2 Easy Gardening Projects For Children

Let's be all inclusive - you don't need a child to try out these fun experiments. Maybe you don't have any gardening space at all but want to see something living in your home. It is such a buzz when a seed germinates and these tidy projects will let even the smallest of kitchens become a garden.

1. Bean Seeds in a Bag

You need:
A little clear plastic sandwich bag
A bean seed or two
Compost to fill the bottom three inches of the bag
Water
Sticky tape




You do:
Punch a few little holes in the base of the sandwich bag
Wet the soil in the bag until it is nicely moist but not soaking
Plant the bean seed[s] about a inch below the surface of the compost
Tape the bag to a sunny window




You see:
Bean seeds are quick to germinate and very visual so if you check the bag every day, you will soon see the seed starting to grow roots, loosing its jacket, sending up a shoot and growing leaves
When the seed has germinated and has grown two true leaves (the first two leaves you see are the "seed leaves", wait until another two are grown), transfer it to a pot of compost and keep the soil moist. Finally move to the ground or a large pot when the plant is about 3 inches high.

2. Gardening in a Glove

You need:
A clear plastic glove
5 cotton balls
[Ideally] 5 varieties of seed - I'd suggest bean, basil, radish, carrot, spinach but almost anything will work
Water
Sticky tape




You do:
Wet the cotton balls and put one in each finger of the glove (hold the glove upside down by the wrist)
Place a seed in each cotton ball - for large seeds like beans use just one, but for small seeds sprinkle a few.
Write the variety of seed on each finger
Blow into the bag to fill with air and tie the top of the glove
Tape to a sunny window sill




You see:
The seeds will [hopefully] germinate, and all at different rates. You'll learn which types of vegetables grow faster and how different they look at each stage
Make it fun by asking your children to predict which seedlings will emerge first.

Outdoor Activities for Toddlers in and around Carrigaline

Toddlerhood is a fabulous time for exploring the world with your child. They are so excited and enthusiastic about the smallest detail - a plane in the sky or water flowing from a pipe. It's also a challenging time to be outside of the house as it is so difficult to give them the freedom they desire while keeping them safe. Structured play centres including playgrounds and indoor fun houses, although ideal in theory, are sometimes not so suitable for the younger toddler. Or maybe just my toddler who is more interested in fire escapes, hydrants, opening doors and running for the hills than playing with swings and ball ponds. Here are some of the things we like to do in Carrigaline and the surrounding areas. All are free of charge and outdoor.

1. Fountainstown Beach at Low Tide

I usually park in the car park and walk to the furthest end of the beach by road with small man in the buggy. He's only just two years old so is still happy to be wheeled around, thankfully. The front strand is quite rocky so I find the far side of the beach to be much more child-friendly as there is a huge stretch of flat sand with shallow pools of water. Here they can have a really good run and splash around without going near the actual sea. Obviously fine weather is the optimum time for this but I am thinking about buying some neoprene waders so he can splash through water in all weather without a chance of getting soaked through.

2. Monkstown Wall and Playground

Another buggy walk, Monkstown Wall provides plenty to see from marine birds, wind turbines, speed boats, anglers, dog walkers, and my son is particularly fond of a pipe on the opposite side of the road that gushes out water coming from a stream. If you bring some food, there are plenty benches with a scenic view for some al fresco dining. For a run-around, there is a small playground opposite The Monkstown Inn on Glen Road. Although in excellent condition, it is not a great playground for very young children - there is no baby swing which is surprising - but it is well enclosed and there is a stream running alongside it (at the other side of the railings) which should interest a toddler.

3. Near the Ferry Terminal at Ringaskiddy

A popular loop walk starts from a small public car park by the ferry terminal entrance. It is not really suitable for a buggy as the path gets quite narrow and stony in places but is ideal for a sling or a toddler you can trust to walk safely alongside you. There are meandering paths through brambles with some open spaces but some of the path runs right next to the water. The view of Cork Harbour is spectacular. It is an unbelievable place for spotting rabbits - they are everywhere but watch out for the holes in the ground as some of them are quite large. A toddler running around excitedly could easily let their foot slip through. They wouldn't fall in or anything but I'd be worried about breaking or spraining an ankle. It is also a wonderful place for blackberry picking and if you are carrying your toddler on your back, you can do the picking and hand them berries over your shoulder while you walk around. Pure bliss.

