Thompson & Morgan Gardening Blog

With the summer holidays about to start, it’s not always easy to get children away from their toys and out into the fresh air. However, inspired by the youngsters in our family, here is the A-Z of things to do right now!

A – Acting a play. Let their imagination run wild, will they be Ballerinas or Pirates? Get them to put their teddies on a blanket to be the audience as well as the grown ups and pay admission with chocolate coins.

B – Bug Hunting. Print off the names (or pictures) or write a list or of popular Insects and see how many you can find. Older children might like to build a bee hotel using old bamboo canes and a tin can.

C – Camping. Children love to make dens and pretend to be a lost princesses or explorers. A beach tent, Wendy house or a material gazebo make great places to hide. If you don’t have any of these, a sheet spread across two dining chairs are just as effective.

D – Digging. This can be in a sandpit,or even in a Trug. Give older children a border of their own an encourage them to grow easy plants such as sunflowers, beans, and peas. Let them choose the seeds to make it their own. Or let them dig up the potatoes.

E – Eating. There’s nothing like fresh produce, get them to pick things you/they have grown and design their own menus. Strawberries, raspberries and a crushed biscuit with a dollop of ice cream, yoghurt or cream makes for a tasty treat, Or use tomatoes and peppers from the greenhouse to make pizza toppings. Alternatively, just eat outside. Either on the patio table or a blanket on the grass.

F – Flower Pressing. Children like to learn, so help them identify trees, plants and flowers in the garden, parks or nature walks, by collecting leaves and flowers. Flower presses can be bought online or in shops, but a cheaper alternative is to put the foliage in between two sheets of tracing/baking paper and put it in the centre of a heavy book for a few weeks to dry out fully. Don’t forget to write the names of what you have found on the paper first!

G -Games. Hold a sports day. Simple games like how far can you throw a frisbee, jump a skipping rope, or run a race can get them moving. Invite their friends and have a football match, play rounders or tug of war. Hide and Seek too. Award small prizes such as stickers or badges, and let the overall winner choose what the next outing or evening meal will be.

H – Hopscotch. Although an old fashioned thing, youngsters love to jump around so by playing hopscotch it can help them to learn their numbers as well as have fun. Get the older children to draw the grid on the patio with chalk. Alternatively, think of other games that can be drawn on the ground such as hangman or noughts and crosses. A bucket of water will soon get rid of the drawings, or just wait for the rain!

I – Inside out. Don’t let rain stop play. If it’s too wet to go out why not create an indoor garden? Use Lego bricks to build paths to lead you to a pretend garden. Draw flowers and trees on an old cereal box, colour and cut them out. Use loo rolls and kitchen rolls to make people working in the garden.

J – Jewel Hunt. Use pretty glass stones or pebbles as treasure and hide them in the garden. Draw a map and and tell your children to follow the route on the map to find all the treasure. Or ask the children to hide the treasure and draw you the map.

K – Kicking a ball on the grass is fun for girls and boys. Set out an area safe from buildings and windows.

L – Looking. Get up close to nature with a magnifying glass. Insects like ladybirds and caterpillars can look like giant monsters under the glass. Alternatively, look at how a strawberry or other soft fruits look when magnified, as well as leaves and trees.

M – Make Mud Pies. Mix soil (clay soil is good for this,) with water and use your hands to make pretend pies. Leave them dry in the sun for a really authentic look. Older children can make a small pond using an old bucket or washing up bowl sunk into the ground. Don’t forget to put a large stone in it for frogs to have somewhere to sit, and birds have places to land.

N – Name all the birds that visit your garden. Print out a list from the Internet or borrow a book from the library. Keep a diary for one week to see if different birds visit on different days, or different weather conditions. Can you guess which bird will visit you the most, and what is its favourite food.

O – Obstacle Course. Build a course using the toys in your garden. Have you got a swing to climb over, a bike or scooter to get to the end of the garden with? Maybe a hedge tunnel to run through or a stepping stone path to jump across? Who can run up the steps the fastest, around the tree, and back to the start first. Lay hula hoops on the lawn in a pattern and jump from one to another.Put an old blanket in the grass and peg it down with heavy stores then scramble under it as quick as you can. Splash through a paddling pool. The only limit is your imagination.

