Doing the Bare Minimum

It has been a hectic few weeks since we stepped into spring and somehow, despite the sunshine a couple of weeks back, the garden didn't quite get the attention it deserved. We have sown a few seeds. Everything we planned to sow in March has been done, but nothing more. Then, as Easter approached we decided it was probably best to wait till we returned from a trip to visit Grandma and Grandad North, before we sowed anymore. We were remembering last years destruction of our seedlings by a little mouse and some very hot sunshine which left our crops eaten or shrivelled.

We returned from a lovely trip up north yesterday and so are now ready to get serious in the garden. Starting, I think, with a first haircut for the lawn. I'm hoping it will be a dry day so by the time Garden Dad gets home from work it will be dry enough to mow. And while our Little Garden Helpers make menus for their cafe, I'm going to find all the seeds we will plant at the weekend and make sure I know where and how I am sowing them.

And until I have news from the garden I will post about some of the fun things we have been doing while we haven't been in the garden...    

Snapshots of Spring

Today was the first day of spring so this afternoon I took Garden Lass and Garden Boy on a walk around our garden to look for the signs of spring. There are lots of little buds waiting to burst forth, healthy new leaves and sycamore seedlings appearing at every moment. Here are some snapshots of spring in our garden:

Relaxing in the Sun

I'm just taking a peaceful break for a cuppa in the garden. Garden Lass has been helping me pull out the weeds in the patio cracks. The beautiful sunshine has encouraged me to make the patio a little more inviting so once all the weeds are packed into the green bin we will wash down the garden table and chairs. When Garden Dad and I were making our plans for the garden this year one of the things we decided was that we needed to spend more time relaxing and playing in the garden. It is easy, especially early in the season, to throw ourselves into the planting and we are determined this year to enjoy the garden as a place to relax this year as well.

Tidying up the patio is just the start of the preparations. Garden Girl and Garden Boy are growing out of the slide we have in the garden so we thought it was time to look for some new garden toys. We are also going to make sure we furnish the two seating areas we created at the bottom of the garden. One of these catches the evening sun, so will be perfect for a glass of wine at the end of the day, while the other is in the shadiest corner of the garden and therefore ideal for the children to escape to the hot midday sun for a picnic.

I hope very much that the sun we have today is here to stay so we can pull out our sunglasses and suun hats and begin to enjoy the garden on a daily basis. In the meantime I'm heading back to inspect worms and ladybirds with
Garden Lass.

First Sowings

Last weekend was a weekend of all weathers. The sun chose to shine while I was accompanying Garden Girl to a birthday party but after that we had rain, sleet and even snow. For all the motivation I had, opening the door and heading out into the garden was a task not to be. Determined to remain motivated, I drew a plan of the garden, marking out where each of the seeds will be sown. I also started to put together a monthly list of things to do, which I will pop up here each month. I wanted a list that I could use again each year and which would be specifically relevant to my garden and the things we grow.

I had a couple of opportunities during the week to pop out and sow broad beans but these were during the school day and whilst I often do work in the garden during this time I did not want to exclude our Little Garden Helpers from the very first sowings of the year. Thankfully, today has been perfect for a day in the garden and we made the most of it.

Our three Little Garden Helpers delighted in helping with the first sowings of the year, measuring out the distance between beans and pushing the beans themselves into the soil, before covering them up and watering them. Garden Lass eagerly joined in and when she had run out of beans she continued to happily push stones from the pathway into the raised bed. This was in total opposite to last year, when she happily spent her time scooping soil from the raised bed onto the pathway!

I was also able to weed the herb bed, which is always hard work because of all the weeds tangling themselves around the thyme and oregano. Those that grow up through the middle of these woody herbs should perhaps be admired for their persistence but it is frustratingly difficult to get at their roots without pulling up the thyme and oregano as well. And then there is all the moss growing at the shady end of the bed which I am never quite certain whether I should totally remove or just break up and dig in. I usually end up going for a bit of a mix of the two.

While I was working my way along the herb bed I was disappointed to find so many snails, nestled and sheltered by the herbs, undisturbed over winter. I removed as many as I could but I am sure there are more hiding in the warmth of the low growing herbs. Our Little Garden Helpers had the opportunity to see a variety of different snail shells however, and one brave little snail tried to make an escape from my bucket and gave them a delightful peek at its body and antennae as it tried to slither slowly away.

On a more pleasing note I saw a lot of seven spotted ladybirds and not a single harlequin. I'm not sure if this is because the latter species tend to come out later in the year but I am taking it as a good sign that there are so many seven spotted ones in the garden at the moment. And our Little Garden Helpers were absolutely thrilled to see one of them residing in the ladybird house we put up last year.

