Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, July 14, 2007 4:05 pm

One of my readers, Meeyauw, apparently enjoyed my post on creating a National Wildlife Federation backyard wildlife habitat enough to actually do this project with her grandson, Wingnut. (Wow, somebody was really interested in what I had to say! What a nice feeling!).

She and Wingnut created a totally wonderful slideshow (complete with great music that makes me want to dance) of their nature hike around Meeyauw’s property with cat Buddy. They photographed various habitat elements that they came across, and also took many photos of Buddy enjoying himself tremendously.

Meeyauw’s gorgeous Barton, Vermont property appears to need no adjustments for certification, and that cool sign should be on her barn in no time. Caves, natural springs, glacial boulders, trees, ferns…suffice it to say that when I die I want to be reincarnated as any form of “wildlife” whatsoever and live happily ever after on her property!

Thank you to Meeyauw and Wingnut for your great slideshow. I hope that anyone reading this will stop by Meeyauw’s blog and watch the slideshow. Maybe you’ll be inspired to try this yourself! If you do, please let me know.

By the way, check out the National Wildlife Federation’s site called Green Hour for some information and ideas for getting kids outside and into nature.

Comments (5)

By Mom Unplugged, July 9, 2007 11:31 am

Yesterday my 5 year-old son reached an exciting milestone: riding a two-wheel bicycle! We had been for a bike ride (early-to avoid the heat), and one of his training wheels was so worn down that it was splitting. Riding behind him, I noticed that he wasn’t using them much anyhow. So, ignoring his protests and dramatic cries that he would “never ride a bike again,” we took the training wheels off.

Half an hour later, the lure of the bicycle was simply too great, so he got on and tried. He fell once or twice, but by the third time he had it! He still can’t get on and started by himself yet, and he can only turn left, but he goes about 100 mph with a giant grin on his face. I fear an orthopaedic consultation in our future.

Another excitement is my $10 garage sale old 3-speed bicycle and $70 little bike-trailer (Walmart). The bike is simple, comfortable (at least after the addition of a new gel seat), and works fine. Plus it is a cool classic old bike with character. Perfect for a non-jock, ride around the neighborhood type like me!

The bike trailer is awesome! Why didn’t I ever get one of these before? My 18 month-old speed demon, daredevil girl (the next Danica Patrick perhaps?) rides along in her chariot saying “Whee!!!”

Perhaps I am the only one behind the times enough to have just discovered the wonder of a bike-trailer. Is blogging about a bike trailer kind of like blogging about water? (Oops, I’ve done that too!) “Hey world! I just discovered this wonderful new stuff that tastes good and makes you not thirsty anymore. You can even SWIM in it! It is called water!” Hopefully I am not boring the blogosphere into a deep, deep sleep.

But if you are still awake after reading this far in my post, you have probably never tried a bike trailer (or had a drink of water?). I highly recommend that you do! The trailer doesn’t upset your balance like a child seat mounted directly on the bicycle can, and seems safer too. Some of the trailers I have seen online can be hundreds of dollars. Perhaps these have additional features that some may want. For us however, this most basic little one is perfect.

Family bike rides are a wonderful way to unplug your kids and get them outside. The trailer allows even the littlest riders to tag along and have fun! So go get one…and a drink of water too.

Comments (10)

By Mom Unplugged, July 5, 2007 11:10 am

A really neat project to get kids involved with nature (and help wildlife) is to certify your yard as a Wildlife Habitat. The National Wildlife Federation has a certification program that is fun to do with kids. So far there are over 70,000 certified backyard habitats.

You do not need a big, fancy yard to get certified. What you do need however, are four basic habitat elements: food, water, cover, and places to raise young. Click on the links to each element for examples, as well as projects for incorporating these elements into your yard.

Sit down with your kids and evaluate your yard. Decide together what you can do to make sure that the four elements are present. Create a plan and carry it out. When you are done, complete the online certification questionnaire.