There is a playground in Ringaskiddy village.

4. Camden, Crosshaven

The area around the fort is a lovely area for a walk, blackberry picking and watching huge cruise liners coming into Cobh. The views are unbelievable. I'm not a swimmer but gazing at the sea on a calm day makes me dream of leaping from a diving board in the sky and plunging into the shimmering, cool aquamarine expanse. It's lovely to see random people gather just to enjoy the scene in front of them. If you walk up beyond the car park, there is a football pitch that, if empty, is a great place to let your little one have a run around. There are great views from here also. And of course you can visit the fort but it currently only opens during the summer weekends.

There is a great playground in Crosshaven village.

5. Weaver's Point, Crosshaven

When you approach the roundabout in Crosshaven, coming from Carrigaline, take the third exit which leads you up past the graveyard. This road will take you to Weaver's Point, a road of amazing houses with extraordinary views. There is a viewing point where you can park and from here there are a few little paths that will take you down to a walk that runs along the side of a grassy cliff (I use the term "cliff" loosely - although it is steep in a few places). This is a perfect walk for sling wearers. The views make you feel like you are holidaying on an exotic island (I suppose Ireland is an exotic island for a lot of people) and you can eventually descend onto a little beach. At places the path opens out into big grassy flats that allow you to really immerse yourself in your surroundings and give older, responsible children a place to run around.

6. Carrigaline-Crosshaven Railway Walk

This is a mostly off-road linear walk and cycle path that runs along the water. It's 5km in length and is an extremely easy and pleasant walk. The car park nearest to Carrigaline town is often serviced by Lulus, a bright pink van serving drinks and treats with plenty seating. The coffee is amazing and the cake slices are moist and generous. Along the walk, at this time of year, you'll find blackberries, sloes, elderberries and hawthorn berries. The walk is dotted with benches for you to sit back and enjoy your surroundings. If you have a bicycle with a child carrier, this is a great safe cycle for you. At the end of the walk, on the Crosshaven side, is Hasset's restaurant which serves great food in a beautiful building.

7. Carrigaline Library Not outdoors I know, but I had to mention it.

The library is located near Dunnes Stores and is a wonderful relaxed place to spend an hour. They have a nicely sized children's section with plenty of seating and a great selection of books. It may stir a bit of nostalgia in you when you see old favourites such as Stone Soup and The Goose Girl. They do story time on a Friday at 3pm and a children's book club on the first Wednesday of every month at 3.30pm. From there you can take a walk up to...

8. Carrigaline Park and Playground

The large duck pond is a banker when it comes to amusing toddlers. Nothing funnier than being circled by a volery of ducks, seagulls and crows as you share a snack on the bench. If you're into rat spotting, which always excites me, the banks of the pond are a good place to see some rodents scurrying around. Beyond the ducks and rats, you can walk along the Owenabue river, preferably not at low tide so you're not "looking at shit" as my other half would say. Down here you can pick blackberries at this time of year and walk back on the other side of the pond. The park is dotted with public gym equipment for adults and has a large playground divided in to two - for older and younger children. Of course my escapee gives about five minutes exploring the play things until he makes a run for the exit but in general it's a pretty good playground.



Hopefully I've given you a few places to explore. Enjoy!

Community Spirit and Buying Local

I've been thinking a lot about "community" the last few years - the almost unseen efforts made by ordinary people to keep a town or village alive. Suddenly I realise those pretty flowers in the middle of the roundabout didn't grow wild, those educational talks didn't organise themselves and that farmer's market didn't appear out of thin air. Did you ever wish a certain group or class was operational in your area without realising that maybe you should be the person to make it happen? Many of us are now living away from our family and the friends we grew up with. We have to create our own community support, and this can be difficult. A mutual hobby is an almost effortless way to meet like minded people. I've always held the belief that a single hobby goes a long way to enriching a life. It gives you something to feel useful about, something to talk about and something you can teach others about. Overall, it can give you confidence and that spills over into other aspects of your life.


