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Growing Kids
This section is especially for kids who like to grow
and make things.
We will have things children can make for the garden and things to make from
the garden. New things are added each month so make sure you check us out each
month.
Plants rule, OK?
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Grow Things 1 |
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Growing Bromeliads | |
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Growing Zucchini |
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Sprouting Sprouts | |
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Growing Mushrooms | |
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Butterfly Watching | |
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Seed Raising | |
Bromeliads are very interesting plants. Some of them are air
plants (epiphytes) and live on air and water and don't require any soil at all!
These ones are great to grow in your bedroom or your classroom because you don't
have to worry about accidentally tipping them over and spilling all the potting
mix!
What to Do:
1. The best Bromeliads to grow indoors are Tillandsias. Many nurseries carry a range of tiny ones already mounted on pieces of wood, rocks, etc. and these are great to collect. Remember though, that your Tillandsia needs water. Misting is the best way. You can make your own spray bottle from an old hair-spray pump pack. Make sure you wash it well though.
2. Aechmeas or Vase Plants are another interesting group. They are usually grown in pots and have a little "vase" at the centre. The "vase" must always be filled with water to keep the plant happy. The flowers of these plants are very strange, colourful and spiky like a pineapple. Guess what! Pineapples are Bromeliads too! After the plant flowers, it dies. But don't be sad. By then it will have produced pups! That is what the new little plants that grow up beside the old one are called. You can see a little pup peeping through the leaves in the picture above.
3. Another fun Bromeliad is Spanish Moss. This plant grows as long, grey, strands and can be hung from tree branches or anywhere it can get light and water. Be warned though. Birds and possums love it for their nests and steal it. The funny thing is that it keeps on growing! Perhaps the birds and possums just want some "indoor plants"!
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Growing
Zucchini
It's great fun to
grow your own food in the garden. Zucchini grow very quickly and you will be
amazed at how big they can get! They are very useful too. You can eat them in
salads or steamed or fried as a vegetable, or you can bake them in cakes, make
them into quiches or bake them whole.
You will need: a packet of Zucchini seeds, some compost, fertiliser and a sunny spot in the garden.
1. Unless your family is very large you will only need 2 or 3 plants, but they take up quite a bit of room. Each one needs a space that is about the size of a square 80cm x 80cm.
2. Dig up the area and add lots of compost and some blood and bone fertiliser (or any other fertiliser suitable for vegetables.) Mound up the soil into a low hill for each plant. Make a saucer shape in the top of each hill.
3. Plant three seeds in each saucer. (You might decide to buy seedlings instead. If so, just plant one in each saucer). Water gently.
4. Seeds may take up to ten days to emerge, but you must water them every day.
5. When the seedlings have their second leaves choose the best seedling and gently pull out the other two.
6. When the plants are big enough they will flower. The flowers on thin long stalks are male and the ones that are on stumpy swollen stalks are female. The female flowers will develop into zucchinis if they are pollinated by male flowers. This job is done by bees.
7. Zucchinis taste best when they are about 15cm long. You will have to pick them every few days because they grow very fast. If you want one to bake, leave it on the vine longer.
8. In autumn, leave one zucchini on one of the plants to grow to full size. It could grow over 1 metre long! You can save the seeds from this one for next year.
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It's very easy to grow your own sprouts - they're very good for you and taste great in salads and sandwiches and especially in cheese omelettes - YUM!
What you need: dried mung beans from the supermarket, health food shop or Asian store, a large glass jar, a piece of Chux, a rubber band.
What you do:
1. Put half a cup of beans
in a strainer and wash them, then place them in a large glass jar. Cover the top
with a piece of Chux (or cheesecloth) held firmly with a rubber band.
2. Tip the jar on its side in a tray and raise the bottom end on a piece of egg carton so that the water can drain out.
3. Place the jar in a dark cupboard.
4. Each day, rinse the beans with fresh water, rinse and replace the Chux and return the jar to the cupboard.
5. In a few days the beans will begin to sprout. When they are about 2 cm long, tip them into a strainer, wash and remove the loose 'shells', drain and EAT!
