Welcome to the wonderful world of gardening!  With a few seeds, some water, and soil, you’ll be growing plants of your own in no time.  As you enjoy the beauty of watching your plants grow a leaf at a time, you will learn about nature, about where living things come from.  Gardening is a hobby that everyone in your family can take part in, and once you learn how to make things grow, it’s an activity you can have fun with for the rest of your life.

An outdoor garden is a great way to get exercise and fresh air.  You can be in the gresh air and imagine what it’s like to live on a farm.  This doesn’t mean that you have to have a backyard to be a full-fledged gardener.  If you have a windowsill with plenty of sunlight, you have most of what you need to start planting.

Kids and gardening go hand in hand.  For toddlers, there are bright colors, fuzzy leaves, strange bugs and beautiful butterflies.  By the time they’re in first grade, kids love sprouting beans in paper towels and watching plants grow roots in water.  And then there is the pure fun of simply digging in the dirt.

If you want to love gardening as much as you do, take a look at these great ideas.  We hope that you’ll find something that will help spark your child’s interest.

Create Some Compost

You have probably not given much thought to soil before, but now that you are a gardener, you will begin to think of it as much more than just dirt.  Soil does more than hold up a plant so it can grow.  It is filled with the minerals that a plant needs in order to be healthy and strong.

Not all soil is rich enough for good planting.  Some is too full of rocks and gravel; some is too thick and sticky; and some soil is too full of mineral salts.  Plants are like people, they need healthy meals to grow strong.  You can enhance the soil you use in your garden to make it even more nutritious for you plants.

To make richer soil, we must put materials that were once living back into the soil.  Things such as leaves, twigs, salad scraps, and grass clippings- all these will rot away as they put nutrients back into the soil.  As plant materials rot away into the soil, they make a mixture that we call compost. It’s loose, fluffy, and full of minerals plants love.  As you work in your garden, be sure to set aside a spot for saving plant scraps, clippings, and leaves in a compost and flower pots.  When you see how much better plants grow in compost, you’ll know why gardeners call it “Black Gold”!

Here are some things that are good to put in the compost pile:

DO NOT USE:  pet droppings, meat scraps, colored newspapers, raw eggs, bones, butter or margarine, or other things that stink as they rot.

Annuals:  A flower or vegetable that lives only part of the year.
Aphids:  Tiny insects that eat many plants.
Chlorophyll:  Green pigment in plants that traps sunlight energy for making food.
Conifer:  Cone-bearing tree.
Deciduous:  Plants that lose their leaves during a certain season.
Decompose:  Break down, decay of organic matter.
Ecology:  The study of living things and their relationship to their environment.
Erosion:  Wearing away of land by the forces of nature.
Full Sun:  All day sun.  Many vegetables and flowers need at least half a day (6 hours of sun)
Fungi:  Plants that reproduce by spores without any chlorophyll (mushrooms are a fungi)
Herbs:  Plant used to flavor food.
Insect:  Most have one pair of antennae, three pairs of legs, three separate body parts, and wings.
Limestone:  Material consisting mainly of calcium carbonate from the remains of sea animals.
Minerals:  Compounds that make up rocks.
Part Shade:  When the sun shines on an area for less than half the day.
Pistil:  Female part of a flower that has the stigma and produces seeds.
Perennials: A plant that lives for many years.  Many times, the leaves die back during the winter, but the roots stay alive underground.
Pollen:  Yellow, powdery grains produced male spores of a plant.
Recycle:  Reuse in a different form.
Sap:  Juice that flows through a plant.
Seedling:  A very young or small plant.
Sepals:  Part of a flower outside the bud or underneath the open flower.
Shade:  An area where the sun does not shine directly on plants.  Some plants will butn if planted in the sun and must have shade all day.
Soil:  Top layer of earth in which plants grow.
Sprout:  To begin growing, as a plant from a seed.
Stamen:  Part of the flower where the pollen grows.
Subsoil:  Dirt or soil just under the top layer of soil.
Topsoil:  Top layer of soil rich in nutrients.
Transplant:  To move from one place to another.
Weathering:  Wearing away of the earth by wind and water.
Weed:  Plants that happen to be growing in the wrong place.

Getting close to nature also means helping to care for and maintain it.  If you do, nature will continue to be as beautiful as it is for a long time.

Observe natural beauty.  Each season offers a new and different look at the world.  Stop to enjoy the beauty of every season.

Be curious.  Studying nature requires a keen awareness of your surroundings.  Keep your eyes open, and watch for unusual occurrences and changes.  Ask yourself and others questions about things you do not know.  Record any questions that remain unanswered in your nature notebook.

Always ask permission to study nature.  Regardless of where you are studying nature, be sure to obtain permission before taking any natural materials.  Consult your parents or another adult before cutting branches or picking flowers, and ask others for permission to study and take materials from their property.

Never damage any plant unnecessarily.  When you walk through natural areas, be careful not to break branches or step on wildflowers.