I have never had much success getting my little ones to help with weeding so while I was busy pulling up unwanted green things, our Little Garden Helpers were playing hide and seek amongst the plant pots and having watering can races. I'm not sure how a watering can race works but it involved running about with a watering can, getting wet and lots of laughter!

We came inside for dinner, wet but satisfied with our day in the garden.

March Sowings

I have a plan for the garden, although my plans are always relatively vague. I order my seed packets according to the month in which they can first be sown and then, within that month, I prioritise according to personal preference. I do try to make sure that the varieties which can only be sown in a particular month are at the front of the pile but beyond that it is really a whimsical plan.

Thus the plan I lay out for March is liable to change. If the weather becomes warmer and the night frosts subside I am likely to add a few packets from my April pile to March, however I will definately sow the following in March:

Broad Beans Crimson Flowered The first time we grew broad beans they became quite heavily infested with black fly and they cropped for only a short period before they were ruined. We had sown them in the autumn prior to the growing season and so the next time we grew them we waited till February to sow the seeds and, although we had to wait a little longer for the crop, we had a much more fruitful season. Since then, we have saved our seeds to make early spring sowings and the broad beans are now the first crops to be put in the ground each year.

Tomatoes Tigerella, Mirabelle Bianche, Sungold F1 Hybrid, Gartenperle, Ruby F1 Hybrid, Vilma, Harbinger You can perhaps gather, from the long list of varities, that tomatoes are one of the things we enjoy growing the most. Homegrown tomatoes taste delicious and with the children helping themselves to fruit whenever they want we can't help but grow lots of tomato plants. The greenhouse, in summer, is filled with that delicious tomato scent, the hanging baskets drip with bursting fruits and our meal times have an added luxury of taste. I did promise myself that we would try to be sensible this year, but as you can see, when it actually came to choosing, we failed in our efforts. Though in my defence, we only have a few Tigerella and Mirabelle Bianche seeds left over from last year and the Harbinger seeds were free!

Cucumber Burpless Tasty Green F1 Hybrid Garden Boy loves cucumbers and was very excited to help me choose the variety at the garden centre. He looked at the pictures and I read out the names. Once I had read out the name of this variety there was no looking back. With lots of giggles the Burpless Cucumber was declared the winner! We will let you know later in the year if they live up to their name or not!

Cress Fine Curled and Extra Curled These are probably the same thing, but we already had some seeds and Garden Boy really wanted the packet with cress heads pictured on the front, so given the frequency we sow cress we bought the extra packet. We will continually sow these throughout the year, but it is always good to get some in early so that the children see some early growth and retain the excitement they have at this time of year.

Salad Leaves Stir Fry Mixed, Mixed Lettuce Leaves We eat a lot of lettuce and having had disastrous crops outdoors, with the birds eating the lot, we now stick to eating young leaves grown in trays, inside the greenhouse. We might have to grow more this year though, as Garden Boy has started to eat lots of lettuce. He decided one day he would be a snail throughout dinner and as a result would only eat lettuce during that meal. Since then, he has happily munched away on various types of lettuce and I suspect the indoor crops will be in as much danger from Garden Boy this year, as the outdoor crops have been from the birds.

Sweet Basil, Plain Leaved Parsley and Coriander With no appropriate windowsills in our house we struggle to grow herbs indoors, so as soon as it is warm enough to start them up in the greenhouse we are keen to get the herb seeds sown. Basil in particular, is a favourite, although Garden Girl is eagerly awaiting the coriander.

Cornflower Snowman We are growing these because the seed packets came free as part of a promotion and they do look beautiful. We will probably grow them in pots to keep beside the greenhouse door and provide a cheerful welcome. Garden Girl, who is determined to add more flowers to our garden, is particularly delighted to be growing these and there is no way I would have got away with leaving this seed packet in the tin till April! 

What are you growing this month?

Is this a Queen Bee?

Over winter we store empty plant pots and outdoor toys in the greenhouse and when we came to clear them out this year we found this bee in one of the toy boxes.

Garden Dad thinks it might be a Queen Bee and I'm feeling a bit sorry that I have displaced it from its hibernation. I hope I haven't exposed it too early to cold nights but I am also a little concerned that it will try to return to the greenhouse toy store and end up stinging one of the children. From my brief exploration online I believe that at this time of year a mated Queen bee will be busy looking for a suitable hive and beginning to gather nectar, so perhaps the warmth of the greenhouse will no longer be needed and a new home will soon be found. I have my fingers crossed.

