On our latest family vacation to Disney world, I got a hold of this wonderful book that inspired me to start gardening with the kids. I'm excited to do life with them, that's what moves me about being a mother. It's the time spent together, bonding over simple yet beautiful everyday life moments. This book, Sow and Grow was so pretty to look at, with their curated children's vintage illustrations that immediately had my head spinning with ideas of the things we will do together.
The projects are month by month but since we got it on the late side, we are just picking out the projects that we like. The whole book is dedicated to gardening indoors which makes it easier to handle the project with littles. Before starting the project, the book has a nice introduction about what a plant needs to grow: air, photosynthesis, light and water. Mark Jacinto was pretty intrigued.
We chose an easy January month project which is called, starting seeds on a plate. We did this project in two parts. First part was starting the seeds on a plate but once sprouted we decided to plant them( second part). More details below:
First part materials assembled.
Some cutting involved.
Carefully pouring the seeds.
Where are the plants mom?! haha. This made me laugh so hard.
Materials assembled for the second part of the project. Planting the sprouted seeds.
Making holes with a pencil.
Pouring some seeds on each hole.
Setting the soil.
Watering the soil.
What you will need:
- Cress, mustard, alfalfa, wheat, mung seeds.
- pie plate, sauce or any plate really
- cotton roll or paper towels
- water
Directions:
Place several layers of wet paper towel on a plate. Add and distribute the seeds evenly. Place the seeds in a warm dark place. Check daily to see if paper towels dry up, if so add some water. They are ready to "harvest" in 5-7 days according to the book.(It took us about 4 days)I guess it depends on the seeds and conditions. You can use scissors to snip the greens into your salad or plant the sprouted seeds like we did.
This project was very simple. The seeds took about 3-4 days to fully sprout and I enjoyed Mark Jacinto asking everyday about how the seeds were doing , helping to pour water on the paper towel so the seeds wouldn't get dry , and the excitement on his face when he saw them sprouting.