This Weeks Top Christmas Present Ideas

There are some lovely Christmas present ideas now available at Recycleworks , and our choices this week are all priced at £25 or less.  So avoid the time and expense of driving into town and buy your gifts from home!

These lovely Ladies Gardening Gloves are practical and very comfortable – available in size medium, I have average sized hands and they are a perfect fit for me.  Made from cotton and latex they are supple enough to allow the gardener to do the most tricky of jobs whilst wearing them.  At only £5.99 my mum will be getting a pair of these in her christmas stocking.

And for children there are these lovely embroidered gloves.  Priced at just £7.80 they are both colourful and practical for the budding young gardener.

The Willow Trug & Accessories  is a charming gift set and contains scissors, gloves, twines, raffia, dibber and labels.!  Priced at £21 it’s a great gift for any child who loves gardening.

 

These Willow Herb and Salad Planters look very attractive anywhere and will provide a constant supply of herb and salad crops.  The Herb planter is £15.95 and the larger salad planter is £22.95.  Also suitable for bulbs they will be useful and lovely to look at throughout the seasons.

Lastest Competition News

There’s now around 6 weeks left before the close of our latest Family Zone Competition & School Zone Competition, which both end on 18th December.

If you haven’t thought about entering yet, there’s still time and as always there are some great prizes up for grabs.

For Schools ….

The School Zone winner will receive over £150 worth of gardening equipment for spring, including a wooden cold frame, a salad / herb bed, a raised bed and a potato growing kit, all from The Recycleworks Ltd.

Plus all entrants will receive 10% off their next order from them.

Top Quality Cold Frames from www.recycleworks.co.uk

For school entrants we are looking for the best Indoor Grow Your Own project carried out in the Autumn term. If crops aren’t ready to harvest when the competition comes to a close, don’t worry just send your entry with news of where the project is up to so far. Include a written description in no more than 500 words, plus photographs of your project.

Full details on how to enter can be found here.

For Families …

The Family Zone winner will receive over £100 of gardening equipment ready for spring, including a wooden cold frame, a salad / herb bed and a potato growing kit, all from The Recycleworks Ltd. Plus all entrants will receive 10% off their next order from them.

This Salubrious Salad bed is perfect for growing winter greens and herbs by the back door.

So tell us about a growing project that you have carried out this Autumn. It could involve planting a tree or several, setting bulbs ready for spring, or growing some winter vegetables. The project can be carried out indoors or outside, which ever you prefer.

In no more than 500 words tell us all about what you did. Take pictures, make drawings and make your entry as colourful as you like.

Full details on how to enter can be found here.

Good luck with your entry!

Bonfire Night Celebrations – Our Favorite Ideas

Bonfire Night is a traditional celebration in memory of Guy Fawkes, who on this day in 1605, was discovered attempting to blow up the houses of parliament. 

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason & plot
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

The traditional burning of a great bonfire at this time, probably goes back much further than that to the Celtic Samhain or summers end, when there were harvesting celebrations, animals were brought in from the summer pastures and food was stored in preparation for the heralding of winter.

Don’t forget Garden Wildlife on Bonfire Night

With all the excitement of bonfire night don’t forget about the wildlife in your garden.  Make sure the bonfire isn’t set up too far in advance, as hedgehogs and other small mammals will be looking for somewhere to hibernate at this time, and may find a pile of leaves and wood enticing.  Why not provide hedgehogs with an alternative home like one of these Hogitats? 

Place fireworks away from trees and hedges where birds may be roosting…. And when bonfire night is over, remember that now is an excellent time start feeding garden birds.  We love this range of Bird Feeding Goodies so why not take a look.

Birds and bats will also be looking for warm places to roost as the weather gets colder.  The Wooden Bat Box is perfectly designed for this and the Bird Nesting Pouch is always popular in our garden as an overnight roosting place at this time of year.

If you decide to tidy up the garden before your bonfire night party, leaves and other garden waste can be collected up in super quick time with the Green Hands Leaf Collectors.  And if you don’t know what to do with all those leaves once you have them in a pile why not put them in a Leaf Composting Sack or Leaf Mould Compost Bin.  With the helping hand of some Compost Magic they will break down nicely into a lovely rich leaf compost.

