https://www.conservationchatuk.com/
The girth of a tree can be used to estimate its age, as roughly a tree will increase it’s girth by 2.5cm in a year. So, simply measure around the trunk of the tree (the girth) at about 1m from the ground. Make sure you measure to the nearest centimeter. Then divide the girth by 2.5 to give an age in years.
http://www.tree-guide.com/tree-age-calculator
ake your nature knowledge up a notch with Seek! Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. Earn badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants, and fungi and participate in monthly observation challenges.
- Get outside and point the Seek Camera at living things.
- Identify wildlife, plants, and fungi and learn about the organisms all around you
- Earn badges for observing different types of species and participating in challenges
Wildflower Activities Your Kids Will Love.
If we use and need our wildflowers, then we will be more likely to look after them.
Grow A Patch Of Wildflowers In Your Backyard.
We can all help our disappearing meadows and wildflowers by creating a tiny patch in our backyard.
Buy a box of pre-mixed wildflower seeds and sprinkle over the bare soil. In around 3 months you will have a beautiful wildflower meadow as big or as small as you like.
Sow the same wildflower mix above into a large pot of soil. Make sure it doesn’t have too much nutrition as wildflowers like it low nutrients.
How Do You Make A Wildflower Garden?
If you are keen to transform a large area or your whole garden, here’s what to do;
- Choose an open sunny site
- Cut any grass short and remove the grass clippings as these add nutrition to the soil, which you don’t want.
- If needed, top up with low nutrient soil. As wildflowers don’t like nutrient rich soil
- Sow your seeds or plant some wildflower plug plants into the soil. You can get these from a local plant nursery.
- If growing on grass, mulch around your plants to stop competition from grasses.
Plants to try
- Ox-eye daisies. Wonderful white flowers with a yellow middle that bees and pollinators just love.
- Red champion has lovely pink or sometimes red flowers
- Achillea, this plant traditionally comes in white with ferny foliage but you can buy seed in a huge range of colours now. I love the burnt oranges or the summer berries.
- Knappweed has a thistle look to it and comes in purple – pink.
- Cowslips are low growing with yellow flowers
- Yellow rattle is becoming rare these days but it has hooded yellow flowers.
- Birds foot trefoil has short stems of yellow flowers
- Water mint is a good wildflower for wet areas. Its related to mint so it edible but the pollinators love it
What Is The Best Time To Plant Wildflowers
Spring is the ideal time to sow wildflowers.
Ideally between the middle of March and the end of May.
How Long Does It Take For Wildflowers To Grow?
Wildflowers usually take between 14-21 days to germinate.
In 3 months time they’ll be fully grown and ready to flower their socks off.
Make sure you remove any grass and weeds prior to planting your seed so there’s no competition.
Growing Wildflowers, After Care
After flowering and the plants have set seeds, use a sythe or scissors and cut back your flowers to ground level.
Remember to remove the clippings to keep the soil nutrients low.
Easy Wildflower Activities For Kids
Make seed bombs with wildflower seed
Making seed bombs is a fun, easy and effective way to spread wildflower seeds around.
We like to plant ours in areas of waste ground, on deserted round-a-bouts, corners of overgrown patches of land.
Just pop one in a shallow hole and water it in.
You can even give them as gifts in a pretty box of decorated bag.
Keep them dry and they will last for ages
Try These Fun Wildflower Activities – Wildflower Bingo Sheet
Try going for a wonderful walk and checking out your local wildflowers.
Get down low and discover a beautiful world in between the grasses with this super simple wildflower bingo sheet.
Dying Flowers Is A Great Wildflower Activity
This experiement is so much fun. Simply take some white flowers from your garden, we also tried some pink ones.
- Fill 3 small jars with water and 3 different colours of food colouring, one into each jar.
- Place a small bunch of flowers into each jar – now watch the magic happen.
- Over the next 24 hours the flower will suck up the coloured water and turn the different parts of the flower all different colours.
Try this with different white wildflowers and see what works best.
Painting With Wildflowers.
Use different flowerheads, leaves and stems as paintbrushes.
Dip different parts into paint and use them to print on paper.
This is a great way to make a printed paper bag to put your seed bombs into as a gift.
Wildflower activities, why not – Press Some Wildflowers
Gather a range of different wildflowers the next time your out for a walk.
- Lay them on a piece of kitchen paper and lay another on top.
- Stack up more layers until all your flowers are used.
- Then pop the whole thing under a few heavy books.
After 7 to 10 days your flowers will be dry and super flat.
Use them in so many ways, make cards or pictures for friends and family or even design an invitation for a garden party.
How to Make Plantable Seed Paper
- Step 1: Gather your scrap paper. We used old news papers and un wanted paper that has been drawn on.
- Step 2: Tear the paper into smaller pieces around 3cm is ideal.
- Step 3: Put the paper into a blender. Pour in some warm water,
- Step 4: pulse the blender until the paper and water make a smooth pulp.
- Step 5: keep adding warm water until the consistency is a thick smooth soup.
- Step 6: Add food colouring as desired, this gives your paper a subtle colour.
- We have experimented with different plant dyes too like onion skins and carrot tops. Lay these on top and the colour can seep out and make pretty patterns as they dry.
- Step 7: Stir in your desired seeds
- Step 8: Mix again then pour this out onto a muslin cloth lined tray.
- Step 9: Finally, spread out the pulp till smooth. Tap to level it and leave it to dry in a warm place.
Wildflower Activity, Making Pot Pourri Bags
What You’ll Need:
- Flowers
- An oven tray
- Grease proof paper
- Scissors
- An orange
- Fresh herbs
- Whole spices like cinnamon sticks and star anise(optional)
Directions:
- Gather your wildflowers flowers for making the potpourri. Any kind of flower will work, especially ones that already have strong smells, such as lavendar and roses, but we prefer delicate wild flowers.
- Preheat your oven to 200˚F.
- Cover a tray with greaseproof paper.
- Cut the flowers from the stems right under the flower where it joins the stem.
- Place the flowers on the tray, or you can remove individual petals and place them in a single layer on the paper.
- To add scent to your potpourri, cut and add thin slices of an orange, we use a mandolin to slice it really thinnly or tuck in springs of rosemary, or lavender.
- You can also add whole spices, such as cinnamon sticks, cloves, or star anise which are both pretty and wonderfully scented.
- Dry in the oven for at least two hours, or until the flowers are brittle but not burnt. When the potpourri is ready, remove from oven .
- You can drip over some essential oils while the flowers are warm if you want to add extra scent.
word of the day
Botany
Field of study
Botany, also called plant science
Plant science is the term given to a range of research and scientific studies that explore the estimated 410,000 species of land plant found on the earth. … As such, the potential to use plants as factories could be very valuable.
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