Carrots and Kids

Make a Bird Nest Building Buffet

Things have been extraordinarily stressful at Carrots Cottage this last week and a bit, but one of the most soothing things I've found is watching birds in the garden.

I stand at the kitchen window sipping coffee, thumbing through a very old copy of The Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe. It's old, priced at £1.75, but we got it in a charity shop.

There's not as many feathered visitors as I'd like but we've had dunnocks, great tits, chaffinches and bullfinches as well as the usual robin, blue tits (currently building a nest in the box as they do every year), blackbirds, sparrows and the ever present pigeons who, I know, are just waiting for me to sow some peas.

Nest building is going on aplenty. Every time I see a bird in the garden they either have something in their mouths or are eating at a feeder.

So I thought I'd help them. We collected some moss, clipped the hairy dog and cut up some wool. I wondered how to make this tip top material available for the birds.

The garden's currently in disarray thanks to a major patio building project so I wouldn't have any where to place yoghurt pots or dishes of wool. Plus, they'd blow away. Oh, I know there are doubtless countless posts and tutorials on making such a thing but y'know, I couldn't be bothered to look. Sometimes you just want to get on and do it your way.

So I fudged my own idea.

If you fancy having a go here's what you need:

• a small piece of wood
• a drill
• hook for hanging it up
• nesting materials
• pieces of wood or nails for the birds to perch on

We (well, Hubby, I was deemed too accident prone) drilled holes all the way through the wood then the seven-year-old stuffed them. Our holes could have been bigger I reckon but they're full of material.

I've hung it up near the most popular feeders but have yet to see a bird visiting their buffet. "It's not like it's been posted on Facebook love, the birds aren't telling each other there's a load of dog hair for nests at number xx," commented Hubby.

Hmm, well I hope they're not going to be fussy. This is prime nest building material here.

:: Today on Birdoosh I'm talking about Monday mornings and routines ::

Book Review: Garden Crafts for Children

When I was very kindly asked by the publishers if I would like to review Garden Crafts for Children by Dawn I was a little trepedatious. My bookshelves groan with children's gardening activity books. I even have a beloved favourite. Could this latest addition add anything new?

While I did come across the dreaded planting in a welly boot activity (a pet hate of mine), I was also pleased to see some new to me crafts too.

What I liked:

• the alpine wreath. Never mind the children, I'm making this for me
• tyrannosaurus garden. This is something my five-year-old will love. Just need to source a tyre
• stop-motion bean pot. I loved this new take on growing a bean down the side of a glass. This will be gracing our kitchen table very soon
• I liked the design of the book. It's aimed at children and I could happily give it to my seven-year-old knowing she'd be able to follow it thanks to the clear instructions and pictures

What I wasn't so keen on:

• Generally I liked it but the above mentioned welly boot craft could have been omitted I reckon (but that's probably just me)
• If you already do some gardening with your children you may find that you're familiar with some of the activities such as miniature gardens, pine cone feeders or growing cress but I think you'll find a few gems that are new to you as I did.

It is a lovely book and would make a great present for a beginner gardener (or family) or perhaps for a grandparent eager to do more with their little ones than feed them cake during visits. You could even team it with some of the materials to make one of the activities - now that would be a lovely present. And don't worry that you haven't got a large garden, or any garden at all, as there is plenty to offer mini would-be balcony gardeners too.

:: I was very kindly given a copy of this book for free ::

How Safe Is Your Allotment?

Allotments may seem innocuous and wholesome but, if you think about it, they're quite dangerous places for the lone gardener and for children.

Nowadays I mostly visit alone which doesn't bother me from a safety point of view, although a blog discussion about solo allotment visits did make me think. I'm very clumsy so it does cross my mind occasionally about how I'd fare if I was to have an accident.

But what I'm now wondering about is how safe your allotment is for children? I'm not one of those who think that such places are not really for children. For some it's the only place they'll have to get their hands in soil.

I suppose allotments are not really safe places for kids. Some people might use chemicals on their patch, next door's dog doesn't look too friendly and those troughs to catch the water drips from the tap are quite deep.

Then there's stakes with tops left uncovered at children's eye level, poisonous rhubarb leaves and no doubt lots of other things I haven't thought of.

But that's ok. There are dangers everywhere (particularly walking to and home from school we're discovering, where we've witnessed two parents mount the kerb close to us).

When we're at the allotment my children have a fair degree of freedom. There's a wood behind into which they disappear. And when they're actually with us, we make sure they don't wander onto anyone else's plot. That's as much about manners as it is about keeping them safe.

