Sunday 7 October 2012

Great Fun For Kids

Andy and Joey have both taken a keen interest in helping in the Garden. Andy loves planting and watering, and mostly, Joey loves digging and destroying. We recently planted some tomatoes which are coming along nicely.  The trellis is the original gate from Mum and Dad's farm.


I saw and idea somewhere, but I cant remember where, to make seedling trays out of recycled paper, so I thought I'd make it up as I went along and this is how it happened. 

We planted Snow Peas and some little flower I cant remember the name of. I'm such a green thumb. 


Thursday, 25th October, 2012. 

Well, our little seedlings are ready to be put into the ground near our tomatoes! Andy and I like the idea of having a salad garden, like on Pepper Pig! OINK! 



21 comments:

  1. This will save a lot during next spring! Thank you!

    Happy Friday!
    ~Steph from http://barefootbusy.blogspot.com

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  2. You're welcome Steph. Thanks for stopping by and leaving your blog link! I always love a new blog to subscribe to and Pin into my Blogs to Revisit Board! http://pinterest.com/AlishaLuxford/blogs-to-revisit/ <3 Alisha.

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  3. I think this will be perfect for a library program I want to do! Dumb question though: You put soil IN the tray, right? Because I think I've seen something similar where you put the seeds in directly.

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    1. Hi Sethers. I put a little soil in the tray. Because of the size you only need a small amount. Let me know how everyone likes it, and if it's online I'd love to see the link! Our seedlings are just about to be planted in the ground. Very exciting.

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  4. When you water to grow your seed, doesn't the paper re-dissolve??? or is it sturdy enough to get moved into the garden (after a while of watering and waiting)?

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    1. It held together long enough for us to plant. A few of the poorer ones, did crumble at one side, but they still held long enough to get into the ground.

      Have you made yours yet?

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  5. make sure to get the ink out of the paper

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    1. For future reference, how do you do that? Just curious.

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  6. My son ate newspaper as a baby and I called poison control (can you say helicopter mom?) They told me that newspaper ink is vegetable based, so not to worry.

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    1. Aww that's so cute. I didn't even think about the possibility of it being poisonous. I'm glad you clarrified it though!

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  7. The ink on black/white newspaper is made from soy, so it doesn't hurt anything in the garden. Skip the colored sections, no guarantee what that ink might be.

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    1. Very interesting! Thanks for the information!

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    2. Most soy theses days is GMO. Don't put it in your garden!!! You can go to the newspaper office and buy end rolls of news print really cheap and what you don't use the kids can use for drawing on or other projects.

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    3. i loved this idea until i realized, oh yeah, vegetable based ink = gmo soy, sigh. such a pain! anyway...exactly what i was going to say about the soy, same with hot food coming in packages made from corn at the grocery store, or alternative "ziploc" bags made from corn (tho i have found a company that uses non gmo crops). gmo's are so much more prevalent than most of us realize, so sick of it.

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  8. Great Idea. Thanks for sharing. Now that I've read over the comments the ink may be a bit of a concern for some people but great idea nontheless.

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    1. Thanks km tech! We had a blast doing it. I would think the small amount of ink used, wouldn't effect the plant too much. Especially if you're using it to do flower seeds and things that you're not eating. Thanks for commenting!

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  9. Alicia, this is the neatest thing! We're just going in to seedling season here in the States, so I'd like to give this a whirl. One question, how do you get the paper blended up in step three? Does it just disintegrate or do you do something magic to it? Thanks!



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    1. Hi Mama O. I only have a blender (sometimes called a liquefier) so I needed to have it really wet to blend it up, which turned into a fine pulp, which I then squeezed out with my hands. I think if you've got a food processor, it would turn out nicer as you'd have to use less water. Does this make sense? Either way though, the particles of paper stick together in the drying in the sun process.

      Just as a little side note, I attempted to speed up the drying process by putting them in a low oven, and it doesn't work so well... so... don't do that. lol.

      Good luck, I'd love to see your finished project when you have a link!

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  10. Thanks, Alicia! I'll post some photos when they're done. Hopefully with happy little green shoots coming up!

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  11. This is cool, I am going to have to try this!

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  12. that was an awesome idea! Thanks a ton!

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