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Rusty and Rosy: Gardening with Kids

If you are looking for simple tips to get the kids out in the garden and growing fruit, vegetables, and flowers, then head over to Rusty and Rosy where I'm sharing some simple tips for gardening with kids.

A Wee Enchanted Garden

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of craft kits for kids.  I've collected quite the stash of them.  There are 2 full shelves in my craft room.  I've been saving a lot of them up to use over summer vacation.  You know, for when we have had enough sun and swimming in the pool, or when I'm not knee-deep in LEGO.

Marisol pulled the Wee Enchanted Garden kit off the shelf a couple of weeks ago and insisted that I do it with her, which means that she did it and my role was to sit there and watch.

Isn't it an adorable kit.  It comes with everything you need, right down to soil and seeds to make a lovely enchanted garden. 

This was after she painted everything and we planted the seeds.  She allowed me to paint the word 'welcome' onto one of the rocks. 

And two weeks later.

We saved about half of the seeds to use later. I couldn't believe how quickly the grass and bean sprouts grew and we've only had to water them every few days.   Her little garden is sitting on a table by the window in her bedroom.  What a great way to grow your child's love of gardening.

I noticed that they currently have this kit for sale on the Creativity For Kids website.  It's normally $25.99, but at the moment it's only $18.20.  Bargain. 

Lettuce Pots

I love magazines.  I may rarely find time to read a book, but magazines are something I always find time to look through.  I love to sit by the pool {watching the kids} and flick through page after page of all the loveliness in between the covers.  I'm particularly fond of home, decorating, craft, food, parenting and lifestyle magazines. 

So when I was issued a challenge this week to go and pick up a copy of the September issue of Better Homes & Gardens and complete a project out of it.  No problem!  BHG is one of my regular reads.

With my Better Homes & Gardens in hand, and my trusty sidekick (Marisol) with me, we decided that we wanted to make a little something for the garden.  As soon as I saw this, I knew that's what we had to do:

It is part of an article titled "Moveable Feast" on page 106.

Now that we are in our new home, I have been wanting to plant fruit, vegetables and herbs.  I have two pots under my kitchen window already that contain mint and cilantro.  I also have a large space around the side of the house that I have my eye on for raised beds next Spring.  In the meantime though, pots it is. 

I found some large, decorative Better Homes & Gardens pots at Walmart that would do the trick, along with some potting soil.  Then I headed to my local Armstrong Garden Center for the plants.  It was suggested to use large transplants for these pots and not use seeds.   I wanted to incorporate some edible flowers too (for my love of fancy salads) but unfortunately couldn't track any down.  So I ended up with a small variety of lettuce, some chard and silverbeet.

Who's coming over for salad?

 

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #Cbias

GMC 'Lend a Green Thumb' Event

During BlogHer11 I was invited, along with a few other local bloggers, to test drive the new GMC Acadia and GMC Terrain.  But this wasn't any ordinary test drive.  We were participating in the GMC 'Lend a Green Thumb' event.  We test drove the vehicles from the Marriot to City Farmer's Nursery and then onto a couple of local schools. 

Once we arrived at City Farmer's Nursery we were given a tour by the owner, who opened the nursery when he was 16.  He is amazing.  He lives off his nursery, literally.  Not only is his residence located on the property behind the nursery, but he grows and raises the majority of his food.  He only needs to go to the grocery store every 3 months or so.   

And take a look at these precious twins born the day before.

This is much more than a nursery though, they offer free classes including cooking, canning, basics for homeowners, planting, they even have chainsaw carving demonstrations.  He is in the process of building a children's learning area too.  They sell a wide variety of products, everything you need really for your own garden.  There are animals to look at and Bill was telling us that visitors pop in with picnic lunches to enjoy in the garden.  They also take in turtles, bunnies and koi that can no longer be cared for by their owners.  They even have bees.

The lovely people at GMC who we were partnered up with for the afternoon were given a wishlist of gardening supplies from two San Diego schools that are starting school/community gardens: Helix Charter High School and Aseltine School (which is a school for students with learning disabilities).  With the help of Bill from City Farmers Nursery we loaded up our GMC's with all of the supplies requested and personally delivered them to the schools.

At Helix Charter High School we learned more about where the gardens would be located, what they would be used for, and about the funding of them.  Helix will have 2 gardens, one for the students and a second for the community.   Their long-term goal is to grow food that students can enjoy as part of the meal program.  Aseltine has a student garden which they use for fresh produce that students can also enjoy.  I love that these schools are growing fresh produce for their students to enjoy, plus teaching them about gardening along the way.