Back with a Burst of Colour

It feels as if winter is coming to a close and spring is just starting to emerge. After a long winter break, this weekend seemed the right time to re-open the shutters, dust away the cobwebs and once again pick up my garden trowel and keyboard.

The garden has been nothing more than a play area over the winter months this year. Ordinarily you wouldn't find us to be fair weather gardeners but we really did put the garden to bed around October time. We had no winter vegetables because we were only using up seeds we already had last year and a cheeky little mouse, with the help of a scorching sun, early in the 2011 season left us with an empty winter store. We consequently moved our attentions to the house, enjoying Christmas and settling into school. But we are back, with a burst of colour!

Garden Boy was so keen to start planting that he was ripping open seed pods that had fallen from our neighbours tree, planting the seeds carefully in our herb patch. A trip to the garden centre was in order, so today, having tidied the garage and cleaned the greenhouse yesterday, we went along to stock up on compost, get our little garden helpers some new watering cans and buy some colourful flowers to bring instant colour to the garden.

Having refuelled with a cuppa on our return home, we spent a happy afternoon planting up old wellies, the narrow bed behind our seating area and a basket to cheerfully welcome visitors.

I even had eager helpers to pull up the first set of weeds, daring to emerge! And with a tin full of new seed varieties I feel ready and raring to go...

Feeling Organised

I am pleased to say that we are much more on top of the garden, than I am with this blog. With all the lovely warm weather we have had, we have been outside a lot and I have that rare feeling of being exactly where I should be with the garden. All the raised beds have been cleared and dug over, apart from where turnips and squash are still growing, and the entire garden is weed free, including the patio. The last of the tomatoes have been harvested and their pots are tidied away. I have also given all the herbs a hair cut and tidied the bed up for autumn. The strawberry bed is now looking tidy and the grass has been cut.

There is still more to do. There always is. But it feels managable and with the sun still shining the weekend promises more fun in the garden. I hope you are all manageing to make the most of the sunshine!

An Angry Bee = A Tidy Greenhouse

This weekend we started tidying the garden up a bit. Autumn isn't quite here yet but the leaves are beginning to scatter the lawn and some of our crops have finished producing fruit. The broad beans which were so abundant earlier in the year had actually finished before we headed away on our camping trip but we hadn't got around to clearing them. I chopped them back, leaving about 5cm stem behind. Although broad beans are very easy to uproot it is beneficial to leave a short stem behind as they add valuable nitrogen to the soil.

While I chopped, Garden Lass ferried stems to Garden Girl, who piled them all into the green bin. Pirate Garden Boy, meanwhile, was helping Garden Dad dig for the last of the potato treasure. We then moved onto digging up carrots and the last of the spring onions. The idea had then been to dig over the soil and mulch it but we unearthed a Queen Bee while we were digging who didn't take very kindly to being disturbed. She flew in angry circles above the carrot patch for a very long time afterwards so we thought it better to stay away. We sat on the lawn and trimmed the greenery from the carrots and spring onions, then enjoyed an ice lolly while we waited for the bee to calm down, which she didn't.

Unable to continue with the digging, we decided to get to get to work on the greenhouse. We tidied up all the toys, buckets and kids gardening tools. Then we emptied out spent tomato plants and the cucumber plants that never did fruit this year (a real shame because they had been so successful in previous years.). We still have a few tomato plants that are fruiting but these now all sit neatly down one side of the greenhouse so we managed to stack some of the larger empty pots into the now tidy greenhouse.

Garden Dad, meanwhile dug up some swedes, giant by our previous growing standards, and cleared some of the french bean plants which are no longer producing beans. The runner beans and some other varieties of French beans are still producing though, so I think we will still have a supply of beans for a while yet.

Unfortunately on Sunday the weather was a little wet, but we diecided to keep going with work in the garden regardless. The edges of the lawn needed a trim and a tidy up which Garden Dad managed to finish before the worst of the rain. While he was busy with that, our Little Garden Helpers were helping me to repot the rosemary and lavender cuttings we took earlier in the year. All of them had developed good roots and once the tomato plants have finished I will move the cuttings into the greenhouse for the winter. By spring next year they should be healthy plants ready to be rehomed in the front garden and herb bed.

Then, as the rain started to fall we began to dig up strawberry plants. The strawberry patch had been taken over by small, white, wild strawberrries which are quite nice but do stifle the red berries which we all prefer. So we decided to dig them all up, cut away any unwanted runners from the other varieties and then spread out the best plants with a bit more room for growth between plants next year. There is now a note in the gardening diary reminding us to keep on top of the strawberry runners!

