It’s Planting Season
It’s always planting season, don’t you think? I like to think that there are actually two seasons of planting. The first is our garden. Perhaps you plant flowers or vegetables. Either one takes time to prepare. You might start your seeds indoors to get your plants started, or you may buy them form the store. Whatever works best for you! There is nothing better in the summertime than going to your own garden to pick your harvest. Picking fresh herbs and vegetables in your garden takes a lot of work and a lot of time for them to grow. You need to find the perfect space to plant them, some may take full sun, others may be partial sun and some may not do well close to others! We always plant tomatoes, peppers and sweet basil close to one another. They do well together. I water early in the morning most days, need to weed weekly and once they begin to grow it won’t take long before we take them from the garden to our table and to our neighbors! Fresh grown tomatoes with fresh basil is absolutely delightful! Sometimes we toast a fresh bagel, spread some cream cheese on top, sprinkle some salt and pepper and add a slice of tomato and some fresh basil leaves! So good! There is nothing like home grown!
In the picture above my friend Do’er Duck came for a visit to my sunflower garden! Our sunflower garden brings us so much joy each season as we watch them grow. They’re planted in our front yard not far from our front porch and while we drink our morning coffee we take in their beauty. It always brings me to Italy, although I’ve never been, the tomatoes, the basil and the sunflowers remind me of such. Both the vegetables and flowers produce all summer and into early fall. Then, I canned the tomatoes, froze the basil to use in pasta and pesto, froze the peppers because we fry them in garlic on sandwiches and freezing does them just fine, then we even dried out the sunflower seeds. The squirrels and the birds sure do love the seeds as the flower begins to wilt. They use them for a perch which makes a beautiful view as well, for us both! Once the flower has completed it’s bloom, it will bend or wilt, looks like a fun shower head to me! Let it do their thing and then cut the flower off the stem, place it face down on something that will catch the seeds as the fall or a bucket. When you leave them on the porch to dry you know the animals will find them, it’s okay to share because there are a lot of seeds! You can eat them or roast them, find a recipe that suits your taste. Enjoy the harvest!
One summer I took a sunflower stem to my classroom and we had so many different activities to do with just one stem! Here are some of the activities we did:
First asked each student how tall they thought the sunflower was?
Asked each student how many sunflower seeds they thought there were in the sunflower?
With yard, we measured each student’s guess as to how tall the flower/stem would be. Some were pretty tall! We chose a wall and placed the yard on the wall labeling it in their name.
Next, we counted out sets of ten seeds, you can count by two’s or five’s, we did ten. There were THOUSANDS! We made a number graph on our math wall.
Finally, we measured how tall the actual sunflower was and added it to our sunflower wall. As an art activity we made sunflower petals, glued them around a paper plate and added it to our sunflower yard stem. What a display of beauty! The students were amazed at how tall the stem grew and began wanting to learn more. How big is the seed? When do you plant them? How do you take care of it? How long will it take to grow? How tall will it grow? All the usual questions from a curious child! It is one of my favorite activities to do with them!
The sunflower season got me thinking on how to show other children the process of the flower’s growth. This is where our Do’er Duck planting book came alive! This activity book shows the process of planting the seed and journaling the growth process. The last page even has a seed packet to fill your own sunflower seeds with! Save some seeds to plant for mom on Mother’s Day in a hand painted clay pot your child paints! It’s a fun and educational activity book that your child will enjoy from digging in the dirt to picking the end result and share their green thumb with! Click here to order book on amazon. Only $6.00
Are you wondering what the second season of planting is? It’s a lifetime planting of seeds in our children while developing their character. If you would like FREE resources to support their development, subscribe to our newsletter which shares ways to reinforce and teach vital core values. Remember, anything you plant takes caring, takes time and intentions to harvest the good. Just like our children. Plant seeds of good character at an early age and they will continue to grow and grow and grow into their adulthood. Enjoy the harvest!