add more.

 
I let Sam decorate it with stickers and then modge-podged it to seal it.

 
We have had several conversations today about why we open the curtains and how we have to water it. She is in charge of watering it but only when I say it is time. I think this will be a great lesson in responsibility, tending to something and gardening for Sam.

Hoping it will stay alive!

Do you have houseplants in your home? Do your kids help take care of them or have some of their own?

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The Nitty Gritty!

In bigger and much more important news did you see my new button on the sidebar? WI Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights; I'm a Supporter! I am working with many WI Association for Environmental Education members and the WI League of Conservation Voters  to try and do what several other states have already done; establish an outdoor bill of rights. This can be a major step for our state in making environmental education a necessity and a right for every child along with making sure that every child has access to things like clean air, water and land to learn and play on. I would encourage each of you to click on the button and read up on the bill. If you are in WI PLEASE get actively involved so we can get this legislation passed. If you are not in WI you may want to look into whether or not you have this in your state!