Welcome

Welcome to issue 25 of Green Kids where we

find out all about seeds with the help of Captain

Planet. Most of the plants that we grow in our

gardens produce seeds that we can collect.

We can sow them next year and grow more

plants. Find out how to make your own

seed saver and how to turn a pear into a

mouse inside this issue.

Saving seeds from

your garden is an easy

and cheap way to get new plants

for next year. Now is a good time

of the year to collect them.

Contents:

3 All About Seeds 4 Puzzles and Competition 5 Make Your Own Seed Saver 6 Pinboard and Penfriends 7 In The Kitchen 8 Earth Friendly Kids

How to do it The best time to collect see ds is in the morning. Have a look a round your garden to see what co uld be collected. Look for seed he ads and ripe fruits, such as sunf lowers, tomatoes and pumpkins. W hen collecting only take a few se edheads and one or two ripe fruits – the rest should be left for the birds (and you) to eat. When you have gath ered some seeds they need to b e cleaned and dried out. Most seeds c an be washed in a jam jar and the n spread out to dry on newspaper on a sunny windowsill. When they are c ompletely dry, put the seeds into an e nvelope and store them in a cool da rk place – see the instructions on how to make a seed saver on page 5.

FACT The largest seed in the world is the double coconut. It can measure up to 50cm around the middle! Coconuts have a fibrous coating and an air space inside them, because they need to be able to float to a new home. Some coconuts have floated 2,000km over the sea before they find dry land!

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, East Hoathly, Lewes, BN7 9AX Tel: 01825 872858 Website: www.thegreenparent.co.uk • With thanks to Fi Bird for the recipes. Did you know

Most oak trees don’t grow

acorns until they are at least

50 years old!

Brillian t beans Leave some o f the beans o n your plants until th ey are really b ig and fat. Cut off the wh ole bean and carefully open up the p ods. Remove t he beans and place on a tra y to dry out in a warm place .When they are completely dr y, pop the beans into an envelope and store until the spring. In sprin g you can plan t the beans and grow mor e beanstalks!

Swap shop Some gardeners like to swap seeds with other gardeners. This is a good way to share a bumper crop of seeds

and also to get some new

varieties for your garden. For example, if you have

managed to harvest lots of sunflower seeds this year

perhaps you could swap

some of those with a friend’s

pumpkin seeds. Some places

hold annual seed swaps where you can meet up with

your neighbours and swap surplus seeds.

PERFECT PRESENTS Seeds can make great presents. You could decorate an envelope with some seeds inside and give them to friends and relatives for birthdays or as Christmas presents. A gift that keeps growing!

Super Sunflo wers Once the heads of your sunf lowers have turned brown the seeds are ready to harv est. Cut off the seed head with a pair of scissors, place in a paper bag and give it a good shake. The seeds sho uld start to drop off into the bag. You can feed them to p ets, keep some for next year to grow more sunflowers an d eat them yourself. Make su reyou take the hard black and white shell off first though. Nice Nasturtiu msNasturtium seeds are actuall y edible but quite hot and peppery so you might want t o just save them to grow some more nasturtiums nex t year. They don’t need washing but will need to be l eft out to dry before storing. Perfect poppi esPoppy seeds come in a seed head that looks like a little pepper pot with holes aroun d the lid. Simply tip this upside down and the seeds will drop out. As the seed head is dried these seeds d on’t need to be washed and can just be tipped straight in to an envelope for storing.