P – Pop Music in the sun. Create your own dance festival using your iPod or radio. Have a dancing competition or play musical statues. Maybe even make your own band using old saucepans for drums and an old spade for your guitar.

Q – Quizzes. Write down questions for each child and answers on separate pieces of paper, then ask them to go outside to find the answers. You could pin the answers to the questions on the objects outside. For example the question “Where do the bikes go into at night?” And the answer could be pinned to the shed saying ” In here”. Or do it the other way around give your children the answers and pin the questions outside. Older children might just enjoy some quiet time on their own. Maybe give them a space of their own for the summer, like the shed or secluded part of the garden.

R – Royal Queens and Kings. Younger children can pretend to be royalty for the day. Let them pick what to do outside, such as play or make a new garden feature. The grown ups can pretend to be their servant and do everything the children say.

S – Soil Testing and other experiments. Use an old glass for this – mix a tablespoon of your garden soil with some water. Leave it for an hour or so, then look to see what the different layers of sediment are made up or. Is it tiny stones or sand, or clay. Is there still bits floating in the water? Set up a weather station and record which way the wind is blowing, or how hot it is today. Cheap thermometers can be found in 99p shops, or order a more robust one from Thompson and Morgan.

T – Tumbling or rolling down a hill in the garden can be fun. No hill? Then do head over heels or other gymnastics gently on the lawn. Older children can try handstands against a wall or cartwheels on the grass. Playing on an outdoor trampoline can be exciting too.

U – Understanding Rabbits and other pets. Animals make great companions for children, teaching them ownership, responsibility and love. Always consider how much time as a family you have to care for a pet. Cats are more independent than dogs, and caged animals need to be kept clean. If you do have an animal , consider something that can play outside with the children. Encourage the family to grow some pet food for their rabbit or tortoise like dandelions.

V – Visit other gardens, even if it’s just friends next door, Can you borrow ideas from their garden and do the same at home? Perhaps you can make a new feature with the children then ask their friends to visit you and give it marks out of ten. Or get together for a BBQ or hotdogs and drinks outside.

W – Wheelbarrow races, Grown ups can push younger people around the garden in a wheelbarrow for fun. Who is the quickest ? Mum, dad, or grandad? If you don’t have a wheelbarrow do it the old fashioned way, by getting someone to hold onto your ankles raised slightly in the air, while you crawl on your hands. Who can go the furthest or the fastest?

X – X marks the spot. Gently collect some snails for a race, put an X on their shell with different coloured nail varnish for each one, and an X in the ground, (use chalk on the patio to do this.) Next put your snail, on the start line and see which one gets to your X first.

Y – Yellow Up! Yellow is such a happy colour, why not make the most of it by growing sunflowers in pots or borders. Have a competition on who can grow the tallest one.

Z -ZZZ. If all of the fresh air has made you tired, and it’s a nice night, why not set up a tent in your backyard and sleep under the stars. If you don’t fancy that, then just do a bit of star gazing when the sun goes down.

Whatever you do this summer, let me know how you get on, by leaving a comment below.

Amanda Davies

My name is Amanda and I live in Pembrokeshire with my fiancé and our garden is approximately 116 meters square. I want to share with you my love for gardening and the reasons behind it, from the good to the bad and ugly. I want to do this for my own personal pleasure. If you would like to take the journey with me then please read my blogs and share with me your gardening stories.

ANYONE FOR HOSTAS?

Its 7.30am on a June Sunday morning and you wouldn’t want to see what I am wearing as I type this! But if I leave it until later and go into the garden, I know I won’t come in any time soon.

Flaming June? I’ll say! Flaming nightmare more like. Working outside has felt like running on the spot: Maximum effort, minimum progress! The recent gales, which always put me in such a foul mood, have played havoc. No stakes are tall or robust enough to support the towering thalictrums, meadow rue, climbing roses & veronicastrum. Trying to control these wayward giants puts me in mind of plate spinning! Add hot dry air coming at you through some invisible wind tunnel and everything is burnt to a crisp and dry as dust! And then the deluges: Roses, so good this year, rendered brown and soggy, their stems bent from saturation.

