Asthma - can you grow out of it?

This is a very useful article and it says that you can grow out asthma, which is good news.  

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/asthmaandallergy/201586.html

Science - Growing Copper Sulphate crystals

Explaining electrolysis


Copper plate your own key !



Grow your own crystals

Biology - Seedlings

Our corriander seeds have sprouted now (on our sunny bedroom windowsills).  We had planted them in pots and covered them with plastic and elastic band to hold it still.  My little sisters tomato form the kit just germinated now which is just plain weird as min germinated 2 weeks in the same conditions.  The ones we planted ourselves (Not the special kits) germinated first ha ha ha.  Radishes have germinated.  We transplanted our beans and the snails and slugs got them unfort :(  Naturtiums germinated.  Its fun watching things grow.  We have planted cuttings of willow and we have put a bamboo cutting into water to see if it will grow roots.

Photos to follow

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Here are some good links:

http://theseedsite.co.uk/ - webpages about seeds - collecting seeds, storing seeds, sowing seeds, germinating seeds and exchanging seeds, with pictures of seeds, seedpods and seedlings (and a bit of botany!)

See how they grow

We were given this lovely book as a present from a friend.  Its called "See how they grow:  Pony" and its really nicely set out with super photos.  We have just had 2 new foals of our own born this spring and this book shows exactly how they grow over  a period of time and its set out perfectly for kids.

I would recommend it for any kids interested in ponies.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/see-how-they-grow-pony

How to grow your own vegetables

We were visiting another island to have our cats spayed and went to a local shop there.  They have so much more that we have in our little island shop!  We bought these cool educational tomato growing kits called "SUTTONS fun to grow" (have you ever wondered HOW does a tomato grow?).  Each Pot kit contains a peat pot, 'magic' compost black, seed and a fun facts sheet.

My sister and I are now happily growing our own tomatoes. 



It's not like we have not grown our own plants before, its just that these are set up so nicely and have a little educational pamphlet with them and they are really appealing because they are so cute.

Strangely enough the seeds in the little pot took longer to germinate than the extra seeds we put in a bigger pot under our own plastic lid.  They already germinated last  week, within a couple of days and today was the first day my one in the little pot germinated.

My sisters bigger pot germinated earlier and her little pot has not germinated yet.

They were both under the same conditions - each set being on our sunny bedroom windowsills.


Have a look at http://www.suttons-seeds.co.uk/ because thats the the address on the little yellow pot.

My parents have always grown their own vegetables, fruit and herbs because we used to have a small farm in Africa.  We learn as early as crawling and walking and talking the process of seed to seeding to product and then also havesting and storing the seeds we needed for the following year.  We learnt all about compost and earthworms, bees, butterflies, aphids and ladybirds.  We learnt about companion planting and the medicinal poroperties of plants and which plants were poisonous.  We grew up with herbal teas, homemade jams and fresh vegetables straight off the plant.  Our sunflowers used to grow taller than the house and the heads were bigger than dinner plates.  Our horses, bunnies and birds used to eat sunflowerseeds straight off the heads.  We grew our own mielies (Corn) and its delicious strait from the cob).  Its a wonderful way to grow up :D

Here of course the climate is different, so our efforts are not successful. The wind blows too hard even in the summer and we don't have a greenhouse or polytunnel yet.  Our vegetable and herb garden used to be bigger than our whole house and garden here and we used to have over 400 trees in our garden with lots of fruit trees and now we have none but its a good learning experience and we have all our past knowledge to build on.

For the past 3 years now we have germinated our seedlings indoors and then hardened off but had little results due to the huge amount of slugs, snails and of course the wind.

We are tweeking our system gradually so hopefully this year will be better.