{"id":8123,"date":"2024-05-13T09:51:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T09:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theparentsocial.com\/?p=8123"},"modified":"2024-05-13T14:46:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T14:46:51","slug":"national-childrens-gardening-week-six-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparentsocial.com\/national-childrens-gardening-week-six-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"National Children\u2019s Gardening Week – Six Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

National Children’s Gardening Week<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It’s National Children\u2019s Gardening Week<\/a> from 25th May to 2nd June<\/em>, which coincides with half term. This is a great time to swap out screen time for green time. There are so many benefits of gardening with children as Squires Garden Centres highlights in this article.<\/a>

Here are a few simple gardening ideas to try this National Children’s Gardening Week… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quirky Planters <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
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You can transform unwanted items such as old wellies, shoes, tins and bottles into quirky plant pots. They look great and are a brilliant way to recycle unwanted items. Suttons gives the rundown on what flowers to sow this month: https:\/\/www.suttons.co.uk\/flower-seeds\/flowers-to-sow\/may<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sew some fruit, vegetable and salad seeds <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
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This is one of our Summer Holiday Challenges<\/a>. Get some seeds that are suitable for sowing in the summer months and are easy to grow such as carrots, salad leaves, cucumbers, peas or pumpkins (which if sown May\/June will be ready for Halloween). Let the kids prepare the ground, sow them, label them and care for them. Then look forward to harvest time! I find children are usually more open to eating\/trying things they\u2019ve grown themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve also planted some potatoes in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Maria excited with her crop<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Cress heads<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
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An oldie, but a goodie. Remove the top of the eggs, leaving two-thirds intact. Wash the shells and carefully dry. Then decorate with felt tip pens. The usual is to draw a face to accompany the cress ‘hair’, but great creative! Next dampen some cotton wool balls in water and place one in each shell and then sprinkle some cress seeds on top. Put them in a sunny spot and in about 5-7 days it’ll be ready to harvest. Egg and cress sandwich anyone? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encouraging wildlife into your garden<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
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Plants provide food and shelter for wildlife. In previous years, we’ve scattered wild flower seeds and have done Beebombs<\/a>, which attract butterflies, bees and other insects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flowering plants such as lavender, foxgloves and roses provide plenty of nectar. Birds love the humble daisy, and sunflowers are a big hit as we discovered for ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The parakeets went crazy for the seeds when the sunflowers were on the way out <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

You could also add a Ladybird tower<\/a> to attract this cheerful spotty bug to your garden as well as the other beneficial insects, which keep pesky aphids and greenfly at bay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grow sunflowers from seed<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Who doesn’t love this cheery, bold and bright flower? They’re incredibly easy to grow and shoot up quickly. Now is the perfect time to sow seeds outdoors for blooms from June through to September. You can even plant a seed in an individual biodegradable pot containing a soil coin and start off indoors. The pot can then be planted directly into the ground outside when the sunflower is ready. The Big Sunflower Project<\/a> has some handy hints and tips on the transition from indoor to outdoor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n