Don’t you just love the propensity of us Brits to open a conversation with The Weather? Well, at least it’s got me started on my June blog.

It seems strange not to be opening our garden this June. Our choice admittedly, enabling me to concentrate instead on organising the Hampstead Garden Suburb NGS Open Day 25^th June. We’ve been opening mid-June since 2010 so have always worked towards a well-oiled deadline. This year however the mid-summer garden has been somewhat chaotic to say the least.

But as we approach the longest day (what, already? Its downhill all the way from now on!) we seem to be in the midst of some stable conditions at last and diligent pottering has resumed. In a rush of enthusiasm (and relief to be outside without protective clothing) David has installed his new water features: copper kettle and teacup in the ornamental pond at one end of the rill and his washing dolly (the mind boggles) at t’other.  Oh, the arguments about what constitutes an acceptable position for the aquatic plants, so as not to obscure the view of his masterpieces, you wouldn’t believe!

I have been unleashing my inner artiste whilst creating the patio displays. No holding back this year, containers a combination of T & M Begonia Non-Stop Mocca Bright Orange, Begonia Glowing Embers and Petunia Mini Rosebud Peachy with cannas, gingers & eucomis, whilst hanging baskets are crammed with foliage plants ipomoea, T&M nasturtiums, coleus Redhead and Campfire, heucheras and – hope over experience – hostas.

I blame esteemed Horticultural Society Chair, Doc Page, entirely! Fancy giving away two sacks full of hosta divisions to a plantaholic like me! So I diligently potted them up for charity sales, back in March, and nurtured them from slugs (and cat, more of that later!) , only to become so attached to them that I have planted them into every suspended receptacle I could find. But they are spectacular, and having smugly displayed them out of Fred’s reach, I now have to find a way of protecting the canna leaves from his grazing. And whilst we are on the subject of Fred, he and his feline cohorts are enjoying the benefits of a superfluous basket, which now hangs resplendent from the pergola, complete with fleecy lining, doubling up as a sun lounger! (Note to all interested cat lovers: Billy our Sphynx cat has actually got a sun tan).

Right, back to hostas, briefly: I think I may have started a local trend. Whilst selling said plants at our Hort Soc Summer Flower Show yesterday, any customer considering the wisdom of purchasing one of these slug magnets, was instructed to grow them in hanging baskets!

I’ve been having fun with my potatoes too. (Good grief, my excitement knows no bounds!) I am trialling a new T&M variety, which is supposed to produce bumper crops from the smallest grow bags ever made. No problem with space then, they are wedged into a gap on the patio. These triffids were growing before my eyes & needed earthing up daily. It can’t be that long before they are ready to harvest and it’s all I can do to stop myself poking around in the bags for clues. Oh sweet anticipation! And a recent delivery of trial dahlia plugs, 3 each of four varieties, is a learning curve for me. Having only ever grown dahlias from tubers I am not entirely sure I know what I am doing. But for now I have planted each trio into a large pot, smothered them in gravel, (didn’t take long for those pesky snails to sniff them out – do snails have the olfactory sense?) and hope to grow them on to the stage where I can plant them out with previous successful T&M dahlias on the allotment.

At last I feel Garden Ready! In fact we unofficially launched the New Season with the grand opening of the Beach Hut (you would find me celebrating at the opening of an envelope!) It’s all under control, (haha we make plans and God laughs) everything in its place, and the sun is shining.  There is of course the small matter of the severed irrigation system, the leaky hose, the gap that nothing will fill, the patio wall that needs painting………………..ah yes, gardening is about the process not the finished result, ‘innit.

So next month’s blog will no doubt be full of our NGS Hampstead Garden Suburb Group Open Day 25^th June. If you are within a 50 mile radius of NW11 please come along, I am so bursting with excitement I just can’t contain myself!

Caroline Broome

Caroline Broome has been gardening for more than 20 years. Having passed the RHS General Certificate, she has since developed her East Finchley garden into a “personal paradise” that she and her husband invite the public to visit each year via the National Garden Scheme. Learn more about our contributor using T&M’s ‘Meet the experts’ page.