We didn't manage to finish this task however, as the rain started to fall in bucketfuls. We do feel like we have a good start on clearing the garden however and hopefully we still have some sunshine left to enjoy the garden a bit more before the wet weather becomes more frequent than the dry!

Teach Your Toddler: Frogs

Garden Boy was really eager to learn about frogs, In fact, if you will excuse the pun, he was literally hopping about with excitement at this topic. Before we started we took a trip to the library. Last year we did much of our research about Garden Bugs on the internet but I wanted our Little Garden Helpers to remember that books can provide the answers too, so we borrowed a couple of books about frogs ('Watch it Grow: Frog' by Barrie Watts and 'Wild Britain: Frog' by Louise and Richard Spilsbury, and this is what we discovered...

Things to Tell Your Toddler

• Frogs live on land and in water. Animals that live on land and in water are amphibians (like Peppa Pig's camper van!).
• Frogs have long, sticky tongues which they flick really quickly to catch their food.
• They eat all sorts of insects including snails and slugs so they are good to have in the garden.
• They do not chew their food. They just swallow it whole!
• Frog's have eyes on the side of their heads, not the front like us. This means they can see all around them so they can see if an animal wants to eat them or if there is a tasty insect to eat itself.
• Frogs move on land by jumping. They have long, zig-zaggy back legs to help them jump.
• Frogs move in water by paddling. They have webbed feet, like ducks, to help them swim.
• Frogs like to sleep in the day and hunt for food at night. This is because it is cooler and wetter at night and if their skin dries out in the sun they will not survive. They also sleep (hibernate) all through winter.
• Frogs lay thousands of eggs in water, called frogspawn.
• Tadpoles swim out of the eggs after a few weeks and over a few months gradually grow their legs and lungs which let them breathe and move on land.
• Female frogs do no make sounds at all. Male frogs croak as loud as they can by puffing up their throat as big as they can.

Activities We Did
 

• Pretend to be a frog. Puff up your face and croak as loud as you can. 'Erm... Garden Girl, are you a girl? Do girl frogs croak? Then why are you making a noise?' 'Thats not fair! Boys say silly things so why should they croak and not girls?'. Show me how a frog moves on land, and now in water. Now show me your tongue and catch some insects. And now its getting cold, winter is on its way, find somewhere safe and sheltered to sleep. 
• Make origami jumping frogs. We followed the instructions here to make ours. We didn't have any green paper so we just coloured some white paper in before we started folding. Garden Boy needed a bit of help with the folds but Garden Girl managed all on her own. Once you have made them have frog races with them.

• Make frog bread. I came across these on The Fresh Loaf website while I was browsing the internet and couldn't resist. They were also really delicious and all three Little Garden Helpers loved making them.

• Make a frog mask. Garden Girl made hers at school but I think it was quite an effectve use of a paper plate and some green paint and is really simple to do. 

• Draw frogs. Drawing pictures helped them remember the special features of a frog such as the round body, big eyes and zig zag legs.

• We read 'The Big Wide Mouthed Frog' by Ana Martin Larranaga and 'Ten Friendly Frogs' by Sally Hobson and sang 'Five Little Speckled Frogs'

It was a couple of weeks ago now that we were learning about frogs but all three of our Little Garden Helpers are still talking about frogs and jumping around pretending to be frogs. Garden Boy particularly enjoys trying to catch insects with his tongue while Garden Lass, at the mention of a frog jumps on her toes and giggles. She absolutely loves pretending to be a frog but not quite as much as she enjoyed with the bread dough. Garden Girl was the least impressed with frogs, expressing much disbelief that female frogs do not croak at all and consequently dubbing them 'silly' although she really enjoyed learning about how tadpoles change into frogs. The highlight for me was joining in with frog jumping on a wet day. Its hard to resist a giant puddle when wearing wellies!

Teach Your Toddler: Garden Bugs

Last week we revisited the garden bugs we had learned about last year. We looked back over the blog posts I had written, talking about the activities we had done and it was amazing how much information our Little Garden Helpers had remembered and they were keen to learn more. Visiting Butterfly World was a brilliant way to spark their interest and we followed up on this by making cardboard butterflies to decorate our living room. I tried to keep it simple so that Garden Lass could join in, so they each chose some sparkly card or foam which I cut into a butterfly shape. They then cut shapes from scraps of material, foam, card and paper and used these to decorate the wings. Garden Girl took great care, trying to make each wing the same, while Garden Boy spread as much as glue as he could over the wings and then carefully placed a small but select collection of shapes on his wings. Garden Lass just enjoyed joining in and stuck shapes onto her butterfly until she ran out of room.