I started thinking about this after reading the Guardian's gardening Facebook page where editor Jane Perrone had asked for ideas on how she could use a bath she'd inherited on a new allotment (I don't think I can link to it, sorry).

The ideas were interesting and varied but a couple of people said, for health and safety reasons, they wouldn't turn it into a pond. Someone even suggested that she got rid of it.

As a mother who has visited her allotment with crawling babies and inquisitive toddlers I was a bit surprised at this.

No one has a pond on our small site but there are the water troughs in which a child could easily drown. And it's never occured to me they should be removed. My children are my responsibility and I wouldn't expect allotments to be a safe place for them. So we keep a close eye on them and instill a few rules.

What do you think? Should you manage your plot with an eye on the saftey of curious children? Or is it the parents' duty to ensure they are kept safe? Perhaps allotments and children don't mix...

{Sowing Sweet Peas With My Sweet}

That cusp between two seasons, when you can feel it tipping over into something fresh, is one of my favourite times. I think I love all seasons but I love them best at their beginning.

So, invigorated by spring's arrival, I have actually been sowing seeds. This may not sound like news to anyone else but I am usually playing catch-up.

And, of course, as soon as my fingers dug into the compost there was my eager little seven-year-old helper who worked alongside me sowing sweet peas. It was bliss.

It's not too late to sow some; I can be found online at Tesco Magazine extolling the virtues of gardening with your children which could result in a fragrant sweet pea teepee this sumer. That's blissful too...

{Re-connecting My Children With Nature}

One of the areas of our life that I've let slide recently is connecting the (younger) children with nature. I'm not sure why it's happened. Maybe it's because it's winter or maybe, as is the case in families, other things have grabbed my attention and I've taken my eye off one of the many balls I'm juggling, just for a while.

I'm not sure if it comes across in the blog but I'm not a huge fan of some children's gardening activities. I mean, I love gardening with children and I try to think of plants they would like to grow but, really, the growing-flowers-in-wellies kind of activities leave me cold.

Sometimes that kind of gardening feels a bit contrived and patronising. It's a bit like cooking with children - making endless fairy cakes gets boring; I like to get mine cooking a range of things that are tasty, not aimed specifically at them.

Having said that, I need them to be outside for an hour a day and during the recent half-term this involved endless trips to the park.

But I want to reconnect them with nature a bit closer to home too. Going to the park is not always possible (or sometimes I just can't bear it) so with the promise of spring I'm turning my thoughts to the outdoors.

Here's my list of Things To Do To Get Back To Nature:

• Get the children planting the usual child-friendly veggies and flowers at home and at the allotment (but especially at home)
• Make a Nest Building Buffet for the birds (I have no idea what this is really called but involves putting out suitable material for our feathered parents and will have to be done SOON)
• Find space in the back garden for a digging pit. Mud pies and worm hospitals here we come
• Incorporate more sensory plants for the children to pick (like Lamb's Ears)
• Finding a patch or very large pot at home for them to grow herbs perhaps for the bath or maybe salad leaves in - either way I'd like them to grow something really useful for the family.

This isn't a comprehensive list and nor is it my definitive one. It's just one to kick-start a more outdoorsy time. If you have any good ideas, I'd love to hear them.

{Stuff}

Here's a list of things I have been doing or thinking. Sometimes only a list will do.

• Sowing sweet peas: we did some gardening at school which involved making our own pots out of paper (by wrapping newspaper round jam jars) and planting two seeds per pot. Some were straight out of the packet and others had been soaking in water as an "experiment" to see if pre-soaking makes any difference. I think not

• Wholefood eating: I have just started a three-month online course with Heather about wholefood eating. I am so excited. I did her 30-day vegan one in the summer and LOVED it

• Writing my new blog: I feel very excited about this too (although quite vulnerable about showing it. I mean, a blog about that). There are only three posts so far but many more to come. I had a stressful great time designing it and making it look how I wanted (with thanks to Liz who gave me a code for padding, whatever that is, and suggested a few tweaks). Oh and if you fancy a peek it's here

• Looking forward to half-term: yay! Although a week early this year, we are so ready for it. The little children are tired and I am a bit weary of making sad five and seven-year-olds go to school when they just want to stay home and play. There will be lots of Lego, parks and cake in our week and no homework

• Reading: I go through phases although always try and read one fiction book a month, even if it is for book group. Currently reading On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Oh and HUGE congrats to Dawn who's just had her first book published about gardening with children. 

