Growing Herbs with Tiger Sheds #TigerGrowAlong

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Fiona Martin

After enjoying our success of growing salad leaves last year with the #TigerGrowAlong project we were pleased to be asked by Tiger Sheds to join in again this year, but this time with the challenge of growing some herbs, in our case Basil. Our kit arrived just over a week ago and the children were excited to get started.

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Rather than using just a packet of seeds, we were provided with a really simple way of planting seeds from an innovative British young brand SeedCell. Their seeds come in handy snap off recycled cells that you just poke into the soil and they gradually absorb the moisture from underneath as they are watered, keeping the seeds protected until they germinate. The pulp then breaks down naturally nourishing the ground leaving a lovely mulch for the growing plants.

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We lined our planter before the children filled it with the compost and then gently pushed the SeedCells into the soil. Everyday after school they have then been popping into the garden to water the cells, eager to see something grow that they can eventually pick and use to cook with.

Although we’ve had some great sunny days, it’s been a bit cloudy too, but we are delighted to see some life finally coming out of our pods. Our baby Basil plants have arrived and we are looking forward to following their progress over the next few weeks and hope to show you them in use in a recipe once they are old enough to pick and eat.

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Keep following us for updates using the #TigerGrowAlong hashtag on twitter and look out for another post in the near future with the results of our herb growing project.

Thanks to Tiger Sheds and SeedCell for providing the goods for our little herb gardening adventure.

Home Grown Lettuce with the Kids

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Fiona Martin

My children both love helping with the chores around the house (as long as it doesn’t involve tidying up their own mess!!), and one thing they are always keen to do is help out in the garden. They love growing things, watering and eating something that they have watched appear from a seed and then picked with their own hands.

Tiger Shed’s kindly sent us some seeds for salad leaves and challenged us to grow these over the last 4 weeks and show them our results.

Once I’d picked the children up from school, they couldn’t wait to start gardening with the day’s delivery, although Mister B did get a little distracted with the sack our goodies were delivered in, and before I knew it he was sack racing around the patio!

Miss M got stuck in with filling our wooden trug with soil, and sowing the seeds. They then both had a turn at watering!

We were pleased to see our first little seedlings after just a few days, which is good when gardening with children as it keeps up their enthusiasm and it became a daily task of who’s turn it was to water them.

Our final week of growing was last week, although we were off on our family holiday to Cornwall, so as much as I was hoping for a hot, sunny week, I also didn’t want the little salad leaves to dry out, but fortunately we came home to a trug full of luscious green leaves just waiting to be picked.

So we took a few cuttings, and had them for dinner! Thank you to Tiger Sheds – the children have had lots of fun and we have lots of salad leaves for the coming weeks!

Thanks to Tiger Sheds for providing the goods for our little gardening adventure.

Gardening with Home Bargains

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Fiona Martin

When the sun starts shining and the warmer weather appears, it’s great to get out in the garden and spruce it up after the winter months. I only have a small courtyard garden but like to make the most of it, after all, it gets the sun and the kids love eating out there in the summer months. Home Bargains have a vast range of bits and pieces for the garden from decorative items, things to grow and more useful, practical items.

We received a selection to try out and coudn’t wait for a dry day to get outside. The green, stacking chair cover (£1.99) was perfect for me. We have a stack of four chairs that live permanently outside and look a little more weathered each year. I also get fed up of having to wipe them down everytime we go outside. This cover fitted perfectly over them and keeps them nice and protected from the elements in this strong cover.

My children love helping me to plant seeds so the Seed Starter Kit in Orange & Peach was set up straight away and within a few days we had little seedlings. We also had a basket liner (99p) which we will use when our seeds get a little bigger to hopefully create some hanging basket displays. We are looking forward to a lovely display of Marigold and Nasturtium flowers over the summer.

The children decided to put the Frog ornament (49p) in their tray of sunflower seeds that they are growing. They also couldn’t wait to have a dig with the yellow fork (89p) and even wore the green gloves (49p) to help plant some seeds from the 6 in 1 seed pack (79p) in seed trays. Fingers crossed we may get a crop of vegetables later in the year and the garden netting will prove useful in protecting them from nasty pests (99p). The thermometer (69p) is great to hang on a wall outside, or in a greenhouse so you no how hot (or not) it is.

For a bit of outdoor decor, this green solar lantern (£1.99) can easily be hung up anywhere, and the pretty green leaf fairy lights (£1.59) look great draped across a tree in the early evening. Also this gold coloured butterfly (79p) makes a pretty addition hanging down from a small tree that we have and twirls around in the breeze.

Our garden has certainly been brightened up and tidied up with these useful gardening bits from Home Bargains and at some amazing prices!! Why not check out Home Bargains and see how you can improve your garden?

All reviews are my own opinions and I received the products in order to write the review.

Gardening for children – #KidsGrowWild Challenge

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Fiona Martin

There’s nothing more that my two children like than being outdoors. As much as I adore my Edwardian terrace house, I do long for a larger garden amongst other things. Having removed the grass from the back pre children and created a patio garden I do adore my flower bed down the side of the garden and the many pots that line the edge.

My children would be outdoors everyday if they could and if I’m ever doing a spot of gardening they are eager to help in any way they can being it digging, watering or clearing up the cuttings. So when we were sent a children’s gardening kit, both their eyes lit up in awe and bickering started as to who was going to wear the gloves first, who wanted the green watering can etc etc.

The children’s gardening kit we received from Little Pals was of excellent quality including a metal watering can, gloves, wooden/metal tools, seed and a lovely carry bag full of pockets. This was great for storing everything in and carrying it around the garden.

As we had recently planted a lot in our back garden we decided to fill a couple of empty pots we had out the front of the house with the pansies seeds. Miss M couldn’t wait to get stuck in with the gloves and digging in the soil. Mister B took a keen interest and wanted to copy everything his big sister did.

Once we had filled the pots in the front we put a couple of sunflower seeds in small pots in the back garden. Mister B then eager to take control of the watering can, walked around the entire patio watering everything in sight. Water! – he loves it and the watering can is the perfect size for little ones to carry around. Saves me having to water on the hot sunny days that’s for sure so I can’t complain.

We loved the children’s gardening kit and loved spending time in the garden seeing how things grow. We are eagerly awaiting the next couple of weeks to see how our seeds grow so that we can report back. Let’s hope for some more sunny days to help our flowers grow.

This post is an entry for BritMums’ #KidsGrowWild Challenge