Take only what you need.  If an activity requires you to take something from nature, collect only enough to complete the project.  When you observe insects and other animals,  do not harm them, and return them to the place where you found them.

Leave natural things the way you found them.  When you turn over a rock to inspect the underside, put the rock back the way you found it.

Clean up litter.  When you are finished in an outdoor study area, leave it cleaner that you found it, if possible.  Take any litter you find to a trash can or recycle it.

Learning about nature is a lifelong adventure, so it is a good idea to keep notes of your nature studies.  Your nature notebook does not need to be elaborate.  It can be a notebook or a file on your computer.  You simply want a place to record your observations and findings.

For each investigation, you will want to include several categories in your nature notebook:

Date.  The date will not only tell you when the nature study was conducted, but it can provide you with valuable information about your findings during a  particular time of the year.  This information will be helpful when you want to study the same topic at a later date or on the same date the following year.

Time.  The time of day or night you study nature can be significant.  Many things in nature change quite a bit depending on whether they are observed in the daytime or at night.

Weather.  Your activities may be affected by the weather.  Record the temperature; cloud formations; rain, snow, and wind conditions; and other weather information.  By maintaining good records, you may be able to predict how nature is affected by the weather.

Location.  The location of your nature study is important.  It is usually not enough to just record, “my backyard.”  Try to be more specific about the location:  “on the right side of the front porch next to the knothole.”  Then if you need to find the location again, you will be able to go directly to it.  Keep in mind that the outdoor environment is constantly changing.   Record the location from different directions, and use lots of landmarks in your description.

Description of procedure.  The description of you study should be detailed.  It is always better to have more information than not enough.  Do not rely just on your memory to fill in the missing information.  You would be surprised at how much you can forget in several months.

Illustrations.  Drawings are an important part of recording information.  You do not need to be a great artist to draw maps, plants, or animals.  You just need to be able to interpret what you have written and drawn.

With the arrival of spring, the days grow warmer and longer.  Clouds travel through the skies, sometimes picking up water droplets.  When enough water droplets gather, it rains.  The raindrops find their way through the small openings in the soil, nourishing roots and seeds.  Well-rested trees begin to grow, and their buds begin to burst forth.

Sunshine warms the soil as seeds begin  to grow.  Gardeners tend their vegetables and flowers. Soon new green sprouts peek out of the earth looking for the sun’s energy to help them grow into mature plants.  Crocuses are some of the first flowers to bloom.

Baby animals are born in the spring.  They have plenty of food to eat to help them grow.  Baby birds soon leave their nests looking for worms to eat.  Tiny tadpoles emerge from frog eggs in warm and shallow ponds.

Squirrels and chipmunks explore their environment looking for food.  Rabbits begin to scurry about looking for the gardener’s plantings.  Earthworms begin to poke their heads out of the darkness of the earth.  Flocks of ducks and birds fly north where they will find food.  Bees buzz, birds chirp, hummingbirds flutter about, and lawn mowers roar.  The joys of experiencing spring fever make everyone’s spirits rise.

 

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APRIL		GROWTH
BABY ANIMALS		MAY
BIRDS		MILD
BIRTH		MOTHER'S DAY
BLOOMS		MUD
BLOSSOMS		PLANTING
BUDS		RAIN
EASTER		SHOWERS
FLOWERS		THAW
GARDENING		UMBRELLA

Plants need soil, water, sun, and the air in order to live and grow.  Minerals in the soil dissolve in water, and the plant roots suck them in; this is the plant’s “food”. The water travels up the plant stem and out to the leaves.  In the leaves, the plant mixes this food with carbon dioxide.  Carbon dioxide is in the air.

The plant leaves use the minerals and water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air to grow.  A special substance called chlorophyll (klor-oh-fill) is in the leaves.  Chlorophyll and sunlight together make it all happen.

It’s truly amazing what plants can do!  The best part is that while the plant does all this mixing and growing, it gives off oxygen from its green leaves.  Oxygen is what people and animals breathe, and it’s very important for them to survive.  You can see why we depend on plants!

Plants grow from seeds- even towering trees started from seeds.  Each seed contains the beginning of a new plant and enough food to start its life.  As the plant inside the seed grows, it pushes its way out of the seed.  It needs air ad water in order to do this.

As soon as the tiny plant gets roots, it needs more food than was stored inside the seed.  Now it is ready to take food from the soil.  It does this through tiny hairs that grow on the roots.  The food in the soil dissolves in water and passes into the root hairs.  From there, it moves from the roots up into the stem and out to all the parts of the plant.

Long ago Greek citizens not only ate bean, but also used them as voting tokens for political candidates.

There were several early superstitions about beans.  If a person wanted to get rid of a ghost, one way was to spit beans at it.

Native American Indians didn’t have ovens.  They dug a hole in the earth, put hot stones on the bottom, and placed the bean container inside.  Have you ever had baked beans?  The first baked beans came from and Indian “beanhole” in the ground.

The earliest method of popping corn was to toss kernels into the embers of a fire.  Soon popped corn was a popular settler breakfast food, eaten with milk and maple sugar.