If you are still lacking in any area, the website will tell you what you need to improve. If you have the basic elements, then you will get a certification number. You will also get a one-year membership to the National Wildlife Federation which includes a subscription to National Wildlife magazine. They will send you a certificate and a press-release for your local paper to help spread the word about this program. Plus, you can order ($25) a cool, weather-proof sign like mine in the photo to really let the world know about the importance of gardening for wildlife.

Here are some examples of each element from our yard:

Bird feeders are an obvious choice for FOOD. Include many different varieties of seeds (sunflower is the favorite here, but we also have millet, thistle, and cracked corn), suets, and a hummingbird feeder of sugar water. We put peanuts out for the squirrels and chipmunks too (although quite a few birds enjoy the peanuts as well). Also, diversify your feeder types. Some birds like perches, some prefer to cling, some like platform feeders like the one on the left. We also have a birdseed block on the ground for ground feeders.

Other, less obvious FOOD sources are native plants, bushes with berries, and flowers that produce dried seed heads such as these Purple Coneflowers:

If you aren’t fortunate enough to have a pond or other natural water source on your property, birdbaths are essential for providing WATER. This is one of our three bird baths. One of them is heated so water is available in the winter also. Even the squirrels drink out of them! This photo also shows a FOOD source: the Cosmos flowers around the birdbath produce nice seeds.

This birdbath is near a tree so drinking birds have an easy escape if necessary. Our birdseed block is in the foreground.

Examples of COVER in our yard:

PLACES TO RAISE YOUNG can be man made such as nest boxes or bird houses, or natural: trees, shrubs, dead trees. Even a woodpile, like our messy one above, provides great nesting opportunities for chipmunks and other small rodents.

We are fortunate enough to have this lightning damaged, partially dead tree (a “snag“) behind the house which, as you can see from the photo below, has become a bird condo! In fact there is a very noisy family of Lewis’ Woodpeckers currently nesting in one of those holes.

We hung some roosting pockets under the eaves (near a window so we could watch the action), but there have been no interested birds so far.

Here are some book suggestions to help you too. The Backyard Naturalistis a wonderful book and has helped me a lot, but you will only find it used.

This one is a great guide to native plant species in my region. Obviously, if you don’t have a high elevation western garden it won’t do for you. But check your library, bookstore, or Amazon for similar regional guides to get native plant ideas.

I don’t have this one, but I think I will order it. It looks like a really good one too, with lots of ideas for projects.

The National Wildlife Federation also has an online gardening bookstore that you might want to look at as well.

This post is part of The Sunday Garden Tour at A Wrung Sponge. Head over there to find more participants, or to add your own garden-related post. Happy Sunday!

Comments (11)

By Mom Unplugged, April 10, 2007 10:05 pm

I never would have thought it possible, but kids really can take care of a small garden, and enjoy it too! See my post Kids and Gardens and Spring, for a personal story.

Here are some tips that I have found helpful for gardening with my two oldest children (ages 4 and 6):

• Give them just a small area each and start with a small number of flowers. We did six flowers each. Anything more might be overwhelming.
• Annuals are great because they provide immediate and long lasting flowers, and you have the fun of choosing new varieties each year. Seeds take a long time for short attention spans, and perennials often don’t have a long flowering season, plus they don’t always look their best the first year.
• Kids love gear. Get them their own little kid-sized gardening gloves and they will be in heaven.
• For older children, or for a family project, you could try a themed garden. Here are some ideas:

