I contributed a fun guest post to Salt & Nectar about learning to spell in the garden. Check it out!

Gardening Posts

• MeemsNYC solves a problem a lot of us have right now: What to do with all those zucchini?!
• I loved touring around Laura’s patio garden. Keep an eye out for her ‘Pretty Much Picasso’ petunias. They look great on the black ladder/plant stand!
• If you enjoy seeing cute kids in the garden, hearing about stories of cardinals nesting, and laughing at kitties who attempt to monitor said cardinals, then click on over to Vetsey’s blog!
• Jenny reminds you to take in all aspects of your garden’s beauty, even the shadows!

Don’t Forget to Submit Your Carnival Posts!

For the July Carnival, I’m seeking posts about how your container garden has changed and grown as summer progresses. You can write about about any aspect of a summer garden, so long as it involves a container garden. You can write about the fruits and vegetables you’ve been able to grow, how your flower containers have filled in, the pests that have shown up and how you’ve dealt with them, or whatever else suits your fancy. If you need help or have a question, don’t hestitate to email me.

To submit a post, use this form: Container Gardening Blog Carnival Page. You can find it by going to Contact > Blog Carnival at the top of the page too. You need to publish your post on your blog and submit it through the blog carnival submission page by July 24th. I’ll be publishing the carnival on the 16th.

Hey So Cal! Join Adriana And I For Our First “Eat Me” Meetup!

If you’re in Southern California, I hope you’ll join in a meetup group Adriana of Anarchy in the Garden and I have created. Eat Me is a group for Southern Californians who want to meet other gardeners who like growing their own food. It should be a lot of fun to meet in person and chat about gardening. I hope you’ll join us! “Like” Eat Me on Facebook, or follow @SoCalEatMe on Twitter.

It looks like out first meetup is going to be at H & H Nursery in Lakewood, CA on Sunday, June 25th. I don’t think it’s set in stone though, so definitely “like” the group on Facebook or follow it on Twitter to find out if there are any changes.

While growing vegetables is one way to teach children about nature and enchant them with gardening. It’s not the only way. If you’d like to add flowers to your children’s garden, you have come to the right post! Below you’ll find a container plan, as well as fun–and even weird–plants that kids will love.

Container Idea

The plan above is for a 48 inch planter box, though you could easily change it to fit a smaller planter box by reducing the number of plants. These plants need full sun.

• S – Sunflower
• P – Penstemon ‘Firecracker’
• E – Eyeball Plant

Sunflowers are a great plant for kids. They grow easily from seed, bees, butterflies, and birds love them, and with any luck, the flower will create the edible seeds that kids everywhere love to munch on. Look for a short variety, like Sunspot so the flowers will be within reach of your kids.

Firecracker Penstemon will attract hummingbirds, which are always fun to watch. The plant also provides an opportunity to learn about native plants and how Native Americans used them. For example, they used Penstemon in ceremonies, and looked for its blooms as a signal to stop planting melon seeds. If it is already past your last frost date, look for the plants in nurseries. But there is still time to sow Penstemon seeds outside if your last frost date is a few weeks away.

Eyeball Plant (Spilanthes oleracea) is just plain fun. The flowers look like little eyeballs, hence the name. The seeds germinate quickly, so they’ll keep kids interest while they wait for the odd flowers to appear.

More Fun Plants to Grow With Kids

• If you grow ‘Lemon Queen’ Sunflower, you can participate in the Great Sunflower Project and count the bees that you see visiting your plant. Kids can practice counting and adding (if they’re preschool or kindergarten age) and about conducting research and collecting data if they’re already in elementary school.
• Chocolate Flower smells like chocolate, and will attract butterflies. Fun on both counts!
• If you’d like to grow something indoors that will get your kids attention (I remember loving this plant as a kid), look for Sensitive Plant (or grow it from seed). When the leaves are touched, the plant quickly closes them up. This plant is only appropriate for children old enough to know not to eat it, as it’s poisonous if ingested.

If your kids really enjoy gardening, it makes sense to get them some tools that are properly sized for their smaller hands and bodies. All of the tools listed below are made of metal and wood, not cheap plastic. Oh, and I highly doubt most kid gardeners need a wheelbarrow, but it was so cute, I couldn’t resist including it.

From top to bottom and left to right: 1. Radio Flyer Kid’s Wheelbarrow 2. Schylling Little Farmer Garden Tote with Tools 3. Little Garden Angels Children’s Metal Watering Can 4. Kids Garden Tool Set 5. Leather and Cotton Kids Gardening Gloves

When I asked you all for your best tips for gardening kids, several people mentioned that their kids were really excited about growing edible plants. GardenerGirl mentioned that her kids particularly like planting seeds where they recognize what the seeds are, like sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Emily mentioned that she always enjoyed growing “big” plants. Well, I know of a great edible plant that has both identifiable seeds and gets pretty big: Corn!

