“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is the motto to teach about Earth Day. These three “Rs” can be practiced when gardening with your family and make for fun garden projects. Check this link to see some kid activities planned at Earth Day Indiana this year at EarthDayIndiana.org.
When looking for garden ideas and projects, check out this great book, Project Garden: A Month-by-Month Guide to Planting, Growing, and Enjoying ALL Your Backyard Has to Offer, by Stacy Tornio. (bit.ly/atCGProjectGarden)
Stacy Tornio is an editor of Birds & Blooms, one of my favorite garden magazines, and a Master Gardener. In this book, she shares projects to “Grow It, Plant It, Eat It, Make It, and Recycle It” for each month of the year. Tornio rates all her projects by difficulty, so I can select activities for my two-year-old great nieces or my great nephews who are seven and nine years old.
For my twin nieces, Lindsey and Lauren, we are going to plant carrots in and among our flowers and then try out the great recipes for the carrots that Tornio gives for that project. We can reuse the water from cooking the carrots by watering our garden.
The boys, Max and Eli, can make some fun “golf ball” bugs that look like caterpillars to put in their Jungle container gardens. We can recycle their Great Uncle Ken’s old golf balls! We are also going to make birdhouses out of their old soccer balls, again another great way to recycle and reuse. Anytime we recycle or reuse, we also reduce the amount of trash that gets into our environment. All these projects help the kids learn about saving our natural resources.
Shhhh! Our best project will be to reuse/recycle their mom’s old sneakers to make glitzy, glittery flower planters for Mother’s Day!
Nancy loves flower gardening almost as much as she does her great nephews and nieces. Her interest in gardening intensified while living in Holland and was perfected with Master Gardener courses.
