A Little Guide on Garden Supplies for Kids

The garden season is close to beginning. If you have made a list it’s a good start. Here are some kid friendly garden supplies that should be on every kid gardener’s list.

Garden pruners are like scissors. They are needed to cut branches back and even harvest fruit and produce. There are different sizes from the smallest to larger branch pruners often called shears. A sturdy strong set of garden pruners is best. You also might want to consider the grip. Have the kids check out the grip before buying to make sure it fits their hands.

A garden rake is a great clean up tool. It can also be great for sifting out rocks in a freshly tilled garden bed. Not all garden rakes are created alike. You have to find one you like and one that you can grip and use. There are several different types of rakes.

There is a stiff rake, the kind used mostly in the garden. This usually has a horizontal set of teeth that aren’t retractable and flexible. This makes them strong and gives them the ability to be used to scrape the surface of the garden bed to remove rocks and other debris. A lawn and leaf rake is usually a flexible rake that can be retractable. It is used mainly for cleaning up leaves in the fall.

Sometimes called a shovel, this little dandy of an item makes a child’s gardening experience a little easier. It has a versatile use. It can be used in almost every phase of the garden from transplanting to weeding to harvest time.

A good pair of garden gloves is good for those tough to tackle jobs such as rose handling, thorn bush picking and other jobs that could require covering up the hands in some sort of protection. Certain plants give off chemicals that could be irritating to the skin. These could include, but isn’t limited to, the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers and potatoes), onions and some herbs. Wearing garden gloves can help protect a child from these irritations.

While some home and garden stores may carry kid sized gloves more likely they only have adult size. But luckily the women’s garden gloves are more likely to carry a smaller size and possibly neutral colours if necessary. Find gloves that fit snugly but do not constrict movement too much. You want the hand to be able to move freely and to breathe correctly.

You can’t have a garden without the plants, right? You can’t have plants without seeds. Sure, you can buy plants already to transplant. But starting with seeds can be more rewarding and cost efficient. So buy a few seeds and start the garden today.

The right soil makes the difference between a mediocre garden harvest and a great harvest. There are many types of soil including germinating mixes to start seeds to top soil. Choosing the right soil can be daunting. Just read the instructions on each type so see what is best for your garden.

While a garden journal isn’t an absolute necessity it can help the kid gardener in future gardening endeavours. A child can put down his or her thoughts on the garden, experiences and even make the garden supply list in the journal. You can either make the garden journal or buy it. Regardless of where you obtain the garden journal it’s a must for long term kid gardeners.

Anyhow get out there and enjoy your garden and watch how it grows.

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Tea – Time for Your Garden ... Compost Tea

If you would like a nice garden, you will need a bucket of water and some garbage. That simple recipe is all you need to grow healthy, beautiful plants all summer long. The trick to this recipe is that you have to compost your garbage first. Compost and water are the only ingredients you need to create a powerful plant supplement known as compost tea.

Compost in the garden will improve your soil which in turn will reward you with strong plants that are better able to fend off droughts and diseases. Compost improves soil structure and drainage. It can also be used as a fertilizer or as mulch and it enhances the soil’s ability to absorb water.

Compost tea provides the same benefits to a plant as compost but it doesn’t stop there. Not only can compost tea be applied to the soil around plants like regular compost, but it can also be sprayed on the leaves. When sprayed directly on the leaves, it increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant and helps fight foliar diseases. It will even increase the nutritional value and improve the taste of vegetables.

There are many different ways to make compost tea but most recipes can be summarized by saying, if you steep compost in water you get compost tea.

Using rain water is the best way to make compost tea but you can get by with tap water if rain is scarce. Tap water usually contains enough chlorine to kill off all of the beneficial bacteria so it is best to let it sit for a few hours before using it.

The quickest and easiest way to make compost tea is with an old sock filled with compost. Throw it in a bucket and let it sit for a day and you have just made compost tea. There are more complicated ways to make the tea more effective such as using air stones or fish tank bubblers to feed the mixture enough oxygen but the old sock in a bucket method works just as well. You can add molasses to the mix and there are many other secret home recipes. But you will do fine by using a sock filled with compost and a bucket of water. And actually the sock is optional if you have no plans on using a sprayer.

When applying compost tea with a sprayer you have to worry about clogs. Attach some cheese cloth or a piece of panty hose to the sprayer’s intake with some rubber bands und you should be fine.

If you need more than a few buckets of tea, an old fish tank or a plastic storage bin would make a great container for brewing compost tea.

After you have brewed a few batches and are happy with the results why not try aerated compost tea? You will need to feed your mixture a constant supply of oxygen so a bubbler or air stones will be required. You need to keep it aerated so it doesn’t grow any harmful pathogens. Some popular ingredients to add to bubbling compost tea are alfalfa, fish emulsion, powdered seaweed, corn meal, green sand and more. Don’t use manure. Manure tea shouldn’t be used as a foliar spray especially if you are growing vegetables and who wants manure floating around in their bucket anyway.

When you ask a weekend gardener about compost they will tell you it is powerful stuff with a lot of uses. When you ask a serious gardener about compost they will probably tell you that it’s the most important ingredient there is when making compost tea.

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Make Your Very Own Compost Pile

Learn how composting works. Even a newbie to composting can make good quality compost. It can be compared to cooking as art or part science. The following points will help you master the art of composting.

After a time anything that was once alive will naturally decompose. But, not all organic items should be composted. To prepare compost, organic material, microorganisms, air, water, and a small amount of nitrogen are needed.