You can read more here:

Mt Helix Patch: Helix Charter High to Host Community Garden - and One for the Students

Sign On San Diego: La Mesa says it's ready to put down roots

Afer meeting with the schools, we headed to a lovely restaurant, Alchemy to learn more about GMC and the Community Gardens project from Judy at Master Gardeners San Diego.  I haven't been through North Park in a couple of years, and I will not confirm or deny getting a little distracted by thrift and antique shops while driving and poor Joe was starving, and by the time we actually arrived at the restaurant we were both delirious and had tears streaming down our faces from laughing so much. 

I have to give a rave review about this restaurant.  The food is absolutely DELICIOUS!  It was pre-ordered and so we got to try a little assortment including chickpea hummus, kalamata olive tapenade, fried green tomatoes, and other delicious dishes.

My verdict on the cars.  I want one.  No, I need one.  I prefered the look of the Acadia, but those air conditioned seats in the Terrain are all kinds of awesome.  Both cars were easy to drive and I didn't feel like I was in an over-sized obnoxious waste of space.  Loved that 3rd row seating too.   OnStar really need to learn how to speak Aussie though, because apparently my accent had the system a little rattled.   

GMC AMBASSADOR:  Although they haven't given me a car ... Joe, we need to speak about that.  Each of us was handed seed paper envelopes.  Each envelope contained a gift card (there was even one for us).  Our mission though.  Make somebody's day.  While out and about in our communities we are to hand out gift cards to GMC drivers to thank them for purchasing a GMC.  I have handed out one already and the lady was stunned, and yet very happy.  I saw her getting help loading groceries into the back of her GMC at the Commissary and she had 'retired veteran' stickers on the back, so I went up, introduced myself and handed her a gift card.  She was thrilled.  I cannot wait to hand out the others.  I just need to learn the art of being subtle and not stalk people in parking lots, or suggest to my husband that he should catch up to them on the road while we are driving. 

Nutty For Gnomes

I have to say that I really have gone a little nutty for gnomes over the past week.  It's all gnomes all the time over here.  Remember the giant card and activity station I made for the twins last week.

Well, I took them to see Gnomeo & Juliet on Valentine's Day.  They LOVED it.  I loved it.  

It's a sweet movie about star-crossed garden gnomes, Gnomeo and Juliet (ala Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet) whose feuding gnome families, (who come to life when humans are not looking - very Toy Story), threaten to keep them apart.  It's the age-old battle of the red hats vs the blue hats, or vice versa, depending on who you speak to.  And let's not forgot those cement bunnies, the sniffer dog mushroom sidekick, and the voice of reason, the lonely flamingo.  A little drama, a lot of love and it's really quite an adorable movie for kids.

There were a couple of moments when I found myself holding my breath and waiting for Marisol's bottom lip to start quivering, and with no trains to be seen for miles I thought for sure Flynn might be bored.  Alas, it was not to be.  To the right of me was Marisol with one hand in her popcorn tub, the other on her beverage and bug-eyed throughout the movie.  To the left of me, Flynn doing more of the same. 

But the suspender thong clad gnome (ala Borat) may have been a wee bit much.  Thankfully 4year olds don't get that reference though.

So with the gnome theme still very much on our minds, we made this adorable terrarium for the kids playroom.

Unable to find an apothecary that was quite large enough I opted for a large hurricane candle holder and then a glass candle plate for the lid.

Items you need to make your own terrarium:

• Glass jar or apothecary
• Clay pellets (available from hydroponic stores)
• Charcoal (aquarium charcoal available at pet stores)
• Potting mix
• Houseplants
• Decorations - rocks, figurines, miniatures etc.

Start by placing a layer of clay pellets across the bottom of the glass container, this is for drainage.  Then add a thin layer of charcoal on top of that, which is to prevent any moist soil from smelling. Cover with about 3-4 inches of potting soil and then you can start decorating, plants first and then adding in your knick-knacks.

I can see myself becoming quite addicted to making terrariums of all shapes and sizes.  I do have quite a lot of jars left over from this project.  Hmm, maybe I need an Easter one too with little bunnies.

Wouldn't this be a fun garden party activity for little ones.  Supply them each with a jam or pasta jar and have them make their own terrarium to take home.

Tip:  I have heard that if the glass starts to fog up a little, take the lid off to let a little of the moisture out.

Disclosure: This review was compensated as part of the Valentine's Day #couchcritics Gnomeo & Juliet campaign on Collective Bias

A Tour Of My Parents Garden

Green thumbs are apparently not a hereditary trait.  Otherwise I wouldn't kill every plant that suffers through it's short life with me.  Instead my garden would look as beautiful as my parents does.

Full of:

Flowers

and birds

Kookaburras

King Parrots

Rosella's

Lorikeets

Magpies

and Butcher Birds

and sprinklings of my dad's hand-carved sculptures

The above sculpture was carved by dad and painted by me quite a few years ago for a local scultpure exhibition at a winery.

and other lovely things

Flynn enjoying a little quiet time by the frog pond