newsletter

Young gardeners club

Seedlings news letter for August 2000

Dear young gardener,

With the school holidays in full swing the GardenAdvice team will be publishing some great gardening projects for you and your friends to carry out over the summer every two-week from now until the end of September 2002. 

Worms – the hardest working gardeners in the worldWorking day and night worms help keep your garden soil in tip top condition. Their main job is to eat dead plants and leaves which helps incorporate them backing the soil. Whilst digging tunnels to move around under the soil which help with drainage and getting oxygen into the soil.

Studying them at home is easy by making a simple wormery at home in your garden. 

To make a Wormery

Using plastic drinks bottle with the top and the neck removed and some drainage holes make in the base. Fill it two thirds full using three layers of soil. The bottom layer being soil mixed with 50% sand, the middle layer being ordinary topsoil and the final layer soil mixed with 20% fresh leaves.

Finding Worms 

Worms are not too hard to find in the garden. First look for a shady spot of soil and with a small spade or border fork you should be able to find some worms. If the weather has been hot and dry a good tip is to water the area you are intending to look and leave it for a few hours, this encourages the worms to come to the nearer to the surface. Once you have 3 or 4 worms drop them into the top of the wormery, lightly water and cover them with a few garden leaves.

Activities to do with your wormery:

• Make a picture of the wormery once you have finished and see if it changes after a few weeks?
• Try feeding your worms by placing some fresh potato peelings on top of the wormery.
• Some people say they can call worms out of the soil using music. Play them a radio for a few hours and see what happens?
• After 8 to 10 weeks empty the wormery out and count the number of worms and look for eggs. Place the worms back into your garden to get on with the important work of improving your soil.

We would be interest to hear how you get on so do not forget to email us with your observations at wormproject@gardenadvice.co.uk

We need your help!

This year the GardenAdvice garden advisors have been inundated with requests for help from people having troubles with aphids such as green fly and black fly. We think that even though this year has had its wet period there has been a massive increase in aphids this year. You can help us find out is the aphids have increased by tell us what the aphid population is in your garden or your friends garden. For every member that helps us with this project we have arrange for them to receive a free mini gardening tool kit.
Click here for further information.

Gardening projects
This week we have launched two gardening projects for you to carry out at home. The first one is how to create monster pots using clay plant pots, acrylic paints and some grass seed. The second project shows you how to create a wildlife log pill in your garden to attract a number of different types of wildlife. 
Click here for further information.

Competitions

Remember to enter the competitions the young gardeners club is running at the moment. They include the sunflower project and prizes for the best entry.