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April 2004
Spring Beginnings
March 26, 2004
Today the weather is chilly and the Secret Gardeners decide to stay indoors. Easter is soon, so some of us make Easter bonnets – a.k.a. garden hats. The others make pressed flower art – in frames to decorate their rooms.
The first time we made pressed flowers was a hit and proves to be a good winter activity, especially given the array of flowers from the local florist. The gardeners don’t use glue this time to attach the dried blossoms to the paper. They’ve discovered that the easy way to arrange them is to simply sandwhich them between construction paper and the glass frame. Different colors of construction paper makes a good base to arrange the flowers on.
While Rosemary and Millie worked on pressed flowers, Billy, Lucy and a couple other gardeners made hats. The center provided the straw hats, artificial flowers, and glue. DIG IT! brought some ribbon to make hat bands. The gardeners chose the flowers they wished to use. Billy wanted lots of green.
April 9, 2004
Today we planted seeds for our cutting garden in the courtyard. We chose fast-growing seeds so that in five or six weeks, we’d be able to transplant them in the garden. We had Purple Ruffles basil, Sweet Genovese basil, marigolds, zinnias, and dill, which grows tall, looks pretty, and smells good in the garden.
I poured the bag of soil into plastic tubs and the gardeners scooped it out with Styrofoam cups. They put the trays of soil-filled six-packs on cafeteria trays to contain water, tamped the soil down and watered it gently by spooning the water out of the cups. We put the tiny seeds on white napkins so they were more visible and easier to pick up. They planted seeds, added a bit more soil and tamped it down again with another small dose of water. We stacked them on a cart near the window.
Rosemary and Millie volunteered to watch the soil and water it when necessary. When the seeds germinate, we’ll have to figure out another arrangement for them.
Sonia and I checked the cutting garden to see if the mixed variety of bulbs the gardeners planted last fall, are coming up yet. They are!
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