We did a bug hunt in the garden, finding butterflies, bees, moths, wasps, flies, spiders, ladybirds, snails, slugs, earwigs, black fly, a centipede, worms and ants. Garden Girl walked around with her clipboard and pencil and demanded I tell her how to write each bug we found. We talked about where we were finding each kind of insect and why. Garden Boy suggested that ladybirds liked the herb bed because 'they are my friends and they can see me there,' while Garden Girl said 'they are all on our vegetables because they are naughty and want to eat them'. As far as I can tell Garden Lass just thought they were there for her amusement and particularly enjoyed picking up ladybirds and watching them crawl up her arm.

I was a little disappointed to find that there were far fewer ladybirds in our garden than last year, although there was also far less black fly, so perhaps they had just gobbled them all up and moved on to a new food source. There were many more snails, but I disposed of these whenever we found them. I assume this is due to the heavy rain we have had, or perhaps the fact that I have moved pots around less this year. Having not been pestered too much by ants on the patio this year I thought perhaps we were getting away with it but we found ant nests in two of our potato bags which we tipped out and disturbed.

We also spent time drawing some of the bugs we had seen in the garden with Garden Boy favouring spiders, ladybirds and flies and Garden Girl favouring butterflies, bees and snails. We played the ladybird game we had made last year and which has been a popular choice on Sunday games mornings all year. By the end of the week we were all enthusiastic to learn about a new garden creature and we decided to start with frogs... 

PS. If you want to find out information or see the activities linked with garden bugs we did last summer click the 'Teach Your Toddler' link on the right.

A Butterfly on my Bottom!

We jumped right into our garden bug lessons yesterday with a trip to Butterfly World Project. It is a fabulous resource and well worth a visit, even though it is yet to be completed. By the end of 2012 it is set to be the largest butterfly experience in the world, with a massive 100m biome housing thousands of tropical butterflies. Yet even without the biome the project was a massive hit with my three little garden helpers.

There is currently a small butterfly house, with some tropical butterflies, where on our last visit, Garden Girl managed to hold a butterfly in her hand, an experience she will never forget and which has solidified her interest in butterflies. On this visit, Garden Girl and Garden Boy patiently held out their hands and waited for a butterfly to land, without much success, but luckily for them they were rewarded instead by a butterfly landing on my bottom. They have continued to giggle about this today. They were also astounded to see a giant butterfly. It took quite a lot of persuasion before they believed it was real and not just a cardboard butterfly placed there for display. I'm just pleased it was a slightly smaller butterfly that chose to land on my skirt. Garden Boy was also thrilled to discover some eggs lying on a leaf. When I exclaimed 'Oh, you've found some butterfly eggs', he corrected me by saying, 'No Mummy. Don't be silly. They will be caterpillars first.' I was so proud, as other visitors looked impressed by his knowledge. 

Garden Lass was far more interested in smelling the flowers than catching butterflies, which was something of a relief as I had thought lots of fluttering around her face would panic her. She barely even noticed them, although they probably noticed her, as she pulled leaves and flowers from their plants to take deep sniffs of them. I must apologise to those who planted the entire gardens, as she spent much of the day breathing in the scent of the various flowers she had beheaded. I tried my hardest to keep her from pulling the heads away, I really did, but she had a determined interest which leads me to believe she might have a career in perfumery.

On this visit however, the highlight for me was the leafcutter ants. These are a new addition to the Project and offered a fantastic look at the lives of these highly intelligent creatures. It was amazing to watch the little ants carry pieces of leaf larger than themselves along ropes and branches into their tunnels. I could have remained in this building for much longer watching the busy leaf cutters, had it not been for the tarantala residing in a glass case and watching me the whole time. This forced us to move onto the other insects where we saw snails, crickets, locusts, stick insects and more ants. Garden Lass was delighted by the noise the crickets were making and excitedly quacked back at them, clapping at the same time. (Quacking is her standard response to all animals, except cows who get a mix of quacks and moo's.) Garden Girl and Garden Boy meanwhile were taking a detailed look at all the insects with the magnifying glasses provided.

And then there are the gardens, with treasures hidden around every corner, from walls made from junk, to a fairies bedroom, colourful flowers to jewels and spiders webs to giant plant pots.

The whole Project is engaging and fun and we will definitely become regular visitors, although if the landscape designers are reading this, please could you plant some trees. It was a very hot day and not even the giant ant sculpture was casting shade!