Articles on Gardening | Topics: gardening, gardens, garden
by Paul Riddle
Garden playrooms, special structure, and secret hideaways are things that can get kids involved in a garden. The kids can also transform the garden into their own fantasyland and refuge away from their parents. All of these projects both involve and reward the whole family. They also make your garden the most kid-friendly place in your neighborhood.
Everybody knows about bean teepee. There are five or more poles bound at the top and some that are planted with pole beans. For a different variety, try and consider a tunnel. Insert 8-foot poles every three feet along both sides of a path. Then lash horizontal poles at 2-, 4-, and 6- foot heights. Then plant and train the vines along this path.
You can make almost anything – from a dome to a wigwam – with some willow branches or plastic tubing. Then plant it with vines. You can even try bamboo, angling the poles like you are interlocking fingers. Instead of beans, grow cucumbers, morning glories, love-in-a-puff, mini pumpkins, or gourds.
Now if you have space for the well-known sunflower house, make those. Plant some sunflowers in a square shape to form a "room", try, and leave a space for the entryways. However, for windows, break up the walls by planting peas instead of corn.
A simple platform placed on the ground could help and serve as a dance floor, house or stage. Make sure you raise the platform at least four inches off the ground and onto in-ground posts. Add a hardware cloth from side to
Side and now it's a hut.
Don't push the sand box to the far corner of the yard. It could be turned into a heap of sand in a grove, a wide, deep path or a small beach with a beach umbrella for shade.
Kids can make their own birdbaths too. They have to dig a shallow basin in the ground and line it with heavy plastic topping. Maybe even critters may call it home, along with the birds.
Professional landscapers "decorate" with boulders. However, to a kid, it is a mountain or hill. If you add a log and stump, it is a wild place for them to run around in.
Don't use traditional scarecrows made out of straw. Try using metal or wood.
You can even carefully use chicken wire to make an animal and then train the ivy to grow around the wire for an instant topiary.
Planting a Sunflower House, you will need the following:
| Historical Quote |
nor till the poets among us can be “literalists of the imagination”Mabove insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, “imaginary gardens with real toads in them,” shall we have
it.
| —Marianne Moore (1887–1972) |
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A spot in your garden, with good soil. The spot has to receive at least six hours of sun daily.
Some seeds for tall sunflowers, such as 'Paul Bunyan' or 'Mammoth'
More sunflower seeds that are for medium-height (about five feet)
Seeds that are colorful flowers, such as zinnias
Seeds for the morning glory flowers
String
First thing to do is to decide on an exterior shape and dimensions. You will need at least a four by 6-foot house, but an eight by 8-foot house is more a generous amount of space. Make sure to allow some extra space so you can walk around the building when it is all done to tend the plants. Once you have decided on an outline, have one of your helpers mark it on the ground, so that the seeds don't get stepped on accidentally while you are waiting for them to grow. Next, plant the seeds for the tall flowers in a row to make the outline and make sure to start at the corners. Help your child plant the seeds about a foot apart. Then between the tall seeds, plant the medium height flowers. Then plant a colorful annual such as a zinnia around the outside. By using different heights you will make the building look more solid and sturdy.
Another new colorful way to fill in the walls of your building is to plant some morning glory vines to climb the sunflower. Nevertheless, be sure to soak the seeds in water overnight to stop germination. Make sure to help your child train the vines to climb the tallest sunflowers by directing them early to grow toward the taller sunflowers. Your child may be fascinated by the growth of the vines in only one direction. Once the vines have found the sunflowers stem, they will grow up the sunflower. However, to encourage the morning glory vines to form a roof, be sure to help your child weave a network of yarn or string across the top of each sunflower. Now add the string when the sunflowers are about four feet tall. The sunflowers will then raise the roof as they grow. Finally, the keep the weeds to a minimum and make a more presentable surface for your child, make sure to use a thick layer of mulch to blanket the interior. You could also add a beach towel or some small-scaled furniture.
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