Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Kids gardens and games
There are still so many beautiful flowers doing their thing in our landscapes! I’m loving the neighbors zinnias. My asters and liatris are blazin’.
My blackeyed susans are on their way out but that means they’re ripe of another project.
While the older kids have returned to school, there’s time for some fun with the littlier people in your house! The National Garden Bureau shared some fun ideas involving kids, gardens and games! One of those is flower juice painting!
All you need are fresh flower blossoms, fragrant leaves, absorbent paper and imagination. Collect the flower heads and herbs after the dew has dried. Salvia, marigold, calendula, geraniums, dianthus and those zinnias all produce bright and vivid colors. Fragrant leaves from scented geraniums, sage, and mint create a palette of green plant colors.
Use the flower blossoms the same way you would use small sponges or paintbrushes dipped in paint to add color to pencil drawings or create colorful, free-form paintings. You could talk about the different insects that pollinate those plants.
I particularly love THIS idea, creating an Allium (or Zinnia) fairy wand!
You’ll need alliums or any flower with a long sturdier stem, fresh or dried flowers and herbs with 4 or 5 inch stems, green florist tape, thin wire and a paper doily.
Gently strip any leaves from the flower and herb stems.
Holding the allium in one hand, surround the flower head with 4 or 5 sprigs of a small contrasting flower or herb, adjusting the spacing as you go. Add 2 or 3 more concentric rings of herbs and flowers, fixing them, so they are evenly spaced. Bind the stems to the allium stalk with floral wire as you go.Cut an x in the center of the paper doily, put the stems through it. Finish by wrapping all the stems to create a smooth neat handle. Decorate with ribbons and streams and then make a wish!
