It was wet and windy today so we decided to stay indoors to sow our seeds. We used items out of our Recycling bin to fill up with soil and sow the seeds.
Martha found this egg box and said she thought it would be good to sow individual seeds. Ivor said we might be able to see the roots grow too! The children loved the marks the egg box made in the soil.
Two years ago we decided to grow an avocado stone. The Little Seedlings tried the Avocado fruit. Only one out of five Seedlings liked it!
We had another go last year. This time we placed the stone into water using a special ‘Avoseedo’ tool. We waited for it to grow and after about nine weeks the stone started splitting.
About six weeks later, a small sprout appeared at the tip and roots began to form at the bottom. Two months went by… then the roots and shoots began to get stronger. In June, we planted the small tree into a pot with soil.
We were given another stone by our neighbour and decided to try growing that too. We now have two thriving trees.
Tracie has a lot of nooks and crannies where she grows in her garden and she has decided to use the back end of the garden (where she gets the most sun!) for her growing challenge.
Here is Gemma’s garden on a sunny day in February! Let’s get digging!
This is Phyllis’ garden in January 2021. It was very cold that week and we have had some snow.
Phyllis’ little Kitten is Hebe and we’re sure you’ll see a lot of him during the challenge.
On our walk around the garden, Leo and Jacey couldn’t pass the Strawberries without having their fill! We found lots of purple flowers. We found Sweet Peas, Foxglove, Alliums and Ice Plant, they were all very fragrant.
The yellow flowers all shone out like the sunshine. Tracie told us all about the different ways to use flowers. Tracie told us some go into medicine like St Johns Wort, some keep bugs away from our tomatoes like Marigolds and Field Mustard can be used in cooking. But we were warned we can only eat plants and flowers given to us by adults as some are poisonous like the foxglove.
In the front garden we found two delicious looking Cherries. Tracie said it’s good they where way up high on the tree as it would stop us picking them before she could have a taste! Look who we found hiding in the ferns! Our jolly gnome, Rainbow!
The pond is thriving at the moment with wildlife and flowers. The flowers like Hot Poker and Foxgloves attract mini beasts and bees to collect pollen to make us honey and pollenate other plants. Can you spot the Plant sign we made in March?
We have been looking on the internet for labels for our plants. We didn’t like the ones we saw so Tracie decided to make some. First she asked her brother, Jonathan to slice up a big log. Then Tracie sanded them all smooth so they wouldn’t give anyone splinters, and so she could paint on them.
Once they were ready for painting, we all sat around the table and decided which ones we needed making first.
Ivor wanted the tomato one, Martha the Cucumber, Fearne wanted Lavender, Poppy the Garlic and Tracie thought a salad bowl would be good for the raised bed that has everything we love eating as a salad.
As soon as the paint had dried Tracie took them outside and sprayed them all with varnish to protect them from rain. They all looked very good and we cant wait to make more.
The children loved helping Tracie make this herb fence. First we used the electric screwdriver to put screws in place to hold the pots to our fence. They have moulded holes on the back to make them easy to attach (from IKEA).
We then went over to the cold frame to pick the herbs we wanted to display. We chose Curry Plant, Rosemary, Lavender, Coriander, Chives and Mint. The whole fence was so pretty and fragrant the children spent the day going over and smelling them. We even had a bee visit us.
Tracie's Treasures 