​Are you revved up and ready to plant? 
 
We’re racing plants today and it’s really tons of fun!

​To add to the sense of the racing adventure, start by making a flag out of foam craft paper for your vine.  The flag is going to be used to identify which vine in the yard is yours so be creative.  It’s kind of like the way racecars are painted to stand out from the pack. You want your vine to be proud and stand out too! Add a number or even your name or initial! 

​Once the flags are made, it’s time to put in the racing track, or in this case the racing pole.  A lot of berry vines are called “climbers” because they actually climb or grow up a stake or pole.  The vine will wrap itself around the pole as it grows.  It’s kind of like it grows little hands to hold on.
 
Tape a flag onto the pole.  The first flag doesn’t really matter how far up it is. However, the rest of the vines, or competitors, must be taped at the exact same height.  Our flag was taped about 18 inches from the top of the vine. The other flags should then all be taped 18 inches from the top of the vine too.  You want to measure the distance because your vine may start at a different height then your brother’s or mother’s. That’s okay.  By measuring the distance you’re making the race fair.

We were overly spoiled during the holiday season! What about you?  We also got a ton of  bubble wrapped gifts.  I admit I love bubble wrap and after popping a few dozen sheets and dancing on a dozen more we started to try to figure out what else I could do with it.  Of course, putting some in the garden sounded like a great idea.  Bubble wrap is great to use as a blanket, or insulator, for potted plants during the winter.
 
It's simple.  Use a large sheet of bubble wrap to line the inside of terra cotta pots.  This will help keep the roots from freezing during the winter.  Just be sure to only cover the sides because if you cover the hole on the bottom the water won’t be able to drain out.
 

I just heard someone walk by our garden and comment that we were growing “Summer’s Gold!” After I thought about it for a moment, I totally got what they were talking about! Our CORN!
 

Corn is the true taste of summer and it’s growing awesomely inoury garden! Watching it grow is one of our daily hightlights of playing in the garden!  But picking it and eating it is the BEST part of having a garden with my kids!
 
We’ve learned that corn needs about 3 weeks to grow after the silks form. Remember, to teach our kids about the different parts of the plant.  The silks are those stringy things on the end of the husks that look like hair!  The best thing about the silks is that when they dry out and turn brown, it’s time to harvest the corn!  My kids, since they were little have always loved hunting for the dry silks!
 

​Summer is definitely here. It’s not only hot, it’s sizzling hot! The rise in temperature also means you’ll need to increase the attention you give to your plants and water them more!

Here’s a fun target shooting game for you to play while you water your plants.  
What’s Needed:

• Plastic cups
• Marker
• Water gun or squirt bottle

Draw lines or put numbers on cups, or both like we did, and place the cups in your garden.  The goal is to see how fast you can knock over the cups by shooting water at them. Or if you have friends over, race to see who can fill the cup up to the line first. 

​You can also put the entire alphabet on cups and challenge kids to summer learning by asking them to go hit the cups to spell out words, like smile or grow! 
 
Every time you miss or knock over a cup of water, your plants win!

Do your kids ever just enjoy hanging around with your friends? I know mine do and so do some of our garden herbs!  It may sound a bit wacky but we hung up my garden with a shoe organizer! It’s funny but clever!

What's Needed:
 - Hanging shoe organizer and hooks 
- Plastic trash bag 
- Soil 
​- Plants or seeds

The first thing to do is figure out where you want to put your hanging herb garden. Look for a sunny spot.  Behind a door leading to the outside or a wooden fence should work perfectly. Wherever you decide to hang it, be sure it’s being help up there tight.  Use strong hooks or even wire to attach the shoe organizer. Remember each pocket is going to be filled with soil, plants, and water so it needs to be pretty strong. 

Once the shoe organizer is hung, do a water test. Check to make sure water will drain out by pouring water directly into the pockets.  
 
If the water just puddles up but doesn’t drain out, use a small knife to put small holes at the bottom of each pocket.

Also, depending on where you hang your shoe organizer, you might want to add a sheet of plastic or big garbage bag to help keep the area from getting too wet.

​Now fill each pocket with soil.  Fill it almost all the way up to the top.  Think of each little pocket to be like a small flowerpot.  Leave an inch or two from the top empty.  
 
We added a couple pinches of vegetable fertilizer to each pocket to help give our plants a head start. Fertilizer adds extra nutrients (or vitamins) to the soil that the plants love to eat!
 
Now choose your plants or seeds and plant away.

We started by planting raddish and parsley seeds. It was kind of funny, because as we were planting we started to forget which pockets we had planted the seeds in. A quick solution was to mark the pockets with a piece of black tape to help us remember. It would be bad to plant too many things in one small pocket.  The roots wouldn’t have room to grow!
 

We then added in other herbs.  Mint is perfect to grow in a pocket or two.  The roots grow like crazy and will take over your yard if you’re not careful.  By planting them in a pocket, you can have the yummy herb without it taking over the rest of your garden.
We also added in some oregano and parsley to use in spaghetti sauce.
Once everything is planted, be sure to watch each pocket. Then sit back and wait for it to grow.