How Does Your Garden Grow?

Our new container garden has two tomato and one sweet pepper plant in it.

We planted a garden!  As you can see by the photo, it is a very small garden.  It has two tomato plants and a sweet pepper plant in it.  Yesterday, Mom planted some lettuce seeds in between the three larger plants.  When everything grows, we can make a salad!

One of our tomato plants already has baby tomatoes growing!

Our garden is called a container garden.  The blue bag is a special bag made just for gardens.  But you can plant a garden in all sorts of things.  You can plant your garden in a flower pot or a bucket.  You can even plant your garden in an old boot or wagon.

Plants need three things to grow:  dirt, sunshine, and water.  Before you plant your garden, you need to find a place that gets plenty of sunshine.  Most plants need about six hours of sunshine every day.

Where do you have sunshine at your home?  You can grow a container garden on your patio.  You can grow a garden on your porch or balcony.  We have friends who grow a tiny garden on their kitchen windowsill!

If you would like to start a garden, here are some wonderful gardening guides:  

• http://www.kyproud.com/readysetgrow/pdfs/gardening-guide.pdf

• http://www.growarow.org/pdf/Pargar_Workbook_Final.pdf

• http://www.seattle.gov/util/groups/public/@spu/@conservation/documents/webcontent/02_013331.pdf

Here are some great container gardening ideas:

• http://www.annies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Creating-Gardens-of-Goodness_Annies-Homegrown.pdf

• http://www.douglascounty-ne.gov/gardens/images/stories/children/Container%20Gardens%20for%20Children.pdf

Do you ever wonder how seeds grow?  We found a great activity book that will tell you!  Just click here:  

• http://www.wpwa.org/documents/education/ES%20Soils%20and%20Seeds%203.pdf

You can also check out some great books about gardening at your library:

• Green Thumbs: A Kid’s Activity Guide to Indoor and Outdoor Gardening, by Laurie Carlson 

• Grow Your Own Pizza, by Constance Hardesty 

• Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots, by Sharon Lovejoy 1999 Workman Publishers

• The Kids Can Press: Jumbo Book of Gardening, by Karyn Morris