Early pioneers often used corn as money.  They paid the blacksmith with corn ears or cornmeal, and also paid their rent or taxes with it.

The United States grows the most corn of anyplace in the world, with the leading producers being Iowa and Illinois.   In the United States, most corn is used at home.  About half goes to feed cattle, sheep, chickens, and hogs.  But we do get lots of it in cornmeal for tortillas, cornflakes, corn bread, corn syrup, and corn oil.  Little is wasted.  Corn, or its cob, in some form or another is found in chewing gum, ketchup, paste, cough syrup, soap, crayons, marshmallows, plastic, and pancake mix.

Lettuce is 95% water.

The first big yellow round onions came over on the Mayflower in 1620.  Few colonial gardens were without them.  Our first president, George Washington, said they were his favorite food.  American cowboys in the wild west liked them too.  Onions went into their campfire stew.  The cowboy nickname for the smelly onion was skunk eggs.

In ancient Greek and Roman times, fried peas were sold at circuses, much like we sell popcorn today.

The peanut is a kind of pea.  It is not a nut.  But unlike other peas, its pods grow underground.  Peanuts have many names, depending on where they grow.  They may be called: ground nuts, pinda, pender, goobers, goober peas, and ground peas.

More than 100 potato varieties are available to the public, some only in farmers’ markets.  Over 300 million tons of potatoes are grown each year.  In the United States, Idaho grows the most potatoes.  Next time you go to the grocery store, see how many different types you can find.

Potato Chips were invented in the late 1800’s in America by a Native American Indian, George Crum.  He was a chef at a famous New York hotel.  A customer told him that they fried potatoes being served weren’t any good.  They were too thick.  Tired of the complaints, Crum decided to slice the potatoes almost paper thin.  He then fried them.  They turned out crispy.  Surprisingly, the fussy customer liked them, and so did the rest of the world.

It is known that American Indian tribes grew pumpkins for food long before any European explorers arrived.  The early New England settlers weren’t great pumpkin fans.  But during their first cold, long winter, when food was very scarce, they changed their minds.  A common cooking method was to let a fire die down, then place a whole pumpkin in the ashes.  When baked soft the pumpkin was cut open.  Honey or maple syrup was poured on top.

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Not all bugs, birds, and animals will harm your garden,  There are many that will be your helpers.  There are “good” insects that will eat the “bad” insects that will harm your plants. 

Birds eat hundreds of insects each day and will help you keep the insect population under control in your yard and garden.

Bats eat insects that come out at night when birds are at rest.  They make their homes in dark places high off the ground.  Watch outdoors in the early summer evening and you may see them swooping and flying about near treetops, rooftops, and utility poles.  They’re out snacking on flying insects.  Especially those pesky mosquito’s!

Other animals will help you out too.  Toads and frogs eat slugs that can chew up plants overnight.  Snakes and spiders help out.  Snakes eat slugs, and spiders catch insects in their webs.  Butterflies and bees lend a hand by going from blossom to blossom, carrying pollen along as they travel.

Ladybugs are great garden helpers.  They feast on mites, aphids, and mealy bugs- insects that suck juices out of you r plants.  Each ladybug eats up to two dozen insects a day!  If you find any in your garden, treat them carefully.  If you need some for your plants, order them from a garden catalog.  The ladybugs will come in the mail in a small, pint-sized box when the weather is warm in your area.

Earthworms are a gardener’s best friend.  They “eat” garden soil and rotting plant material, and pass the castings out.  This loosens the hard soil and adds valuable plant food, too.  Give worms a home in a compost heap.  They will make their home near the bottom, where they can digest the rotting plant materials.

So, when you plan your garden project, you should also plan ways to get your animal helpers into the garden with you .  Some of the things you can do to encourage these  garden helpers to habitat your yard;

Build a birdhouse or feed the birds,  plant a butterfly garden or make a garden pond.

Butterflies help out in the garden by pollinating plants as they travel from flower to flower.  In a sunny spot in the garden you can create a special place where they can enjoy themselves.  Plant flowers that produce lots of sweet nectar for them to eat.  Flowers with purple, yellow, or orange blossoms attract them.

Flowers with short petals or flat tops make it easy for them to land and feed easily.  Place large flat stones in the garden because butterflies like to sit and bask in the sun.  Make sure there is a shallow water dish (a pot saucer is a good item) for them to drink from.

Butterflies lay eggs that hatch into caterpillars.  When the caterpillars are fully grown, they make a chrysalis (cocoon) , go to sleep inside it, and emerge again as butterflies.  Butterfly mothers are very choosy about where they lay their eggs.  They want to be sure the little caterpillars will be able to eat the plant the eggs hatch on.  Plant parsley, carrots, dill, and beans for the larvae (caterpillars) to eat.

Suggested plants to grow to attract butterflies:

• Hollyhocks
• Marigolds
• Nasturtiums
• Violets
• Asters
• Lantana
• Coreopsis
• Cosmos
• Argeratum
• Phlox
• Zinnias
• Butterfly bush
• Lilacs