Gardening | The Grass Stain Guru

Get Your Green Thumb On: Free Webinar

August 24, 2009

Hi all! I am doing a webinar that I would love to have you participate in. I’ll be chatting about gardening with kids over at KaBOOM!. The information about the session is below. Come get dirty with us!

Growing Great Kids: Gardening in Your Playspace

Date and Time: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 3:00 PM EDT, 2:00 PM CDT,

1:00 PM MDT, 12:00 PM PDT

Description: Kids and dirt are a natural fit! Adding a garden to an existing playspace or creating a garden as a stand alone project is great way to enhance the play options in your community, as well as teach children about gardening, nature, and nutrition. This webinar will highlight the benefits of gardening, tips and ideas for design options, and much more.

The webinar is FREE, so I hope you will join me. You will have the ability chat with me and ask questions. If you cannot make it at that time, the webinar will be available for free on demand, so you can watch it at your convenience.

Click here to register and join us!

If you are already registered for Growing Great Kids, click here a few minutes before the webcast.

Hope “to see” you there!

See ya outside! ~ The Grass Stain Guru

photo credit: SharkeyinColo

By Bethe | Posted in Blogger's Note, education, safety | Tagged education, gardening, kids, nutrition, outdoors, play, wildlife | Comments (13)

Buzzing About Bees

August 7, 2009

TGSG Note: As you probably know by now, I don’t just believe in playing outdoors, but also in being a good steward of the environment. I am so happy to share this post today and be part of #Tweehive, an international Twitter event to raise awareness about the plight of bees. And besides — bees are really incredible creatures! They get short-changed in the shadow of “sexier” critters like wolves and bald eagles. I say, viva bees! Frolic Friday will return next week (but don’t forget to go outside and play this weekend!) See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

When’s the last time you gave bees a thought? That’s right: BEES. Unless you are a gardener or entomologist, you probably don’t think much about them at all. Sure, we LOVE flowers — getting them for birthdays or Valentine’s Day. We like to have pots of flowers on our porches and see fields full of them when we drive down the highway. Or, how about honey? We love it in our tea or spread on toast, but how often do we think about all the work that went into making it?

Um, without bees – no flowers or honey. It’s pretty simple math, really.

Or how about food? Do you like eating? A fan of food? Scientists estimate that every 3rd bite of food we eat comes to use via animal pollination — or roughly 80% of crops (Source: Pollinator Partnership). Amazing, isn’t it?! So you see, bees play a big part of our daily rituals and happiness, not to mention feeding us, whether we think about it or not.

Bees, as it turns out, are vitally important to life. So, let’s get excited about helping them out! Like other pollinators, they are in peril, and we need to step up to the plate to protect them.

Here’s a few things you can do:

Plant a bee-friendly garden in your yard or community garden! Pollinator Partnership has a free downloadable plant guide (by zip code);
Get educated! Learn more about bees native to North America and why they need our help; and
Have some fun with the kids with these bee craft & song ideas from DLTK. You’ll have the kids buzzing in no time and help teach them that bees are not to be feared, but celebrated!

And remember, next time someone tells you you’re the bees knees, take it as the highest form of compliment! I know I will.

photo credit: glyn_nelson

By Bethe | Posted in News, nature | Tagged bees, conservation, crafts, gardening, kids, nature, outdoors, pollination, wildlife | Comments (12)

In the Garden: A Reader’s Play Memory

August 5, 2009

Like flowers, children bloom in the garden.

TGSG Note: It’s no secret that I am nuts about gardening with kids, and think that no childhood is complete without digging in the dirt and watching something grow. Today’s post is by Alison Kerr, a TGSG reader whose blog, Loving Nature’s Garden, I enjoy very much. Alison was nice enough to stop by and share one of her play memories with us. (I love hearing about people’s play memories!) Happy reading. See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

When I think about it, all my early memories of playing outside involve garden play. Perhaps that doesn’t sound surprising, but the scene is the garden of my grandparents, a garden I had access to less than once a week, rather than the garden I had access to every day. Herein lies a secret to engaging children in the outdoors and in nature, garden play.

My own garden had a path consisting of a strip of concrete paving stones. My grandparents’ garden had a graveled path which crunched underfoot. My own garden had a strip of bare soil where alyssum and pansies struggled and failed to impress me. My grandparents’ garden had towering trees with berries, a hedgerow housing birds, nests, eggs and baby birds, crowded potatoes and carrots, and rhubarb to pick for pie-making. In my garden washing (laundry) hung out of reach. The sweet-smelling sheets and towels in my grandparents’ garden formed a maze, a castle, a perfect place for hide-and-seek.

By the time I was six years old I was more interested in the wonderful pretend play adventures invented by my older sister than in exploring everything in my grandparents’ garden. But by that time nature and gardening had already entered my soul. Every single day of my life I enjoy the antics of birds, marvel over little creepy crawly things, and rejoice over how seeds grow into plants which become food.

My love of the outdoors started in a garden. What about yours? Is there a garden in your life?

Guest Blogger Bio: Alison Kerr is a writer who is passionate about the Earth, nature, gardening, good food, and her family. You can read Alison’s work on Loving Nature’s Garden and follow her on Twitter @AlisonKerr.

photo credit: ms.Tea