Archive for the ‘kids do’ Category

I love berries of all kinds.  A bowl of berries tastes better than chocolate… almost.  Now I’m thinking of berries covered in chocolate…. mmmm.

Strawberries are the easiest berries to grow in your garden.  They aren’t mean and invasive like raspberries or blackberries.  And strawberries are my kid’s favorite.  Most of the berries I grow don’t even make it out of the garden.  The kids sit outside and eat them all.  I tell the kids that eating strawberries will make them even sweeter. (Is that wishful thinking?)

Now is the time to plant strawberries if you haven’t already.  They are a great ground cover for a sunny corner of your yard.  Choose a spot where the strawberries will get at least 6 hours of sun a day.

I planted strawberry plants last week and here is how:

I bought a small bundle of plants at the nursery.  They come as you see above, with the roots bare.  I planted June bearers… all the fruit comes on at once in June and they have the largest fruit.  You can also choose everbearing varieties that have ripe fruit intermittently all season.

1.  Prepare the soil by adding compost.  I added well-rotted manure.  Your plants should last about three years, so this a your chance to amend the soil well.  Remove all the weeds, spread the compost out evenly and mix it in the soil with a shovel.  Rake the the bed smooth.

2.  Soak the strawberry roots in water for an hour before planting.

3.  Dig a hole for each plant large enough to spread the roots out.

4.  Place the plants in the holes and back fill.  Plant them high, with the soil at the bottom of the bud union, just above the roots.  (The bud union is the darker brown part in the middle of the plant.)

5.  Water them well.

6.  Fertilize at the time of planting, then right after they bear fruit in June.  If you buy everbearing plants, check with your nursery to find out when to fertilize.

6.  Spread mulch around the plants to keep them moist and cool.

7.  Make sure your strawberries get about 1 inch of water a week.

8.  Remember the birds like to eat the strawberries… if they are a problem you can cover your plants with netting.  I usually don’t cover mine, and they do get a few strawberries… but my kids are usually faster than the birds.

Happy eating!

The weather is still not cooperating with our Spring Break Plans.  With all the snow, we are feeling sorry for the “poor little birds who are out in the cold!”  So today we made pine cone bird feeders and Summer Suet, just perfect for our feathered friends.

Making pine cone bird feeders is a great project for the kids.  On a nature walk last Autumn, we gathered pine cones for just such an occasion.  Give the kids a pine cone, a butter knife and some peanut butter and let them go to town.  Once the pine cone is covered in peanut butter, roll it in bird seed.  Tie a piece of twine, jute, or hemp around the top of the pine cone and hang it in outdoors in a tree.  One trick I use when tying on the twine is to make a slip knot with a loop large enough to fit around the top part of the pine cone, then pull it tight.  It will slip easily between the petals.  This keeps you from trying to tie a knot in the messy peanut butter.   You can also tie the twine on before starting, but my kids couldn’t keep it out of the peanut butter. 

While the kids were busy with their project, I made Summer Suet.  The recipe comes from my mother-in-law, Kit.  She is a bird lover extraordinaire.  Kit also taught me much of what I know about gardening.  And I love her to pieces.  Making the suet is quite easy and inexpensive… I already had all the ingredients in my pantry except lard, which I only have when making pies. (With the cup of lard I have left over I better make a pie!)

Here’s the recipe for Suet: (Kit got the recipe from her Birds and Blooms magazine.)
1 cup lard
1 cup extra crunchy peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups rolled oats (oatmeal)
2 cups yellow corn meal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bird seed

1.  In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt together lard and peanut butter.

2.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until well combined.

3.  Pour into a cookie sheet and smooth out with a spatula.  Chill overnight.

4.  Cut into squares that fit into suet basket.

5.  Place unused squares into a freezer bag and store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Here’s the printable recipe:  Recipe for Summer Suet

You can buy suet baskets from places like Walgreen’s, birding stores and some garden stores.  They run from $2 on sale to about $5.  Watching the birds who come to our feeders is a favorite activity of our whole family.  We get out the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America and try to figure out which variety of birds have come for dinner: chickadees, finches and sparrows.  When you make your own suet and bird feeders you can feed the birds for very little money and it’s a great way to invite a litttle nature into your backyard.