It is safe to compost

-          Grass clippings / Trimmings from hedges

-          Vegetable scraps / Leaves

-          Potting soil that has grown old / Twigs

-          Coffee filters with coffee grounds / Tea bags

-          Weeds that have not went so seed / Plant stalks

-          Crushed egg shells

It is NOT safe to compost

-          Weeds that have went to seed

-          Dead animals / Pet faeces

-          Bread and grains / Meat

-          Grease / Cooking oil / Oily foods

-          Diseased plants

There are small forms of plant and animal life which break down the organic material. This life is called microorganisms. From a minute amount of garden soil or manure come plenty of microorganisms.

Nitrogen, air, and water will provide a favourable environment for the microorganisms to make the compost. Air circulation and water will keep the microorganisms healthy and working. The nitrogen feeds the tiny organisms. You may have to add a small amount of nitrogen to the pile. – Putting on too much nitrogen can kill microbes and too much water causes insufficient air in the pile. You just cannot add to much air.

Bacteria are the most effective compost makers in your compost pile. They are the first to break down plant tissue. Then comes the fungi and protozoan to help with the process. The arthropods, like centipedes, beetles, millipedes and worms, bring in the finishing touches to complete the composting.

The materials will break down faster if the microorganisms have more surface area to eat. Chopping your garden materials with a chipper, shredder, or lawnmower will help them decompose faster.

The activity of millions of microorganisms generates heat in the compost pile but a minimum size 3-foot by 3-foot by 3-foot is needed for a hot, fast composting pile. Piles that are any larger may hamper the air supply needed in the pile for the microorganisms.

If you can imagine a wet squeezed out sponge with its many air pockets, then this would be the ideal environment for the microorganisms in the pile to function at their best. Pay attention while your pile is composting, to the amount of rain or a drought you may have. Water in a drought and maybe turn the pile in a lot of rainy days. The extremes of these two may upset the balance of the pile. The use of a pitchfork would come in handy at this time.

Keep your pile between 110F and 160F and the beneficial bacteria will love it. Not too cool, nor too hot. The temperature will rise over several days if you keep a good ratio of carbon and nitrogen, maintain lots of surface area within a large volume of material, and maintain adequate moisture and aeration.

The importance of compost:

Compost has nutrients, but it is not a complete fertilizer.

Compost provides nutrients in the soil until plants need to use them.

It loosens and aerates clay soils and retains water in sandy soils.

The use of compost:

A soil amendment: mix 2 to 5 inches of compost into gardens each year before planting.

A potting mixture: add one part compost to two parts potting soil.

Make your own potting mixture by using equal parts of compost and sand.

Mulch prod cast: 2 to 4 inches of compost around annual flowers and vegetables, and up to 5 inches around your trees and shrubs.

A top dressing: mix finely sifted compost with sand and sprinkle evenly over lawns.

Once you have mastered the art of composting, look very seriously at making your very own aerated compost tea. This elixir will give you results that are hard to believe and will be descript in next week’s blog.

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Vegetable Gardening – Home Grown Food

Growing vegetables in your garden can save you money. During harvest time, your own produce becomes part of your meals.

Gardeners feel deep satisfaction in preparing salad or seasoning the casserole with freshly picked plants from their own vegetable gardens. Their feeling of the taste is incomparable. Fresh surplus are distributed to friends and loved ones while some are kept frozen.

It doesn’t require much space to grow vegetables. Even a container pot or a window box will do the trick. Where space is limited, you can grow a mini-garden indoor or outdoor.

If you have a good sun, access to water and enough containers, growing a garden worth of fruits and vegetables in a limited space is a no brainer. You can even harvest more than one crop if your choice of plants and planting schemes are all well planned and executed. Windowsills, balconies and doorstep areas can be used, as well as empty packs of milks, pails, plastic buckets and cans.

When planting in containers, proper spacing is very important. One sturdy plant is better than several weak ones. Crowding chokes root systems will slow growth and poor production. With container vegetable garden, you no longer need to worry about poor soil types and bad drainage, or heavy-duty tiller to break up hard clay and rocks. There is no weeding to worry about and you can change the looks of your container placements by simply moving them around anytime to a place you want to.

Vegetable gardening offers a change from the monotony of the supermarket. You can grow a variety of vegetables that you want.

Consider container worthy crops such as beans, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and eggplants when choosing plants for your vegetable container garden.

Root crops such as onions and turnips can also do well in containers, but remember to always take care of these crops by ample fertilizers and water. Also consider grapes and berries. Though some take a while to get established, they bear fruits more each year.

Planting for fall crops can be started in early summer, though summer planting can still be done in June in most regions.

One great advantage of growing vegetables and spices in containers involves the advent of the upside-down gardening. Crops with the likes of tomatoes, basil, parsley, rosemary and peppers do well with this approach. The idea is that the vines will cascade downward instead of growing up a stake. A grow box can be treated by punching perforations through the bottom of a container. The other option is to purchase a device specially designed for this purpose. Upside gardens do not require a great deal of space and is perfect for balconies and patios.

Equally important, seeds and soil must properly be taken care of in your vegetable container garden. Seeds do not always have to be bought. Reasonably fresh dill, anise, fennel, coriander and other seeds already on the spice rack should grow. If not, they are too old to add much to food anyway and should be replaced. Scoop out seeds from vegetables you’ve bought, dry them a week or so before planting.

Soil preparation on the other hand is very crucial for good results. Have the soil tested. Most of the nurseries will test soil for a small fee or you can get a tester kit to test it by yourself.

Start growing those veggies in your garden and turn your home made meals into something truly special. Take care of your plants to make them productive by keeping them watered and harvested.

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