Gardening Gone Wild's Design Workshop: Kids in the Garden

I've been hoppin' around lately, blogging here and there and neglecting my little garden sprouts...oh my. Before the year ends, however, I want to let you know about a great design workshop at Gardens Gone Wild (they do a monthly garden topic and anyone is welcome to participate.)
Coming soon to these pages: the wildlife refuges of the Sacramento Valley and Monarch Butterflies.

Fun Fall Family Events

Hey Kids! Cook with a King Contest

Twenty (20) winners will each win one (1) entrance pass for the winner and one (1) entrance pass for the winner's minor child into a "Get Your Kids Cooking" event with the Sacramento Kings on December 1, 2008. Each of the winners will also win one (1) prize pack for the winner's minor child containing a Sacramento Kings Kids Jersey, tote bag, mini basketball, recipe booklet, child size apron, utensil set and measuring spoons with an approximate retail value of $200. On-line deadline, Nov. 14th.

Plants are Amazing - Explorit Science Center in Davis

Saturday, Nov. 15: "Plants Are Amazing" Family Exploration program for all ages. Scientists from the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory will bring cool plants to investigate, including desert succulents and crazy carnivores. Handle the plants and you'll quickly learn how a cactus defends itself. 1-4 p.m. at Explorit's main site, 2801 2nd St., Davis. Free with paid admission to the museum.

A Gardening Business for Kids

Succulents are great! They're easy to grow and don't need much water so you can ignore them for a few days. ALSO...you can grow more by doing stuff like taking a leaf and sticking it in some soil, or taking off one of the baby plants and potting it up. Another thing you can do is go to the nursery and buy one of their tiny potted succulents. Find one that has 3 plants in it. Carefully divide it at home and Voila! you have 3 plants! This makes it a very good business idea for kids. If you spend $1.50 to buy the first plant, grow 3 plants from it, and sell them for $1.50 each, how much profit do you make? Ahhhhh....a tricky math question.

Here's a type of succulent called a Blue Agave. This one belongs to Martha Stewart's dog, Francesca. The dog looks like she's only 1 inch high, but I think it's trick photography. How big do you think that Agave really is? You can click on the picture to go to Martha's blog and see some of her other succulents. Look for one called an "Aloe". This plant is very good if you ever burn yourself! Not that you would...just, if ever...

Gardening Should Be Simple, EarthBox Makes it So!

Gardening should be simple...you take a seed, stick it in the ground, water it...it grows and you get a flower or a vegetable or a fruit and you pick it! But, there are a lot of things that can make it complicated...what about weeds? what about bugs? what about the computer game you're playing and you're about to reach the 14th level...not a good time for pulling weeds! what about days so hot that all the leaves crinkle up? what about your cat using the garden as a toilet?

Well...I've just discovered a cool thing that let's you have the fun of growing things without all those extra worries and work. First things first...let's have some fun! My discovery is something called the EarthBox. The EarthBox is a great garden project for kids in a classroom or kids who are homeschooled.
There are lots of science projects you can do, and even projects that help you connect up with gardening kids from around the world. Check out The Growing Connection, and find out more.

Ben's Salamander

4 yr old Ben holding a salamander (not sure what kind but we always have them in our yard). Ben says "when it was going I had to keep moving my hands to block it so it wouldn't go away". He means he kept putting one hand in front of the other and it crawled from hand to hand so it didn't fall. Heather

The Sprouting Sweater

You know how you get those sticky burs caught on your sweater when gardening or hiking? Well, I get A LOT of them and it takes a really long time to get them off of my wooly sweaters, so I just keep wearing them, burs and all. But, last week I decided to wash this blue sweater of mine with all the burs still on it, hoping some of them would fall off in the wash. Yes, I admit I am domestically impaired! I was in a rush when I took the sweater out of the washer and just threw it on the laundry table for a few days. When I checked back in on my sweater it was none too happy with me and its moldy smell was ummm, you know, prominent. So I washed it again and this time hung it up to dry in my dark garage.

Several hours later I went back into the garage, turned on the lights and whoa! There were little wiggly whitish looking things all over it! Upon closer inspection, I could see that those pesky burs, which are actually seeds, had sprouted all over my sweater. What a sight!
- from Annie at Annie's Annuals

The Adventures of the Traveling Socks

Can't help myself...check out this project: PBS Kids Seeded Socks

Seed Gathering Fun

We're getting close to harvest season, and after that it's seed gathering time. For some plants, that time is already here, but it's especially a fun fall activity. See how many kinds you can collect, from the ground, from the park, from your groceries. Display them in muffin tins and then save them in little seed envelopes (see "Cool Things:).

Arthur's Project

This spring I had the pleasure of doing a seed project with Arthur. We looked around his house and his yard and found a variety of seeds, including:

• lemon
• basil
• liquidamber (otherwise known as pokey balls)
• corn (from his popcorn supply)
• weeds
• rose

We mixed up some potting soil and made some labels and planted our seeds. We found the warmest place in his house and put our seed pots on a cookie sheet and covered it all with plastic. Stay tuned for Arthur's story!