So, as winter trundles on and the snow falls (well, it is here), what are you up to?

:: I'm not sure if the link to my blog is working. I suspect not. This is Typepad's fault and not a cynical ploy by me to get you very curious about the new blog. I'm hiting publish anyway just to confirm my suspicions. Actually, maybe this is a sign...

:: Edited - the link now works! It was me *blush*. My new blog is called birdoosh.

{So What If It's Cold}

Following on from my last post, it is, naturally, now winter proper. I am sat here with a very cold nose, wearing four layers and contemplating a fifth.

Of course, it is not really the weather for blogging either. Really, I should be ironing....

And when I used to run a gardening club I decreed it wasn't the weather for gardening. Oh, I know there are things to do but it was always nice to have a break.

Now I am a helper whose main responsibility is to just turn up, we are ploughing on. This week we replenished a dead hedge. It's quite cool, but something you'd need a lot of space for I reckon. Perfect for a school though.

I am keen to do some gardening with, at least, my children. I'm resigned to it being largely indoors. Possibilities include creating a terrarium, planting winter peas, sowing broad beans in modules and onions too.

Or how about starting a nature or gardening journal? And let's not forget about feeding the birds...

Crikey, I've inspired myself! That's got to be another good thing about blogging.

:: The photo was taken with iPhone. You can see the older, darker parts of the hedge ::

 

{My Big List of Autumnal School Gardening Ideas}

As I was driving back from another food buying expedition (I am always, it seems, restocking the larder cupboard) I mentally went through my list of to-do's. Momentarily the promise at the end of yesterday's post of me posting again TODAY flashed through my mind.

It won't matter, I thought, if I don't write it (yes, I am the laziest blogger). Then I got the loveliest email from someone who was so appreciative of this little space and - you guessed it - looking forward to the list that I felt compelled to do as promised.

So here I am. I also realise that as a post intro it does sound a bit "due to public demand..." but it's not meant to. But I did want to add that, of course, this list is not exclusively for gardening clubs. Grab a child (preferably one you know) and just get out there. Soon it will be snowing/raining and we'll all wish we did.

• Harvesting: lots of green toms (perhaps we could make green tomato chutney?). Seeds to harvest too (sweet peas, beans and calendula)
• Paper pot making: Using jam jars and old newspapers. Fill with compost and sow the sweet pea seeds (could use the ones we harvested. Need to soak in water for 24 hours beforehand)
• Dirt day: test the soil around the school either with litmus paper or a kit from a garden centre. Collect fallen leaves and store in bin bags with holes in to be used on the beds in a year’s time. Spread any compost from the bins. Manure the beds
• Plant for the winter: broad beans directly in the beds, lettuce (with some protection using fleece). Onions. Garlic. Rhubarb crowns
• Plant bulbs in tubs for spring (daffs and tulips)
• Get the children to bring in a jam jar or an old chipped mug from home and plant (wearing gloves as they are an irritant) hyacinth bulbs (cost 50p each) which are then stored somewhere dark and cool until shoots are couple of inches high and they can take them home at the end of term
• Create a new bed while the soil is still workable. Measure and dig it out (could be for herbs?). Could plant some herbs like sage, rosemary and thyme
• Could grow potatoes in sacks for Christmas
• Make old fashioned toys with sticks (willow rod and ring, walnut dice etc).
• Indoor gardening: get the children to save carrot tops, avocado stones, pineapple tops etc then try to grow them on saucers, jam jars etc. and place on a windowsill. Or we could place a whole sweet potato, carrot, turnip etc in water and see what happens after a week or so. Or grow peanuts in glass jars with coloured yarn. They sprout apparently and the children can see the roots (if all children are free of peanut allergies)
• Cress: grow it in eggshells, the tops of potatoes etc which can then be decorated. Leave on a windowsill for the week to see how high they grow. Or you could get the children to write their initials in cress seeds on damp paper
• Decorate a tree as a Christmas gift to the birds with the bird food we made, strings of popcorn and dried cranberries etc
• Celebrate apple day (it’s on October 21 so club date nearest) with maybe a tasting session of different apples and perhaps a visit to the parish orchard (bit of a trek perhaps and no idea what you’d do once there!)
• Make autumnal or leaf mobiles
• Make bird feeders using 1l juice cartons (something for them to take home)
• Make bird cakes (would need a cooker as an adult has to melt the fat)
• An easy bird food make – toast with a hole at the top made with a straw, peanut butter and bird food pressed in. Then thread string through and hang in a tree
• Make a winter frog home: dig a trench, place an old grow bag (with the compost still in) inside, cover with grass clippings and leaves. Could also make other wildlife homes by collecting large sticks and logs and piling them up in corners.

