RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2010

I have been wondering whether to go to the Chelsea Flower show this year. There is usually something about children's gardening.

It looks as if the Children's Society will be hosting another garden this year, one for the modern family. Designer Mark Gregory has taken his inspiration from the Society's Well-being report. This found from a survey of nearly 7,000 10 – 15 year olds that what made children most happy were their family, friends and having freedom of choice. The garden reflects this need with a covered lounge seating area where families can unwind and relax around a safely designed fire pit or so the RHS press release says. Sounds a bit like a garden for outside couch potatoes. No information about planting, foliage etc so hopefully there will be more to the garden than this.

There is also a press release on the RHS site for Chelsea about dinner party allotments. This features the idea of growing your own ingredients for specific recipes rather than growing large quantities of veg.

Jet Cooke the founder explains
“I wanted to develop an adult Dinner Party Allotment package for people like me, who like to invite friends around to enjoy the occasional special meal using home grown produce, as well as a children’s package with recipes designed to make the most ardent non vegetable eaters give vegetables a go.”

I don't know whether to be intrigued or saddened about this approach to grow your own. I suppose it gives you something other than house prices to talk about at your dinner party. If I do get to Chelsea watch this space because I shall be finding out more about the dinner party allotment.

Seeds, Seeds and more Seeds

I have had a real seedy week this week. I suppose it is that time of year. All of the gardening magazines are offering free seeds so I succumbed. I now have organic chive seeds to grow which is great as I shall let some go flower and eat the rest. The other packet was for Chinese Lanterns which I have been wanting to grow for a while. I love the orange bell-like structures and they provide good colour in the garden at the end of the summer. However I shall have to wait a while as the seeds are for a hardy perennial and flower a year after sowing. Next time I'll read the back of the packet before I buy a magazine.

Saturday was Seedy Saturday where I live and kidsinthegarden had a stall at the event. Such a good idea to exchange seeds and meet fellow gardeners. There are a few more listed on this site if you are interested. www.seedysunday.org

If anyone is after free seeds the BBC are giving them away through their Digin initiative. The same as last year apparently, but I missed that. www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/digin/. The site has a lot of useful information and the seed offer for carrots, french beans, basil, carrots, and courgette seeds are all fine to grow with children. However at the time of posting the offer only works if you click the link from the CBeebies website www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/about/programmes/greenballoonclub.shtml.

Good growing

Lynda

Children's Gardening: Ready, Steady, Grow

It is World Book Day today so I thought I would review my most recent gardening book - The Royal Horticultural Society's Ready, Steady, Grow - Quick and Easy Gardening Projects. There were no reviews on Amazon when I ordered it so I was not quite sure what to expect. It is 80 pages in typical Dorling Kindersley style - easy to read, plenty of photos and clear layout. It doesn't state an age range. I would suggest for children using the book on their own from about age 7.

I was slightly disappointed when I first glanced through it, but it has appropriately, grown on me. It covers a number of plant-related projects and the growing of flowers, veggies, herbs and fruit. I liked the way it clearly states how long each of the activities will take to come to fruition, so avoiding raised expectations.

There are some great ideas in the book. Sunflower people grown in tin cans with a painted body on and a face etched out in the sunflower would put a smile on any child's face. There are two projects on sprouting seeds, an area often overlooked by children's gardening books. Yet these seeds are simple, easy and fast to grow; a great beginners activity or one for the little ones. I also loved the idea of growing watercress, especially from cuttings taken from a bag of supermarket watercress. Most gardeners grow from cuttings and it is a great skill for children to learn. I shall certainly be trying this one out with my son.

I wasn't quite so keen on the enchanted path project detailing how to make cement stepping stones in a leaf shape. It also would have been useful to see the book cover relevant web links and where to source some of the plants and materials mentioned. There are other books on the market covering this topic, but if you don't have one on your bookshelf and what to encourage your budding gardeners then this is the right time of year to buy this book and get growing.

Late Winter Blooms

Joe Swift had an article in this Saturday's Times listing his garden highlights for this time of year. It got me thinking and looking in my garden to see what I would list. Well there is not a lot of growth and colour yet. Your list may well be longer. My favourite and a new addition to my garden is cyclamen coum. I choose a white one with a silver leaf called 'Maurice Dryden' and I am really pleased with the colour and reflection it is providing.

I have several types of crocuses in the garden. I like my crocuses just before they are to burst open, as in the photo. I also have blue primulas in flower and a Cornus alba (Dogwood), just one but the red stems are very effective against my front brick wall.

The final star in the garden is left over from last year. Some of the lovely silky seedheads from the Clematis ‘Bill Mackenzie’ which I am leaving draped over a variegated holly hoping to provide the birds with some great nesting materials.

Lynda

Out 2 Play at Kew Gardens

If you live near west London then Kew Gardens is a great place to visit. It has all the elements of a garden on a grand scale. In the summer the gardening students each have an allotment plot to plan and manage so you can even pick up some tips for growing veg.

There is so much there for children, space to run around, fish in two of the glasshouses, a tree top walk, lakes and ponds and my favourite a huge badger sett where the children can run in and out of the tunnels. There is also a large indoor play area with a botanical theme, called climbers and creepers (suitable for 3 to 9 years old, though the littlies can still use it) and a new outdoor area yet to be tested as it will not be open until Easter. So we were there this half term spotting snowdrops and smelling the viburnum.

The Princess Diana glasshouse was hosting a colourful display of orchids, with a parallel craft activity at climbers and creepers creating exotic flowers, with paper plates and tissue paper. Quite an easy thing to do at home. We did go and look at the orchids but the biggest attraction for the children were the other new ( i think ) occupants of the glasshouse, lizards which are roaming around helping to keep the cockroach population at bay.

Lynda

Garden Guilt

Why do I always feel guilty when I go out and do some gardening. There is no such feeling when I am inside and pottering about or outside and hanging up the washing. But as soon as I pick up a trowel or pair of secateurs in the garden then I start thinking about all the household tasks that need doing. And I think that that is the nub of the issue. Although garden designers talk about garden rooms and extending the house into the garden and garden into the house not all of us consider our garden as part of our home in quite the same way. This must partly stem from us only being able to fully use our gardens for part of the year. It may also indicate a mindset that gardens are for leisure and luxury and do not form an important part of family life. Yet you can do everything in the garden you can do inside and more. There is no reason why the time, energy and resources you spend on your garden should not be equivalent to those spent on other rooms in the home.

Perhaps if I think in terms of hoovering the lawn, dusting the borders, and cleaning and tidying the plants my guilt will disappear.

In 2 play in the Garden

As a family this weekend we were very much indoors. However I am pleased to say that we fitted in some garden-related activities. All of us joined in the RSPBs Garden Bird Watch. There has been lots to press recently about how quite rare birds are visiting and depending on food from peoples' gardens. We didn't manage any rare furry friends , but we did clock up 8 different species including long-tailed tits and a goldfinch. Which isn't bad for a small suburban garden.

There was also a visit to another museum. The Science Museum in London. It has set up a 'garden' (recently refurbished) for the under 6s. All the kids love it. The museum has divided the play area into sections - light - shadow - sound - water - mirrors. These complement some of the features I have listed on my website http://www.kidsinthegarden.co.uk . What's fascinating though is that nearly all of the children make a bee line for the water play. You can feel the tension in the parents standing around who want their kids to have fun, but don't want to go home with a dripping toddler. It has got me thinking that maybe I have been too hard line in thinking that for safety reasons there should be no garden water features for very young children. I am now going to investigate bubble fountains and similar.