Starting Seeds

We have a plethora of seeds started for our garden here at the DC.  Not all of them will actually be in the garden that we will grow here.  Mainly because I have more windows that have wonderful sunlight, more so than at home since three sides of our home are porch covered.  So some of them will go to our home garden. 

The kids love to talk about our garden and making plans.  We talk during lunch time about which foods grow in the garden and it is funny because they will say things like hot dogs and popsicles grow in the garden which would I guess in a much more perfect world.  But talks like this lead to discussions of where other foods do come from and which foods are made from vegetables grown in the garden and they always know which vegetables came from our garden.

 

I wanted to involve the kids more this year in the garden from seed to table.  So we began by the children helping me make newspaper pots to begin some seeds in.  We actually started out with Roma tomato and Marigold seeds.  The most of our vegetables we will sow the seeds directly into the garden.  But our new window seed shelf is currently home to four trays of seedlings and soon-to-be seedlings. 

 

I also ran into a temporary problem at the beginning of our process, which I seem to run into often, of finding I left something at home that we need.  In this case it was the plastic wrap to go over the trays to use as makeshift greenhouses.  I looked around the rooms and was lucky to find two zip up plastic carrying cases that I had saved when I bought two sets of toys at the thrift store.  These are working like magic and are quickly turning into two of my favorite mini greenhouses.  They are like the zip ups that sheets or comforters come in.  It is a fantastic use for them. 

 

So here are a few pictures of our seed process that lets you see the kids spooning dirt into our pots.  It has become a daily event of checking to see which seeds have sprouted.  Especially for me... the one who waters the most.  If you have any questions on starting seeds for your own garden please shoot me an email!

A New Shelf

There are two windows on the back side of the day care that are facing West, just so that they get all the afternoon sun they can stand.  One of the windows is above our eating area and the other is in the main playroom.  Since it is almost time for us to begin sprouting seeds for our garden I felt we needed a good shelf in a sunny spot.  The playroom window seemed like the perfect window for plant life.  So I asked Shaun if he could cut us a piece of wood and I found a couple of brackets that I had left over from setting up the day care last Spring. 

 

In just a jiff we had a new shelf installed!  We put the brackets on each side of the window, screwed them to the wall and to the wooden shelf.  It is perfect.  It is high enough to keep little hands out of the pots but in the area where we can get them down for viewing anytime. And it is still low enough so they will clearly be able to see the plants grow (and low enough for me to whack my head!). 

 

I love, love, love this shelf!