Photo by Melissa Maples

Varieties to Try

Corn is probably one of the most widely hybridized edible plants out there, which means you have a lot of choices when it comes to deciding which to grow. My personal preference is to choose something that either tastes better than what you can get in the store, is a dwarf variety, or that has an interesting color.

Since corn doesn’t need a particularly large pot, the only special consideration for container gardeners is height. Remember that a 6 or 7 foot tall plant is actually 7 or 8 feet off the ground when you take into consideration the height of the container. Plants that are that tall may be outside the reach of almost everyone except tall adults.

• Short Stalks: Strawberry Popcorn, Sweet Spring Treat, Sweet Painted Mountain, Trinity, Chires Baby Sweet
• Fast Growers: Bon Jour, Casino
• Cool, Short Summers: Painted Mountain
• Exceptionally Sweet: Bodacious, Sugar Pearl, Xtra-Tender, Vision

And since this post is particularly focused on kids who might enjoy growing corn, how can I not highlight this variety: Martian Jewels Sweet Corn. What self-respecting kid wouldn’t enjoy growing a variety of corn from Mars?

Most people’s backyard is only big enough to grow one variety of corn. This is even more true if you are growing corn on a balcony. However, the reason is not that corn takes up so much space, because they can be packed in rather tightly. Corn is pollinated by the wind, and most varieties will cross pollinate with each other. The resulting corn will not be what you were expecting, rather you will have created a totally new variety that may or may not taste good. If you really want to try more than one variety, stagger your plantings so that they are not pollinating at the same time. Otherwise, different varieties need to be more than 250 feet apart.

How Much to Grow?

As I mentioned above, corn is pollinated by the wind. As you can imagine, this is a very imprecise process. Nothing would be more disappointing to your kids than to work hard all summer long tending their plants only to find half-developed cobs. To improve your chances of success, I think you should grow at least 12 plants, and grow them very close to each other.

Choosing a Pot

While corn doesn’t need a particularly large pot, the plants get tall, and are prone to getting knocked over by the wind. For this reason, I think its best to buy 20 inch pots and plant three plants (in a triangle) in each pot. The combination of a larger pot and all that extra soil well help keep the corn grounded. Four such pots could easily be accommodated on a 7 foot long balcony.

If your kids enjoy crafts, let them paint/decorate the outside of the pots.

How to Sow

Put your pots into place and then fill them with a good quality potting soil. Mix in a 10-10-10 fertilizer according to the package instructions. It’s best to use an organic fertilizer, especially when kids are doing the work. But remember that even organic fertilizers should be applied with parental supervision.

Plant the corn seeds about 1 inch deep, two to hole, three to a pot (in a triangle). If you’re using a pot that is 24 inches or more in diameter, you can squeeze four plants to a pot, in a square arrangement. Water them in and then keep the soil evenly moist until the seeds sprout. If both seeds in a given spot germinate, pull out one so that there are only three plants growing in each pot.

Where to Grow

Corn needs full sun. And lots of nice warm soil. For these two reasons, the ideal spot is against a wall, in an area that gets 6 or more hours of unobstructed sunlight. Walls tend to retain warmth and then release it back in the evening. Walls often reflect light, which can supplement the light your corn plants will get from the sun.

Watering & Feeding

Corn needs lots of water and fertilizer, which is great for kids, because it means that there is always something to do. While you’re waiting for your seeds to germinate, just keep the soil evenly moist. Once the have sprouted, water the plants once a day in the morning. When the plants get to be about two feet tall, water them in the morning with a water soluble 10-10-10 fertilizer, and then once again in the evening with just regular water.

Harvesting

The best time to pick corn is in the morning or evening when it is cool. The silk on the ears should have turned dark brown, and the ears should be firm. Kernels on the tips of the unhusked ears should be plump and milky. Watch the corn closely because the quality changes fast. Corn is ready about 3 weeks after the tassel grows on top of the corn plant.

Children’s Books About Corn

• Corn Is Maize
• From Kernel to Corncob
• Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share
• Raccoons and Ripe Corn

Bonus: Several people mentioned that they enjoyed growing beans as a child. You can easily add beans to a pot with corn by sowing several bean seeds at the base of the corn plants when they are 12 inches tall. Allow the beans to climb up the corn plant. Beans and corn are two of the “Three Sisters,” a combination of plants grown by some Native Americans. The third sister is squash. There is so much history with corn, it is a really great teaching tool in addition to being a lot of fun to grow.

Be sure to subscribe to Life on the Balcony so that you don’t miss the rest of this series of posts on gardening with kids!

This week, I thought I would write about projects that can be done with your kids (or your neices and nephews, your little brother, etc). Gardening is a great activity to do with kids, especially nowadays when kids are practically born with a mouse and keyboard in their hands. While I love technology as much as the next person, it’s important to stay connected with tangible stuff too. It doesn’t get much more tangible than gardening!

So, before I share any of my ideas, I thought I would ask you all about your experience gardening with kids. What worked, and what was a collossal failure? What’s your best tip? What gardening activity do your kids love doing?