Still Growing? Then get growing!

Looking for fun things to keep the children occupied during the school holidays?

Gardening is a fun, rewarding and healthy activity for young people. Whether they are 5 or 15 there are lots of fun things for them to do in the garden.

You don’t need to be a gardening expert to carry out these fun activities and you don’t even need a garden – you can do wonders with a few pots on a balcony or on a windowsill. You don’t need to spend lots of money either.

Wormery

Worms work day and night to keep your garden soil in top condition.  It’s fun for young gardeners to watch worms at work, and a wormery doesn’t need lots of space.

Provide your young gardener with a plastic drinks bottle that has had the neck and top removed and some drainage holes made in the base.   After that they can fill it with three layers of soil:

• bottom layer - a mix of 50% garden soil and 50% sand
• middle layer - ordinary garden topsoil
• top layer - garden topsoil mixed with fresh leaves.

When you have 3 or 4 worms drop them on the top of the wormery, lightly water and cover them with a few leaves from the garden.

It’s pretty easy to find worms in the garden.  Find a shady spot of soil and have a dig around.  If the weather has been hot and dry, you can encourage a few worms nearer the surface by watering the soil and leaving it for a few hours.

After 10 weeks empty the wormery out and count the number of worms.  Put them back in the garden so that they can continue with the important work of improving your soil.

Other wormery activities might include feeding your worms by placing fresh potato peelings on top of the wormery.  Alternatively, try playing the worms music for a few hours and see what happens.  Some people say that they can call worms out of the soil by playing music.

Green heads

Young gardeners can have lots of fun – and use their imagination – making green heads.

Make a head shape with a foot section of an old pair of tights filled with sawdust or paint a face on the outside of a flowerpot or an old yoghurt pot with some drainage holes cut in the base.

Sow grass seeds on top of the “head” and water it regularly. Now watch it grow - it won’t take long. Then you can have fun cutting the grass hair or leaving it to grow long. Your budding gardeners might even like to try an ornamental grass for extra style.

Sunflowers

Children love sunflowers. They are big, bright and easy to grow from seed.

You can have a competition to see who can grow the tallest sunflower. If the flower head is left to mature, birds (particularly finches) will come and feast in the winter.

Fruit and vegetables

Growing their own fruit and veg is a great way to get kids to eat their greens!

To inspire younger children it is especially important to choose things that are quick and easy. Buy some tomato or strawberry plants this summer. In no time at all your young gardener will be watching as the fruit grows, and within a few weeks they won’t be able to resist tasting them.

Herbs

It’s easy to grow herbs in pots or in the garden. They delight all the senses – they smell lovely, look good and some of them taste delicious.

You can’t beat the smell of a sprig of mint added to the saucepan when you are cooking new potatoes. Mint is best grown in a pot as it is so vigorous it will take over in your garden!

If you want to save water, choose Mediterranean herbs like rosemary and lavender as they thrive in dry, sunny conditions. Don’t forget oregano – it’s great on pizzas.

Small children love being given the job of collecting the herbs for a meal – they have contributed something and you can all enjoy the fruits of their labour!

For more details of these projects and other activities, look at the In Bloom pages at stevenage.gov.uk or visit the Young Gardeners Club on: www.gardenadvice.co.uk

For information telephone 01438 242323 textphone 01438 242555 or email inbloom@stevenage.gov.uk