Welcome

Welcome to issue 18 of Green Kids. This issue we are looking at organic gardening with projects, ideas and games to play. Why not make a colourful butterfly mosaic like the one on page 7? Or try your hand at the matching game on page 4. Good luck!

Contents:

3 Gardening tips 4 The Organic Bunch 6 Your letters 7 Butterfly mosaic 8 Puzzles and jokes

What is organic gardening? It’s about tending for a garden naturally working on building the fertility of the soil. It means working with nature, not against it, and choosing not to use any harmful chemicals or pesticides. We think it is the best way to create a garden for our health and the future health of our planet.

TRY THIS: 1 Save your eggs hells. 2 Place a small a mount of soil into each half. 3 Plant your seed s in the eggshell cup filled with soil. 4 Once it sprouts , move it to the garden & w atch it grow. 5 As the eggshell decomposes it provides food f or your plant and it soft ens at the same time so that the roots of the plant will grow right through it into the soil in your garden.

FACTThe Rom ans star ted compostin g m ore t han 2,000 year s ag o as a way of buil ding soi l fertili ty.

Editor Melissa Corkhill Design Jez Harris. Green Kids is printed on recycled paper using vegetable based inks. To write to us: Green Kids, PO Box 104, Lewes, BN7 9AX

Tel: 01825 872858 Website: www.thegreenparent.co.uk Top tips for

organic

gardeners:

1 Make your garden wildlife friendly

– have you got room for a pond, a

log pile or a bird table? All of these

will encourage wild creatures to visit.

2 Compost your kitchen waste – in

around a year this will be rich food

for your soil.

3 Collect rainwater in buckets or a water butt and use to water your plants.

Poo corner Did you know that human poo can make rich soil using a compost toilet. It takes a long time for the microorganisms in the soil to break down the bacteria in the poo though so unless you have a compost toilet don’t try this at home!

Strawberries and other plants contain a chemical called phytochrome that tells them whether it is day or night and how long the day is.

FACT Al tho ugh bee s do stin g, they are also re spo nsib le for many good t hing s lik e pollination of pla nts and making h one y.

win COMPETITION Send us your letter, poems and pictures and you could win one of five flower presses that we have to give away. This lovely wooden and cardboard press will help you press lots of colourful flowers from your garden, which can then be used to make cards, bookmarks and pictures. Write to us at the address on page 2 for your chance to win.

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