Wacky watering cans!

This week is the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It is an amazing week-long event that brings some of the world’s best gardeners, artists and farmers together to celebrate all things green, beautiful and delicious! Since it started 108 years ago it has taken place in London but due to the coronavirus this year has gone digital. It makes people come up with new, innovative and eco ways to grow, care for and think about plants. That is important - whether you like “gardening” or not you have at some point eaten or been near a plant today!

The idea for this week’s activity came about because my watering can at home broke. I had tiny seedlings that needed a drink so had to come up with a quick and easy way to water them. Being respectful to the environment should always be an important part of gardening so I decided to reuse a milk carton and turn it into a watering can. Here’s how:

• Wash out a plastic milk bottle – any size will do – and keep the lid. I used a 2 litre one.

• With the help of an adult make some holes in the lid. I used a little screw driver to do this and made 3 versions – a “1-hole”, “4-hole” and “8-hole”.

• Fill your “watering can” with water and screw the lid on.

• Turn it upside down, get watering and have fun!

You could plant some seeds or water a plant in a window box or in your garden. The best time of day to do this is in the morning. This is because it gives the water time to run down into the soil and reach the roots of the plant rather than it warming up and evaporating into the air. Do not water at night unless you want lots of snails and slugs – they love cool, damp conditions!

Remember, there are lots of ways to green this planet, even if you do not really like getting muddy in the garden. You might prefer art so could create the most beautiful green space that people would love to visit. Or perhaps you live for coding and could design an automated carbon neutral greenhouse full of juicy tomatoes!

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is online at https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/virtual-chelsea (where you’ll find more things to make and do) and is also on BBC 2.

Mud Pies Mandy

Shadow clocks

Hello everyone – Mud Pies Mandy here!

I am missing seeing your smiley faces at school on a Wednesday afternoon so thought I would send you a fun science and art project for you to do on a sunny day out in the garden – making a shadow clock. They are similar to sun dials.

It is easy to do and takes a long time – something we all have a lot of at the moment! As the sun moves over your garden you mark where its shadow falls every hour, making a clock face that you can use to tell the time!

MATERIALS

All you need are up to 12 (palm-sized) stones, a marker pen and a 50cm long stick.

STEPS

1 – check the weather forecast: you need preferably an entirely sunny day or at least several hours of sunshine.

2 – put an alarm on for five minutes to the hour for each hour you want to make your clock - I kept forgetting and had to dash out just in time!

3 - write a number on to each of the stones from 1 to 12.

4 - stick the stick firmly into the ground in the sunniest place in your garden: somewhere you will get as much sun as possible. Make sure the stick is completely vertical – a squint stick will make your clock look funny!

5 - on the hour put the corresponding stone at the end of the shadow on the ground.

6 - keep going throughout the day until your stones or the sun run out.

What shape of clock face did you get? (I was surprised mine was not completely round.) You could leave your clock up in your garden for a few days and use it to tell when it is time to go in for lunch or dinner!

Want to do more?

• Can you guess where the next hour’s shadow is going to be before it gets there?

• What other kind of markers would work – little sticks, flags or Lego? You could decorate them.

• Could you write the numbers in roman numerals or another language rather than English?

• Would the clock work on another surface – grass, sand or tarmac?

• Could you make a human shadow clock by you being the stick in the middle?!

• Does using a shorter or longer stick change the size of your clock and could you measure quarter and half hours by using a much longer stick?

• Would your clock face be the same shape at different times of year?

• You can make an indoor shadow clock by sticking a pencil to a plate with blu tack and leaving it on a window sill. Ask your adult first how you could record the shadows on the wall!

• Look up shadow clocks and sun dials online. If you are really taken with them you could make a permanent one for your garden – www.sunclocks.com has lots of inspiration!

Dazzling dandelions!

13 May 2020

If I ruled the world I would make May National Dandelion month! Called a weed by many people, these lovely bright yellow flowers are actually a great plant to get to know because there are so many things you can do with them. Here are five ideas to get you started!

Name

Dandelions get their name from the French words “dent” “de” “lion” – translated into English as “lion’s tooth”. No one is quite sure why we named them after French words but they are named after the shape of their leaves – sharp and pointy, just like a lions’ teeth!

Yum

You can also eat dandelion leaves. If you are positive there have been no chemicals near them pick and wash a few leaves and add them to some salad. They have quite a bitter taste, so pick the youngest leaves you can but be happy knowing you are being very healthy – dandelion leaves are full of vitamin A, C and E! You can also cook them like spinach.

Colour

If your yellow crayon does actually quit and you still need to colour in the sun pick a few dandelion flowers. Rub them on to your paper and they will give you a lovely bright yellow. You could also smudge them on to an old sheet or pillowcase and make a flag or some bunting.

Tooter

Make some noise the next time you go for a walk with a dandelion tooter! Pick the thickest stem you can find and blow really hard into the thinner end. You need a lot of puff to do this so maybe challenge your adults instead! Note - you will probably see a white liquid on the end of the picked stem. It tastes really bitter so wipe it off first.

Insects

Dandelions are amongst the first flowers to appear each year and are therefore an important way for nectar-eating insects to fuel up after a long winter. Watch a patch of flowers for five minutes and you will be surprised how many insects buzz by. Some adults however do not like dandelions and even buy chemicals to kill them. Instead, you could suggest they pull the flower heads off once the dandelions have flowered so that bees can eat but the seeds cannot appear.

Scientists think you can attract ten times more bees to your garden by only cutting your lawn once a month as it allows the flowers to grow. You can be a citizen scientist yourself by taking part in Plantlife’s campaign No Mow May by counting the insects that visit your lawn between 23 and 31 May. See https://www.plantlife.org.uk/everyflowercounts/ for more details.