1. Butterfly Garden - There are lots of resources on the web regarding what to plant to attract butterflies (check out The Butterfly Site - Gardening or The Garden Helper) . Choreopsis, Butterfly Bush, and Cosmos are some good ones to start with. If you can, and you really want to get into it, try to identify butterflies that are native to your area and also include plants that those species of caterpillar like to eat. Make sure your garden is in a sunny spot as butterflies only feed in the sun. Also provide a flat rock for warmth (the butterflies will sit on it and keep warm). You could even raise some butterflies to release in your garden. We did that last year and I was just as fascinated (if not more) than my kids! Check out a Live Butterfly Garden to get all you need to raise some Painted Lady butterflies, including mail-away certificate for larvae.
2. Scented Garden - Choose plants that have nice smells. Herbs, lavender, mint, and scented geraniums are good ones to start with. Be careful with the mint as it can be very invasive. If you don’t want it to take over your garden, then plant it in a pot. Just make a big enough hole, and stick in the plant, pot and all. It will look normal from the surface, but it won’t be able to spread. By the way, you can really have fun with scented geraniums. There are some that smell just like lemon, and even a variety that smells like chocolate (check out Scented Pelargoniums or Mountain Valley Growers for more info!).
3. Fairy Garden - Pick fanciful flowers: I like snapdragons (show your kids how the flowers can open and close like bunny mouths) and pansies (they look like they have faces). Anything small, and dainty, and lacy is nice too. Queen Anne’s Lace, Alyssum, Lilly of the Valley. Your kids can decorate the garden with little fairy houses made of sticks and rocks, with perhaps some acorn cap bowls of water for the fairies to drink!
4. Colored Gardens - Pick your child’s favorite color and plan a garden using all that color. You may or may not want to include white flowers or green foliage for contrast.
5. Night Time Gardens - White gardens really stand out at night. Plus some flowers only open at night. Night Gardening, The Evening Garden, and Moon Garden Flowers are good resources.
   
6. An Edible Flower Garden - Herbs are an obvious choice here, but also include Nasturtium, Borage and other edible flowers (research this carefully first since some flowers can be toxic if eaten!).

The possibilities are endless, so just have fun!

Of course, as with any garden, the key to success is two-fold: 1 - Speaking from experience, I know it is easy to go overboard at the nursery. Do not take on more than you and your kids can handle (making a list ahead of time and STICKING TO IT helps). 2 - Whatever you decide to do, be sure to pick plants that will do well in your climate and yard/soil conditions. For example, don’t pick shade-loving plants for a sunny spot, or sun-loving plants for a flowerbed in the shade. You will just set your family up for failure and disappointment. A local nursery or a book such as my favorite, Right Plant, Right Place: Over 1400 Plants for Every Situation in the Garden, can help with this.

Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer puravida.

Comments (2)

By Mom Unplugged, March 20, 2007 12:15 pm

I love gardening. At the first hint of warm weather I begin to have detailed, yet wildly unrealistic visions of the beautiful, picture-perfect garden that I will certainly create this year. This spring I will plant some roses, and I have been researching different types of roses for the past two years (literally). I am not an impulse shopper in any regard, and certainly not where something seemingly as permanent as a garden is concerned.Last year I gave the kids a little patch of dirt to plant. I thought colorful annuals would satisfy short attention spans better than seeds or perennials. We went to the nursery and they got to pick six plants each, any annual they wanted. My daughter picked dainty alyssum as well as a variety of other flowers in pretty pink and purple tones. She is like me, not an impulse shopper. Much to my annoyance it took her close to an hour to make up her mind, even while being hurried along by me. My son (a typical “buy-the-first-thing-you-see-then-leave-as-quickly-as-possible” male) headed straight for the brightest flowers he saw: marigolds in varying shades of bright yellow and orange and rust. He chose five marigolds and a mint plant, because he liked the smell.

The deal was that they had to plant them themselves, and then water them everyday on their own without reminding. I had my doubts about the odds of their survival and felt grateful that my role in this life was to be my son’s Mom and not one of his marigolds.

Much to my surprise, the gardening experiment was a resounding success. They watered faithfully and I even taught them how to weed and deadhead by helping me. They kept their garden looking tidier than mine.

Now, every time we drive by the nursery they want to go and look at flowers. I have to explain that it is too soon, but they still don’t fully understand time, even my 6 year-old.

Meanwhile, I peruse garden magazines featuring fabulous, yet entirely impractical gardens for my climate, ability, and available time. I read the David Austin rose catalogue regularly, because this year, I really will take the plunge and order the roses of my dreams. I desperately want a Madame Alfred Carriere.

My kids have already, on their own initiative, planted pots with ancient seeds they found in the garage, and my son just brought home a sprouting Daffodil bulb that they forced at school.

Yeah! Spring is on the way!

(For my tips for gardening with kids, please also see my post: The Children’s Garden .)

Thanks to morgefile.com and photographer julesinky.