Day 22 Life Cycle of a Poppy – a Study This time of year it’s definitely poppy time in the garden. Once you have the Californian poppy in your garden you will always have it as it self seeds beautifully. I spent some time this week looking at a large double petalled red poppy in […]
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Leaf Art Activity with Children
I wanted to share with you a really easy, but effective leaf art activity you can make with children. Every autumn we collect loads of natural materials with the aim of making all sorts of beautiful crafts. Sadly it is rare that we ever make the time to complete the task. […]
A Walk Around Stourhead Gardens
This weekend Professor Tanya Byron talked about family time in the Saturday Times. Top of her list were some very basic bonding behaviours such as walking together as a family, chatting and looking at nature. So our walk around the Stourhead estate in Wiltshire fitted the bill perfectly. We had intended to marvel at the […]
My Garden in November
We are definitely at the end of the flowering season in my garden. It’s all looking a bit tatty and floppy. There has not been a frost yet, but plenty of rain has fallen, so today there are photos speckled full of those dewy drops. The flowering season seems also to be a bit […]
Pumpkin Carving
Carving a pumpkin is now an essential part of childhood. We have always carved a small pumpkin at home. When I say we I mean hubby has usually using tools from the toolbox with the chisel featuring heavily. We manage a standard type of scary face, the pumpkin has never been able to better […]
My Garden in October
We have been having such great weather this September and October it feels more like late summer than autumn. However there are signs in my garden that autumn really has arrived. Everything is beginning to put itself to bed and there is a certain emptying going on. So I have resisted the temptation to […]
Pumpkins and Fairy Rings
There is no better way to spend a sunny Autumn morning than visiting Kew Gardens. This is exactly what we did last weekend. If you have never been it’s a fantastic place to pop into. There’s loads for children of all ages to do. If you are not a friend of Kew it’s a bit […]
Autumn Leaf Colour Game
We have been outdoors on this lovely dry week, but haven’t ventured far from home. Just a trip to the local DIY shop and spending time in the garden. While the garden is full of plop plop plopping sounds of the acorns falling from the oak tree next door there are not too many other […]
Autumn Leaf Hopscotch
The autumn leaves in the south of the UK have been wonderful this year. I have been seeing fantastic artwork, collages and patterns made from leaves. This weekend a brief chat with my 7 year old about what use we could put some of the many leaves in our garden led to a eureka moment. […]
Stourhead Revisited: The Beauty of Autumn Colour
Last year we visited Stourhead, Wiltshire, one of the best landscape gardens in the country. It was so beautiful we couldn’t resist returning again this year. There are over 600 species of trees and shrubs in the landscape gardens assuring a fantastic long-lived autumn display. The expectation was for a good spectacle of autumn colour […]
Share Some Local Autumn Colour
I recently sent out a newsletter featuring the Woodland Trust’s Top Ten Woods for Autumn colour. I hoped it would inspire families to get out into the woods this half term. The list certainly got me yearning for a helping of autumn colour. If I am lucky this week I may get to visit one of […]
PLANTING SPRING BULBS WITH YOUR KIDS
Planting spring bulbs must be one of the easiest kids gardening activities. Many do deserve the label ‘easy grow’. All you need is a trowel, bare patch of soil and bulbs. There are loads of easy grow bulbs. Simply either follow the instructions on the packet or from your supplier. If planting direct into the […]
Autumn Colours at Stourhead
We hadn’t planned to visit, but after a whole day of rain we needed to get out for an autumn ramble. Helpfully the evening before Radio 4’s PM programme had interviewed the head gardener from Stourhead. The passion he displayed for the garden was infectious and helped us to decide that a visit to see […]
Apple Day and the Abundance Project
Picking apples from a tree must be one of the most valued childhood memories. Its great to have apple trees in your garden, but the harvesting, storing and preparation of them can be a mixed blessing. Having given away loads of our apples to family and friends and stored away several box full we were […]
An Indian Summer in the Garden
I read this week that an Indian summer can only occur in October. Well if that is the case then ours is about to start tomorrow. If you are a gardener, love gardens, have a young family then you are going to just love having summer at this time of the year. Or are you? […]
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