Activities for Bonfire Night

Make A Story Stick
People have been telling stories around the campfire since ancient times, and story sticks have perhaps been around for that long.

To make a story stick, find a sturdy stick and decorate it with coloured thread, ribbons or streamers.   Pass the story stick around the campfire.  Whoever holds the stick has a turn to speak and so adds a few sentences to the campfire story…In this way an interesting and original tale unfolds.

Make a Guy

A very traditional and endlessly appealing activity for children, make a guy by stuffing old clothes with straw and tying the ensemble together with string.  Make a head from an old pillowcase and paint on a makeshift face.

Make a Bonfire Picture

Tear up thin strips of orange, red and yellow tissue paper and stick onto black card to make a bonfire.  Use brown paper or pipe cleaners for the wood, and put star shaped stickers or sequins in the sky.  

Make Edible Sparklers

Dip chocolate fingers into warm water and then into hundreds and thousands to make your very own edible sparklers

Ask an Adult to Roast some Food

An activity for adults only, take a selection of food, wrap in foil and roast on the burning embers of the bonfire.  Ideas of suitable food include:

• Pre steamed corn on the cob with butter
• Mushrooms brushed with olive oil
• Garlic bread
• Chunks of pepper and aubergine
• Pre-cooked potatoes in garlic butter

Make some Children’s Punch

Take some warm apple juice and sprinkle in cinnamon for a warming drink

Make some Bonfire Toffee

You will need:

1 lb demerara sugar
1/3 pint water
1 ¼  oz butter
2 level tablespoons of golden syrup
1 teaspoon vinegar

Method

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan
Dissolve over a steady heat
Slowly bring to the boil and cook slowly
Drop ½ teaspoon of the mixture into a cup of cold water
If it sets hard it is done, if not cook for a little longer
Pour into an oiled or buttered tin
Break up when set

Make some Toffee Apples

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter with 2 large tablespoons of golden syrup
Add 1 large tablespoon of sugar and the juice of half a lemon
Allow the ingredients to boil to a deep toffee brown
Insert lollipop sticks into the apples
Dip each apple into the toffee mix
Dip into cold water
Place onto greaseproof paper to set

Make some Traditional Lancashire Parkin

You will need:

6 oz plain flour
1 teaspoon each of salt, ground ginger and ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
10 oz oatmeal
6 oz black treacle
5 oz butter
4 oz dark brown sugar
¾ pint milk
1 egg

Sift together flour, salt, spices and soda
Add oatmeal and mix
Heat the treacle, butter, sugar and milk together until the butter has melted
Cool slight, add the egg and beat well
Poor mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well until smooth
Turn into a greased baking tin
Bake at 175 C for around an hour

London’s Burning, London’s Burning
Fetch the engine, fetch the engine
Fire, Fire!  Fire, Fire!
Pour on water, pour on water

 
Remember to always stay safe on Bonfire Night.  Check advice from the fire service here. 

Happy Bonfire Night

Our Activity Ideas For Brownies

We have a number of Brownie Groups regularly visiting Gardening With Children and one recently contacted us for information.  So over the next few weeks we will be giving lots of great ideas for ways to help the environment and you might be able to win one or two of your Brownie Badges along the way.   

Do Your Bit for the Environment – Start RecyclingIn the UK over 25 million tonnes of waste goes to landfill each year, and we have enough landfill sites to fill an area the size of Warwickshire.  That’s a scary thought.  So recycling is so important, and where better to start than in your own home!

It’s great to see that the Brownies take recycling seriously to.  If you’re in a Brownie group why not start recycling cans, glass, plastics, paper and card at home and you could win your Environment Badge.

Wash out used cans and bottles.  To save space crush your cans in one of these handy Can Crushers, separate the recyclable material into a Set of Recycling Bins , and when you have enough leave out for collection or take to your local Waste Collection Centre.  And for a fabulous guide to recycling, take a look at the  Refuse Collectors & Recyclers DVD .  Suitable for children aged between 3 and 8 years, it includes practical advice on recycling along with a fun education section, with imaginative ideas for role-playing, singing and games.

