herbs – Tracie's Treasures

childminding, Garden Classroom, Seedlings, Uncategorized

Our Spring Growing Has Started

Posted on 20th Mar 2024 by Tracie Dowling

Last week we sowed our first ‘Salad Pots’

First we needed to clean the pots to get rid of any bacteria or decease from last years plants.

We then put coco disks into the pots and added the seeds.

We chose salad and herb crops because they are fast growing and we love cooking and eating them. We added water and watched as the disks filled out and firmed the seeds down.

We covered the pots with cling film to help them keep the humidity to germinate the seeds.

One Week Later….

We had a look in our salad pots to see if any of the seeds had germinated.

In Jacks pot we found a Cucumber seed had grown, it had reached over 1 inch tall.

Tracie very carefully picked up the seedlings in the coco disk and showed us the roots coming out of the disk.

Alba said ‘yuck they are long and wiggly like a worm!”

We then looked in Alba’s Salad Pot, we were surprised to see that her Cucumber had not started to grow. However she had two healthy Tomato plants growing. These were about 1/2 an inch tall.

We decided to move the Cucumber and Tomato seedlings into a bigger pot and leave the herbs in the long salad pots. This was to give them extra space to grow healthy root stock.

We recycled glass jars to cover the seedlings. This was to help them keep the plant warm and to encourage them to grow healthy and strong.

Once we had repotted the seedlings we covered the other coco disks with fresh nutrient rich soil to encourage them to start germinating.

childminding, family, frog Spawn, frogs, Garden Classroom, hydroponics, outdoor play, rangers, Seedlings, The Theatre, wanderers

A Walk Around The Garden

Posted on 1st Apr 202321st Apr 2023 by Tracie Dowling

Today we walked around the garden to look at all the changes we made last year and to make notes on what we want to plan for this year.

The winding footpath we made last year is ideal for walking and running about avoiding the messy mud. The children love how they can run around and peep through the planting bug hunting, plant spotting and watching everything grow. They love the bug pile and saw some worms and ants.

We have sown all our bedding plants this year to save money, we also used peat free compost to help save our planet. The seeds have now grown into healthy young plants so we potted them on, ( put into bigger pots) and put them into the cold frame to wait for the last frost, we will then put them in our living wall.

This years project is to make the decking area into a nicer living ‘Outdoor Classroom’ We have chosen

Petunia, Lobelia and Fuchsia’s to have trailing, ground cover in the vertical wall garden. We will add the Herbs (growing in our greenhouse) for tasting and smelling into the wall as soon as they have matured.

We have Roses, Honeysuckle, Jasmine and Passiflora for climbing up the trelliss and giving off a floral fragrance. Our aim is to make the ‘Outdoor Classroom stimulate all our five senses. To make the decking more accessible for the babies we are going to add Astro turf so it’s safer for them to crawl and play on.

We were so excited to see our frogs while out and about, they were keeping an eye on their spawn, this will soon turn into tadpoles and frogs. Tracie taught us how to carefully remove some of the water weeds and she added some bunches of watercress to freshen up the pond to make the water less Murky so we can see the pond life without disturbing them.

Our Big Plans For This Year 2023:

We have decided in our living classroom we are going to:

Lay artificial grass to make the decking completely baby friendly.

Make a toy box storage area for outdoor equipment

Pot up the Herbs and make labels.

Make a water feature for relaxing sound and to have water play

In the Greenhouse we are going to grow:

Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Loofa , Chilli and start off our Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Broccoli

Sow winter flowering plants to give out Garden all year color and edibles.

In the front garden:

We want to encourage more wildlife in, so we are thinking about making a new pond, putting in more hedging, and adding some hidden bird feeders.

So we have BIG plans, so keep watching our blogs to see how we go….

childminding, family, Garden Classroom, rangers, Seedlings, wanderers

Garden Challenge 2021: Phylis’s Garden

Posted on 17th Oct 20216th Mar 2022 by Tracie Dowling

We have had ups and downs during this year with our gardens. Here is a round up of how Phyllis’ gardening went..

These pictures are from Phyllis’ front garden, it gets full sun most of the day. The lovely well planter was made by Frank, he has hung bird feeders and hidden bird boxes in the roof. He also made the wooden tiered planter where the vegetables are growing for their yummy, fresh Christmas dinner.

Phyllis had a bumper crop of fruit and vegetables this year, here are a few pictures to show how well she did!

It’s been a hard year and being in the garden has given Phyllis a project which she has thoroughly enjoyed. Next year Phyllis is going to focus on flowers, including a wildflower patch to encourage wildlife.

No better way to prove how amazing it is to grow your own, a delicious fresh Sunday lunch! Where’s mine?

family, Garden Classroom, Seedlings

Garden Challenge 2021: Phyllis’ May Garden

Posted on 12th May 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Phyllis has been working hard in her Garden and all the plants are growing well.

