Swings + Roundabouts Summer 2020

Have fun in the garden this year by incorporating plants that offer strong smells, grow quickly and are easily recognisable. If you are planting by seed, try plants that have larger seeds like sunflowers, peas, beans and pumpkins and plants that children like to snack on and are easily picked like snow peas. Other popular plants that grow fast are lettuce, radishes and cherry tomatoes. Looking for some fun ideas to incorporate creativity in your gardens this year, what about trying a rainbow garden. Plants that represent the colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and indigo) are great teaching tools that are exciting for children to plant. Another enjoyable and popular themed garden activity for children is to create a pizza garden. Organize the crops in a circle, and assign different wedges to represent different ingredients of a pizza. In each wedge, plant crops that can be found on a real pizza such as tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, wheat/oats, and colourful representations like marigolds. When the crops are grown, they can be used to make a pizza as a fun and tasty representation of the child’s accomplishment. (above ideas sourced from https://www.planetnatural. com/gardening-kids/) If you are lacking space how about growing edibles in containers. Plants that grow well in containers include: ● ● Vegetables: Potatoes, kumara, lettuces, microgreens, herbs, garlic, shallots, capsicum, cucumbers, tomatoes, silverbeet and kale ● ● Fruit: Apples - dwarf varieties, apricots, peaches and nectarines – dwarf varieties, lemons, mandarins, oranges, figs, and berries. For container growing success make sure you water and feed regularly. Containers need to be at least 50cm wide and deep to accommodate a fruit tree. (above tips from https://www.gogardening.co.nz/in-the- garden/2-0-1238/edibles-in-containers) Other fun ideas include: A sunflower house: mark out a square within CREATE CURIOSITY AND INTEREST IN YOUR GARDEN a grassy area which indicates the ‘walls’ of the house. Dig a garden trench along the walls, and plant sunflower seeds (or plants) along the trench. Don’t forget to leave a gap for the door so the kids can get in! As the sunflowers start to grow, steady the plants using bamboo stakes and before you know it, you will have walls of sunflowers. If you lack time or space how about growing herbs. They smell delicious and offer taste testings for inquisitive fingers and mouths. Everyday herbs like parsley, chives, lemongrass and mint are easy to grow. Herbs can grow in pots as well as in gardens so definitely attainable. Make a garden mobile by threading shells, pumice, driftwood and other natural treasures onto a fishing line. You can hang these randomly from trees. Or join them together on a single piece of driftwood. Make garden labels and signs to identify all the plants in the garden. You can make garden signs from everyday materials, like icecream container lids and bits of old timber. Or you can get super-creative and make them out of flattened spoons, or even shells. (above ideas from https:// www.kiwifamilies.co.nz/articles/gardening- activities/) December 2020 { 30 }