Carry out an Autumn StudyWhy not have a go at getting your Seasons badge by doing an autumn study.Know which fruits and vegetables are available in the autumn. Make something to eat using one of them, like blackberry pie or toffee apples, to share with your Six.Make a scrapbook or poster about animals that hibernate in this country and around the world. You can use photos and drawings as well as information.With an adult you know, spend time looking at the stars and point out at least two constellations.

Use fallen natural objects, like conkers, acorns or leaves, to make a collage or decoration.

Grow Your Own & Win Your Gardening Badge

To win your gardening badge you will need to grow four kinds of fruits, vegetables, herbs or annual flowers from seed or bulb. Transplant the seedlings then tend and train them as necessary.  Then use what you have grown in a recipe at home. 

Why not use these great Willow Herb Planters to grow your seeds?  For growing bigger quantities of herbs, salad crops and bulbs there is the larger Willow Salad Planter or these Wooden Salubrious Salad Beds are brilliant for putting just outside the kitchen door.  Made from FSC wood they are easy to assemble and are treated with non-toxic preservative… And for growing on a larger scale there is a fantastic selection of Raised Beds to choose from.

And for a fabulous selection of children’s gardening tools for the job take a look at the Apprentice Range from the Recycleworks Ltd.

 

 

The Recycleworks Ltd - For all your gardening needs

For more information about Brownies check out the Girl Guiding Website here.

 

Autumn Gardening – Setting A Raised Bed of Strawberries

Now is the perfect time to set a bed of strawberries and there is no better way than to use a Raised Bed….And by planting now you will have a fabulous crop in time for next summer.

Strawberries do best in well-drained, fertile, warm soil.  If the soil is heavy, cold and with poor drainage it will have a drastic impact on success.  But by using a Raised Bed from the Recycleworks Ltd, you will be able to give them the optimum conditions they need… And the raised bed will also provide some protection from slugs.

Which Variety?

There is an overwhelming choice out there, here are some of our favourites.

Alice  The perfect choice if you only have room for one variety, as it is trouble free and easy to pick.  One of the best mid season varieties as it combines a sweet flavour and juicy texture with excellent disease resistance.  Flowers in May and fruits from June until early July

 

Cambridge Favourite  If you love picking your own strawberries for eating or making jam, this is a well loved favourite.  It produces a bumper crop of juicy orange red fruits of excellent flavour.  Ready to pick from June to early July

 

Flamenco  This strawberry produces excellent quality sweet and juicy fruits over a long picking period.  A very versatile variety suitable for growing the traditional way in the garden, as well as making it the perfect variety for container growing, as it will transform your patio into a very productive fruit garden.

 

 

You Will Need:

• A Raised Bed
• Some strawberry plants
• A garden fork, hand trowel and rake
• A watering can

What to do

1. Assemble your raised bed in a sunny, sheltered position if possible.  The raised beds from Recycleworks Ltd are ideal, and so easy to assemble with no screws, no nails and no holes to dig
2. Fill with a good quality compost
3. Set the strawberry plants allowing around 40cm between the plants
4. Ensure the roots are well covered with soil
5. Water each plant

It is also important to think about protection for the growing plants.  During the winter you may want to protect from frost with fleece, and when the fruits begin to develop next summer there is the all important netting to think about.  These hoops have been specially designed to fit into the Recycleworks raised beds and provide an easy way to fit crop protection.

Enjoy Wild Food From the Hedgerow

Gathering wild food can be so much fun… and hedgerows have lots to offer.  We will be giving you plenty of ideas of what’s there to be found throughout the year. 

This week we are focusing on Sloe Berries.

Traditionally used in gin here are a couple of non-alcohlic ideas of things you can do with the humble sloe!

Making Spiced Sloe Jelly

1. Collect around 5 lb of sloes
2. Cover with water
3. Add 2 cinnamin sticks and about 20 cloves
4. Simmer until tender
5. Tip into muslin and allow juices to drip through but don’t squeeze
6. Add 1lb sugar to 1 pint of juice approximaitely
7. Add 1/2 pint malt vinegar
8. Boil until mixture begins to thicken
9. On a cool teaspoon take a sample of the mixture and see if it begins to set as it cools
10. When it does pour the mixture into storage jars and seal
11. This is excellent with steak and kidney pudding, game and venison. 