How can you find out what is happening in your area?

Think small. The library is a good place to start, the local area/church newsletter or the noticeboard in the local supermarket. An internet search probably won't be the most effective way but maybe your town or village has a Facebook page that keeps up to date with local goings-on. The amount of [often free] interesting events organised might surprise you.

What prompted this post? Well I was in my local library recently and the librarian, on seeing that I had checked out a book on healing gardens, gave me a flyer for an upcoming talk in a local hall. The event was organised the GIY fraction in Passage/GlenwoodMonkstown and the speaker was Madeline McKeever of Brown Envelope Seeds, an organic seed producing company that operates out of Turk Head, near Skibbereen. The subject was seed saving - something I have started experimenting with. It couldn't have come at a better time for me. Having a young nursing toddler I am happily limited in my socialising. If given the choice, I'd much rather meet people at something interesting and educational and be home before ten! There was a great turnout of at least 50 people, much more than expected, we donated a few euro each, got tea and cake and were able to buy locally produced seeds after hearing from the grower herself about her history and methods.

It's one thing going to your local garden centre or co-op and buying a bunch of seeds - the choice is overwhelming and the prices can be cheap - but to listen to someone speak about how they choose, grow, nurture, harvest and clean the seed in your local environment is far more inspiring to be a part of. It makes sense that the seed should thrive in your back garden as it was reared in the same conditions. I'll let you know in a few months!

So what did I buy? Firstly I bought two varieties of cherry tomato - Sungold Select and Black Cherry. Since I am still obsessed with beetroot, I had to expand beyond the comfort of the popular Bolthardy and bought a pretty breed called Chioggia which is pink skinned with pink and white flesh in a concentric circle design. Lastly, I looked ahead to the winter months and bought seeds for a salad leaf that any reader of Joy Larkcom will be familiar with - Winter Purslane. By all accounts it grows like a weed and is frost hardy, making it sound like an ideal source of vitamin C. Putting them into my seed box and seeing all the cheap multi packs of seeds I've bought over the years made me slightly wish I was starting off again so I could buy local as much as possible. I'd buy less but hopefully increase the quality of my seeds.

If you want to start buying Irish produced seeds, check out Brown Envelope Seeds and Irish Seedsavers. If you know of any others, let me know!

Simplicity is Freedom

It's the dilemma of modern families across Ireland - how to balance work and family life in a way that you can meet your expenses and the needs of your children. Tradition suggests that a couple should marry, buy a house and have children, in that particular order. Unfortunately, for many, that now translates to being tied to a job to pay for an expensive house in a location that no longer suits your new lifestyle as parents. And if you are not committed to a mortgage, do you choose where to live because you can get a higher paid job, more amenities, shorter commute, cheaper area? How can a family thrive if both parents have to work five days or more a week? Less time means you make bad decisions - fast food, buying things you could make, looking for the quick solution, compensating for time lost with your children by lavishly spending money on them. Then there is the guilt and emotional strain.

The massive personal choice that the developed world offers to us brings freedom and potential for happiness but also so much complication and stress to our lives. We have so much available to us but is it really making our lives better? I hear so much negativity around me every day, so much illness and stress. Even though the choice I'm making is a good one, is it the best one? Have you ever spent hours online comparing products and agonising over them? Each one looks good, but which one is the best!? By the time you've finished, you've forgotten what the first one was like. It's not our fault, we are part of a bigger machine. The machine of society that we design. The chicken and the egg situation?

Rather than work a full week to have more disposable income, I would champion less work, less money and more time. I believe that no person, no matter what your situation, should work a 40+ hour week. Part time work for every one means that no person should be without a job, and all the work will still get done. It would cut down traffic, work related stress, sick days.

If only it was that simple... I realise that everything would have to change, cost of products and services, the way businesses are run....

But still, my dream is a three day week for workers everywhere!