The nets Phyllis has had to put up isn’t to stop the birds and pests, its to protect the crops from Hebe the cat!

What a pickle Hebe is! Everywhere Phyllis is, Hebe’s not far away causing mayhem!

All the vegetables are looking lush and growing big and strong. Phyllis has to keep mowing the grass to make it look nice and tidy.

The fruit is coming along too! There will be lovely ripe strawberries to pick and eat, they will go well with scones and cream in June! Something for us to look forward too!

Mind you that’s if they actually get to the kitchen! I know a few Treasures who like to pick and eat them before Phyllis gets a chance!!

Frank has made a Tomato planter in the greenhouse, Phyllis has planted the tomato plants the seedlings have grown for her, there are cucumbers growing too! All you need is onions and you have a salad!

Phyllis has also got lots of lovely colourful flowers around her garden to encourage the bees and butterflies. She has sent me pictures of them, below are my favourite ones. I bet they smell amazing.

Garden Classroom, rangers, Seedlings, wanderers

Spring is here!

Posted on 9th Apr 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

This Easter holidays have flown by so fast. The Seedlings, Wanderers and Rangers have all been so busy in the garden and their efforts are paying off with an abundance of seedlings growing strong.

On the first shelf in our greenhouse we have Marigolds growing, we will be planting them between the tomatoes, Chillies and Cucumbers to help fight away the aphids, this is called companion planting. We do this instead of using pesticides which is better for the environment. The Wanderers are growing Pak Choi, radish, cauliflower and sweetpeas.

On the second shelf we have used toilet rolls as pots, filled them with peat-free compost and sown peas, swede, beetroot and spring onions.

The Little Seedlings helped Tracie to sow the Phlox seeds, Alfie tried so hard to pick a seed up from Tracie’s hand using his pincer grip, but the seeds were just too small. Tracie gave Alfie the packet to sprinkle over the toilet roll pots. I’m sure they will set seed soon and we will thin them out individually if over crowded.

The middle shelf has tomatoes and pansies growing well. We made sure they all have plenty of water and tomato feed to help produce strong stems.

The top shelf is bursting with Chillies, sweet peppers, chives and lavender. Jacy from the Rangers has the strongest tomato plant growing, the Bisto pot is still going strong!!

Last week, Georgia helped to sow the onion sets. This week she noticed they had grown, she asked if she could sow some more. Tracie asked Georgia to help prepare the soil for the seeds, Georgia got stuck in by raking the soil.

Jack came over and asked if he could help, Tracie gave Jack baby sweetcorn and carrots to sow. He then helped to cover the raised bed with mesh, this is because the birds keep attacking the onion sets and seeds.

family, Garden Classroom

Garden Challenge 2021: Gemma’s Garden

Posted on 3rd Feb 20218th Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Here is Gemma’s garden on a sunny day in February! Let’s get digging!

family, Garden Classroom

Garden Challenge 2021: Phyllis’ Garden

Posted on 2nd Feb 20218th Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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.

Garden Classroom

Our Garden Plans – Rainbow Colours!

Posted on 18th Jan 20212nd Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

This year the theme in our ever-changing garden will be a rainbow explosion of colours to represent our hard-working Key Workers. So far we have looked through gardening magazines to find various plants we could use. All the children have chosen their favourite colours and plants, which we will incorporate within the two gardens.

Our BIG project will be to extend our pond area for all our wildlife. Our main pond is in a raised bed but the wildlife need more space so we’re looking to extend it across the bed. The children have asked for a water feature so this might make an appearance.

Over the last couple of years we have had so much success with our raised beds, however we need to make these changes. We are always finding new and exciting ways to garden. We’ll also be putting up the new greenhouse and VegTrugs.

We will keep you posted on the projects, so keep returning to our website to find out how its all gone throughout the seasons.

Garden Classroom, Seedlings

July in the Garden

Posted on 12th Jul 20202nd Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

During the lockdown, the key worker children have been working extra hard helping Tracie in the garden.

We have grown Beetroot, Cucumbers, Chillies, Mange-tout, Peppers, Tomatoes, Pumpkins, Lettuce, Onions, Cauliflowers, Cabbage, Peas, Garlic, Turmeric, Ginger, Strawberries, Raspberries, Currents, Apples, Cherries, Kiwi and lots of different herbs.

Our new vegetable this year is Cucamelons. These are a cute, little fruit with bags of personality. Originating from Mexico, Cucamelons produce lots of fruit throughout the Summer that taste like cucumber and lime. They are grape size, look like baby watermelons and are supposed to be easy to grow. Watch this space for updates on how we get on growing them.

Garden Classroom, Seedlings, wanderers

June’s Walk Around the Garden

Posted on 26th Jun 202012th Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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?