Making Sloe & Apple Jelly

This recipe was kindly sent in byFrederica – so many thanks and we hope you enjoy it.

• Cook until soft equal amounts of sloes that have been pricked with a bodkin, roughly chopped windfalls or crab apples and enough water to cover
• Tip the mixture into muslin and leave the contents to drip into a container but do not squeeze
• Combine the juice with sugar at a ratio of 1 pint of juice to 1 lb of sugar
• Cook until set

When collecting berries don’t forget this handy Berry Picker.  It helps in the battle against thorns and speeds up the picking as well!

Gift Ideas For Christmas – Beautiful Bulbs For Spring

We are busy thinking about Christmas 2009 and spring time 201o, and it’s all fast approaching.

Everyone wants to spend the Christmas money wisely without wasting it on gifts that aren’t 100% appreciated.   And the almost fail safe option for all ages has to be flowering bulbs.

Buy now to flower at Christmas, for example the pots of Amaryllis, Merry Christmas or Amaryllis Snow White. These fine quality bulbs are guaranteed to please. They will flower with many flower heads and will flower again for many Christmases to come so your gift could last for many years.

Amaryllis Merry Christmas available from www.recycleworks.co.uk

Or you can choose the small pots of 5 or 6 small bulbs with their own biodegradable pot and compost.  Crocus Bulb Kit Rememberance and  the Narcissus Bulb Kit Tete a Tete, both well under £10.00. Also under £10.00 the Hyacinth water culture kit.   Who cannot fail to melt under the spell of a Hyacinth?   Bulbs are perfectly simple to plant now in Pots and Planters to flower as the days get longer again. Try a mixture of Blue and Yellow Crocus or a mixture of Tulips Ali Baba and Mickey Mouse or a mixture of Red Riding Hood and Pinocchio Tulips.

Tulip Ali Baba available from www.recycleworks.co.uk

…And please remember all bulb orders must be received at Recycleworks Ltd by 31st October.

Halloween Activities For Children – Our Favourite Ideas

We were recently contacted by Kath from the Peel Kids Gardening Club, and she asked for some ideas for activities with a Halloween theme. 

We have put together our Favourite Spooky Halloween Ideas  in this fact sheet so do take a look .  Packed full of easy to do activities there’s a Yummy Recipe for Pumpkin Soup, a Make Your Own Jack -O-Lantern craft activity, Grow Your Own Spook, and all you need to know about making your very own Ghostly Scarecrow.

Hope you all have fun this Halloween!

Our Top Tips For Creating A Wildlife Garden

We received an enquiry recently from Rona in Peterborough.  She asked:

I have been asked to take on the Reception class garden.  Part of it is designated as the wildlife area.  There is a buddlea bush but otherwise it is just grass.  What can we do to make it a bit more wild and diverse?

My advice would be applicable for anyone wanting to increase the wildlife interest in their garden…so hope you find it useful.

1                    Provide Plants for Shelter & Food

If you are just setting up your garden, or if you have a garden that is very open with perhaps just a lawn and fence, consider introducing some wildlife friendly plants.

Sorbus, Berberis and Pyracantha all have berries which are a good source of food for birds.

In Spring sow raised beds with Flower Meadow Seeds .  These will give beautiful colour in the summer months and will also provide important nectar for butterflies.  During April consider sowing flowers such as Honesty.  This plant will appear year after year and is great early nectar for butterflies.

Raised beds from www.recycleworks.co.uk

The native climber Old Mans Beard (clematis vitalba) can be planted at the base of a hedge or fence, and is good for bees, butterflies and moths.

For container gardening consider Marguerite plants in the summer months as they look so pretty but also attract butterflies and moths.

Lavender bushes provide nectar for bees and butterflies and seeds for birds when the flowers die back.

Other container plants to consider for their wildlife benefits include Sedum Spectabile (Ice Plant), Skimmia Japonica and Mexican Orange Blossom.