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April is mushroom month.
Perhaps you have mushrooms that come up in your garden. If you go walking early
in the morning, you might find fairy rings on the footpath or at the park. I
particularly like the big red Fly Agaric toadstools which have red caps and
white spots. I can imagine the brownies from the Enchanted Wood living
underneath. Unfortunately Fly Agaric are VERY poisonous so don't touch them.
Never try to eat mushrooms you find growing wild, unless a grown-up knows for
sure they are OK. Many are poisonous. You can safely grow your own mushrooms to
eat though - yum!
You Will Need: A mushroom growing kit. (They cost about $10 -$15.) A dark place for the mushrooms to grow. (Under the house is often a good spot.)
1. Follow the instructions on the kit box step by step. It is very easy. You will be soaking the peat that the mushrooms grow through so that the spores in the grey coloured compost will germinate and start to grow.
2. It may take quite a few weeks for the little mushrooms to appear in the dark, protected spot you have chosen for them, but then they will grow very fast and after about 5 or 6 days you can pick some.
3. Lift the mushrooms and their stalks gently from the compost with a slight twisting motion. Try not to disturb the peat because more mushrooms will continue to grow for weeks.
4. Mushrooms are delicious fried in butter with a little salt and pepper. They are yummy on toast for breakfast and are very good for you.
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When
my daughter was four years old we were walking down a busy Melbourne street when
she insisted on stopping to pick up a butterfly from the pavement. She put it on
the front of her little white dress and it clung there all day. It gave the shop
assistant in Myer quite a start when she commented on Julia's "pretty
brooch" which promptly opened and closed its wings! All the way home in the
car, it stayed perched on Julia's dress. We even took a photo when we got home.
Then Julia took her little friend out to the garden and placed it gently on a
daisy. The butterfly unrolled her long feeding tube and drank the nectar
gratefully. We all felt very happy that the butterfly could spend her last days
among the flowers in our garden. What butterflies visit your place?
Butterfly Watching Hints
1. Hot, sunny days are the best for watching
butterflies.
2. Butterflies particularly like plants that have brightly coloured flowers that are all tightly packed together. You might already have a Buddleia, Hebe, Verbena or Lantana in your garden. Watch to see who visits on a hot, sunny morning.
3. The vegie patch is another place to watch. If you are growing cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli, you are almost certain to see Cabbage White butterflies about. Their tiny eggs hatch into those green caterpillars that chew holes in the cabbage and broccoli leaves.
4. If you have an Oleander bush look at it very carefully. (Remember that all parts of this bush are poisonous.) If you are very lucky you will find a pupa of the shiniest gold or silver. It belongs to a Common Australian Crow butterfly which is blackish brown with white spots.
5. Julia's butterfly was an Australian Painted Lady. They particularly like daisies. When you look at this butterfly it seems to have only four legs, but of course, like all insects, it has six. Perhaps you can see two little front legs held up tightly against the body.
6. If you try to catch butterflies you will probably hurt them quite a lot. Just observe them quietly and you will find out a lot about them.
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Growing Seeds in a Seed Raising Tray
You will need: A cardboard egg carton, a baking dish, a pair of scissors, seed raising mixture, some seeds to sow (peas, beans or broad beans are good to try).
What to do:
1. Cut the egg carton along the "hinge" to make one flat tray and one tray of "plugs".
2. Use the scissors to push out the bottom of each egg space so that the plugs have no bottom.
3. Sit the tray of plugs in the flat tray and fill them with moist seed raising mix.
4. Plant one seed in each plug.
5. Sit the trays in a well-lit spot in the baking tray. Keep the soil moist by adding water to the bottom tray if necessary.
6. When the seedlings have grown leaves you can transplant them into pots or straight into the garden. Water the seedlings first and let them drain. Separate the plugs by carefully cutting the egg carton into pieces. Carefully cut down the sides of each plug with the scissors. It doesn't really matter if the cardboard stays because it will soon break down in the soil.
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Copyright
Global Garden 2007 http://www.global-garden.com.au
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