Using Metal Plant Stands in the Garden

Metal plant stands with tiers are used for a variety of purposes. Most often, these stands hold flowers or other plants that have been planted in some type of container. The stands can be used as decorative elements in a flower garden or as part of an herb or vegetable garden.

Choose sturdy plant stands, and look for stands that will match other elements of your garden, such as the furniture placed within the area. These can will bring some of your plants up off the ground, creating height variations within the garden.

Seedling Growth

Use the tiered stand to allow seedlings to grow, while freeing up the space where the seeds were started within the home. Bring the seedlings outside and place them on the tiers of a long rectangular stand. Cut the bottoms off from plastic milk jugs, and place the tops over the planters after the seedlings have been watered. Transplant these into the ground once the soil is warm enough.

Growing Berries

Grow berries on a circular, two-tiered plant stand. Place strawberries in one pot, and blueberries in another. Keep these pruned so they don’t grow too far out of the planters, but allow them to creep over the sides a little. Switch them up sometimes, changing what plant is on the top tier, and turn the pots so that all sides of each plant get light directly from the sun.

A Salad Garden

A three-tiered, rectangular plant stand a few feet wide will hold a complete salad garden. Place a potted tomato plant on the top tier, as well as a cucumber one. Plant herbs for your salads in a long rectangular shaped planter. Choose herbs such as chives and parsley. Put a long planter filled with lettuces and spinach on the third tier. Be sure the lettuces chosen are of the loose-leaf variety.

Pick the fruits of the tomatoes and cucumbers throughout the harvest season, and tear the leaves off the spinach and lettuces as needed. Snip parsley and chives to add to the salads, and remember that the blossoms on the chives are also edible.

An Herb Garden

Purchase a plant stand that folds out, creating steps of a sort. Place a planter of herbs on each step, or more than one planter on each if the shelves are wide enough, creating a tiered herb garden. Use herbs such as sage, rosemary, and dill. Try chamomile and lavender as well. Snip the herbs when needed for different recipes.

Tip

• When a plant stand used inside is no longer needed, place it outside on a deck or in the garden area.

~ Shannon

Outdoor Spring Activities to Enjoy with Children

Being outside is great for the entire family. The fresh air, the extra activity, and the chance to explore, are important for everyone. Watching children flourish while being outside is a heart-warming experience for parents and other caregivers. And sharing the experiences of enjoying fun activities together aids in building strong bonds.

Enjoy A Nature Walk

A morning or evening walk is a great way for everyone to stretch their legs.  Point out things you notice are happening around you and talk with your children about them. Notice animals and birds, and listen to nature sounds for a few minutes.

Give each child a pencil and a journal to record their findings, stopping at least once during the walk to allow them to add entries to it. Have them date each new entry, and maybe add the location, so they can look back over things later.

Enjoy A Picnic Together

Children have so much fun in the kitchen, so let them help to prepare the food for a picnic in the park, or out in the yard. They can make simple sandwiches, place precut vegetables into baggies, and fill water bottles.

Picnics are a great time for chit-chat, and then for some play. Bring a Frisbee, or baseball gloves and a ball to toss back and forth.

Begin A Compost Pile

A good way to teach children how not to be wasteful is by starting and caring for a compost bin. They will also learn about other important things while doing this.

Decide where you want the pile, and have the children spread some straw or dried leaves over the area. Let them shovel a few bags of soil over this dry matter, while explaining the types of waste that will be composted. Have a bucket or two of food scraps ready to be added as well.

Use a long stick or broom handle to show them how to mix the food into the soil, and explain that this action adds oxygen to the soil and will help the compost to break down more quickly.

After each meal, one child can take a bucket of scraps out to the pile and mix it in with the existing soil. By autumn or the next spring, you will be able to use the compost in a garden.

Plant A Garden

Gardening in the spring is a good way to get back into the routine of exercise after having been cooped up over the winter, for children and adults.

Place a raised bed where you want a garden located, and allow the children to help you fill it with organic soil, perhaps from a compost pile. Help them to even the soil out when they are done, while explaining how they will be planting vegetables for use when preparing meals later in the year.

Use seedlings that were started from organic seeds, demonstrating to the children how to plant them properly and showing them how to space the seedlings correctly so the plants will have room to grow.