Frugal Yet Thoughtful Christmas Gifts

Christmas is about the joyous act of giving and receiving and if you are like me, every year you pour over a list of names trying to dream up the perfect present for everyone. I'm not always frugal; I do like to treat some people but there has to be a balance to make this possible. Here are some gift ideas that won't cost a lot but are a bit better than a Christmas decoration made from an empty toilet roll.

1. Family Movie Night Gift Pack

This one is great for taking care of extended family members with children who you would like to/feel you have to give a present to but don't know them well enough to give individual gifts. It also costs very little.

Put together a pack with a few fail proof DVDs (I recommend Studio Ghibli's beautiful cartoon movies for families with children) or a voucher for the local video store or, in the modern way, a flash drive with some movie files on it. Include a packet of popcorn and other treats.

2. Books

Unless you are buying a well thumbed school book, the quality of second hand books can be fantastic. If you have children of your own, a fun way to encourage reading, as well as creating some suspense, is to follow an advent style way of giving a different book for the twenty five days of December leading up to Christmas day.

3. Pre-made cookie/cake dry mixes in a jar

You've probably seen many beautiful photos of this idea online. The basic premise is to layer the dry ingredients of a chosen recipe in a jar and attach a label with baking instructions and a list of the remaining wet ingredients, usually eggs and butter.

4. Vegetable seeds

Growing your own food is addictive. There is nothing more satisfying than planting a tiny seed and a few months later pulling a swollen delicious root for the table. Seeds are really cheap and there is a massive, exciting range of vegetables, some of which you might not have heard of, that will grow in the Irish climate. I love Seedaholic for a mesmerising catalogue of flower, ornamental, herb and vegetable seeds at great prices, fast delivery and superb information sheets.

The main idea behind all of these ideas is that by providing a few key items, you are gifting an experience and therein lies the thoughtfulness.

Money Saving Tips Part 2

Leading on from Part 1 here, these are some more of my money saving tips.

1. Join the library

Not rocket science but if you are a book lover like me, buying books can be addictive and costly. You'd be surprised what your local library is stocking and it's a chance to take a risk on books without reaping the expenses and building up clutter. My philosophy now is to rent or borrow fiction books and if I am going to invest in a book, it's usually for reference. Some reference books are invaluable to have in the home, especially if they teach you a skill or how to avoid paying someone else for a job you can easily learn to do.

If you are going to buy a book, think SECOND HAND before you wander into Waterstones or Easons. Such is the quality of some second hand books, that I would not be embarrassed to give them as gifts. Online, I find play.com to be the best source of second hand material and I have never been disappointed with the physical state of the books. And it's free shipping!

2. Barter

Look at those around you, family, colleagues and neighbours and identify what skills you can trade. The easiest way to approach this is the to be the first to offer a favour to someone and most times, they will remember it and repay you in some way. I started bringing excess freshly caught fish to work to offer to colleagues and I have since received fresh rabbit, pheasant and baked goods in return. Which brings me on to my next tip....

3. Take up fishing

You do not need a licence to sea fish in Ireland, and during the summer any fool with a cheap rod can catch a bounty from the shoals of mackerel that migrate towards land. It's a delicious, healthy, oily fish that almost wants to be caught and it's not unusual to through out a line with six hooks and to fill the whole line in a matter of seconds. Once you catch your first mackerel, you'd be hard pushed to pay the price they are charging for measly fillets in supermarkets.

4. Keep shopping bags in the boot of your car

Small savings to be had but at 22c each, not to mention the waste, it's a good practice to keep a stock of shopping bags in your vehicle. They don't weigh anything so no harm carrying them around. On that note, if you have a roof rack on your vehicle that never gets used, take it down. It is wasting fuel.

5. Buy your hobby magazines in second hand shops

If you are not fussy about keeping up to date, there is no reason to spend the usual €5-€6 that hobby magazines cost. If you like arts and crafts or cooking, you'll hardly notice if the magazine is recent or from three months ago.


I'm sure I'll be back in a few weeks with some more tips I've thought off.