These ideas have been amassed over the years from magazines and books and things I've done in the past with my previous club. Enjoy!

{A New School Gardening Club Challenge}

I admit that when my daughter left her primary school in July, I did heave a small sigh of relief. Not only would it mean no tearing down country lanes four times a day but also I would have my Wednesdays back.

It's not that I didn't enjoy the school gardening club. Working with the children was the best thing ever. But it's hard doing it all on your own. I had help, in as much that the person who offered to help me would turn up sometimes and sometimes not, depending on the state of her love life I think. I wouldn't know until she didn't show.

However, there was no help in the "what shall we do next week" department. And that is where I needed it most, if I wasn't going to spend all day Wednesday preparing for the one hour club.

So it was with a light heart this September that I skipped into the different primary school my youngest two attend. I had cleared the decks. I was Making Changes and Had Plans.

Then the headteacher collared me.

So a few Mondays ago saw me hauling in a bag of top soil. Blimey, I thought as I parked miles away from the school entrance then struggled to open a gate, this feels familiar.

Of course lots of it is. Like my ideas. But the grounds and the area we have to work in are totally different. And we have free range chickens which I think I'm going to struggle to love. Already they have been digging in the raised beds.

There is also a teacher in charge which makes the club feel very organised and not as anarchic as my last one. There was even talk of mind maps, whatever they are. Perhaps the biggest difference is that this school knows about the blog.

The teachers have read the blog. One was looking for Ideas, which was probably like looking for a needle in a haystack. She needn't have worried, I sent her a massive email full of them.

And tomorrow I shall share my Big List of Autumnal School Gardening Ideas with you. Catchy, no?

{A Place of One's Own}

 

One of the surprising things about our recent visit to Queen Victoria's holiday retreat, Osborne House, was the beauty and space. The whole point, I think, of the place for Victoria and Albert was to escape the protocool and goldfish-bowl life being a royal entailed.

Victoria described it as "a place of one's own, quiet and retired" and that's exactly what the family got, a unique family home that managed to be opulent as well as cosy. I learnt all sorts of fascinating facts about her and also discovered that she loved being outdoors and spent a great deal of her time outside. You can even see her bathing machine, which she used at their private beach. Unfortunately, that can't be accessed now as the route to it is too overgrown but there are plans to remedy this.

 

Of course, the 342-acres at this Isle of Wight estate are quite different to what they would have been like in her day but they are still spectacular and some parts, like the walled kitchen garden and Swiss Cottage garden have been renovated to become more authentic after the estate's past duty as a convalescent home.

When she died, Victoria's son Albert decided he didn't want the home as it reminded him too much of his mother and handed it over to the state. Lucky for us but, really, unlucky for future royals.

One of the appealing things about it is that its managed by English Heritage which made for a much more relaxing visit than others we've experienced at National Trust properties. We were able to picnic anywhere so chose a spot high on a hill between the house and the view of the Solent.

But now, thinking about our visit, it's the terraces with their formal bedding that really stick out in my mind. These are dotted with statues Victoria and Albert collected. There is now a rather grand looking restaurant, perfect for a special meal I imagine, looking out on the bottom terrace.

Of course, I also loved the walled garden with its Victoria plums. Prince Albert rhubarb and glasshouses. There were fruit laden trees fanning the walls, arches with pears and apples plus lots of flowers which I imagine would have been used for the extravagant table arrangements.

I loved the small (well, actually rather large really) children's kitchen garden that has also been restored. There are hanging in Swiss Cottage a couple of miniature spades. All the children had their own, each initialled. Part of the ground floor of the cottage is a small tea room and nearby a lovely place filled with heavy teak furniture on which to sit outside and have a coffee.

You can do a Ring Walk around the whole of the estate but with Grandad, hot sun and two little ones (one of whom said it was "very very far for very very little legs to walk") I filed that away under Things To Do When We Are Older and The Children Have Left Home.

I was surprised, actually, at how big the grounds were. There are many trees in the pleasure garden that were planted by Victoria and Albert to commemorate birthdays and other important events and because it was so spacious it never felt remotely crowded.

There is also the famous Royal Myrtle, which I didn't see, but which has been included in royal bridal bouquets including Kate Middleton's. You can buy a small pot to take home which some people may find hard to resist...