If you have the space, every garden benefits from having a few trees or large bushes.  Consider Field Maple which will attract bees, moth caterpillars and hoverflies, and Laurel for shelter for birds, bees and hoverflies.

2                    Provide Food for Birds

To encourage birds to your garden, provide a supply of food, particularly during the winter months.  Seeds, peanuts, bread crumbs, chunks of cheese and windfall apples are all good sources of food.  The bird bistro feeders are an excellent source of seeds for blue tits and finches and attach easily to a fence.

When providing food, think about attracting a variety of bird species.  Putting food on the floor will encourage ground feeders such as blackbirds, thrushes, dunnocks and wrens.  Hanging feeders of nuts and seeds will encourage finches and tits.  The apple bird feeder is handy for those windfall or half eaten apples that the children have left, and fruit is an excellent bird food.

Food on a bird table will be popular with robins, sparrows, doves and pigeons.

Also don’t forget that birds also need a clean supply of water all year round and a bird bath is ideal.

For bird lovers the Gift Bird Feeder is a great present.  Included are sunflower seeds, a fabulous flower bed feeder and wool spiral.

The perfect gift for Bird Lovers

Remember not to overfeed the birds though, as food left to go rotten will attract vermin, and harbour disease.  So clean away excess food regularly with a Bird Table Cleaner and replace water each day.

 

3                    Provide Nesting Pouches

Nesting pouches are useful for birds all year round.  Not only will birds use them for breeding in the spring and summer months, these are also excellent places for providing winter shelter.  At the end of the summer clean out bird boxes and nesting pouches ready for winter use. 

And to encourage bats to roost in your garden these Wooden Bat Boxes are designed to meet their needs perfectly.

Wooden Bat Box Specially Designed to Encourage Bats to Roost

4                    Provide Habitat for Mammals and Insects

Wildlife will thrive better in gardens where there are areas left to go a little wild.  Leaf, twig and log piles are great refuges for insects and mammals, and also provide habitats for hibernation.  So it’s a good idea to put piles in corners and quiet parts of the garden.

Crevices in rotting wood are great places for ladybirds and creepy crawlies to hide, and the Ladybird and Insect Tower is specially designed for this.  Rotten tree stumps are also a favourite with woodpeckers, who delve into the wood with their beaks to find tasty grubs.

The hogitat is specially designed as a natural home and safe retreat for hedgehogs. 

Hogitat - A perfect house for hedgehogs

The Solitary Bee Hive and Butterfly Feeding Station are perfect for increasing the diversity of insects visiting the garden, and Insect Study Centre and Solar Insect Theatre make studying insects at close quarters easy and fascinating in equal measure!

 

5                    Sit Back & Enjoy!

After all the hard work of setting up your wildlife garden, it is so enjoyable to sit back and watch as things begin to happen.  You will be amazed at how quickly birds, mammals and insects begin to investigate the new surroundings and set up home, and it is fascinating for both adults and children alike to watch as this magical process unfolds.

This fabulous selection of Wildlife Guides makes identifying your garden wildlife so much easier.  And if you want to observe and record all the action at close quarters this Wildlife Surveillance Camera will provide great footage for classroom sessions.

           

One Hundred Spring Bulbs for a Spectacular Display

Each week we have been finding our favourite bulbs, and this week it’s the turn of  this fabulous Spring Bulb Collection from Recycle Works Ltd. 

It comprises 10 bulbs from each of the following varieties and they are ideal for growing in Traditional Raised Beds:

• Puschkinia Libanotica
• Chionodoxa Luciliae
• Anemone de Caen
• Galanthus Nivalis (Single Snowdrops)
• Anemone Blanda Mixed
• Dutch Crocus Blue
• Muscari Armeniacum
• Narcissus Tete a Tete
• Tulip Red (Mme Lefeber)
• Species Crocus Mixed

The 100 bulbs when planted out will take up an area of 1m x 2.5m and can be planted along with the Instant Meadows to give bring colour to your garden throughout spring and summer.

Instant Meadows Available to sow as Seeds

The plants will continue to produce new bulbs each year making the following years display even more impressive.