A good way to spend Mother's Day

It was Mother's Day yesterday and my girls presented me with the Mother's Day gifts and cards they had both made during gardening club on Tuesday - which was lovely but no surprise! Then it was time to enjoy the spring sunshine and go out to the allotment. The broad beans I had put in pots were now big enough to handle so I started by getting these planted out on the plot. My eldest busied herself with washing her bike with a watering can and a leaf so she was too busy to help with the watering when I asked. Not to worry as my youngest was keen to help. Fortunately, her watering can is very small so as she trekked back and forth to the water trough I had plenty of time to plant some more beans for her to water.

I had three trays of broad beans - 24 modules per tray. Some had yet to emerge but when I checked, the beans had germinated so I planted them anyway. A few others had succumbed to the heat during the week because I had forgotten to open the door of the coldframe until after midday. Coldframe was something of a misnomer by this point and the tips of the plants had turned black in the tropical heat! I figured this would kill the plants completely but in fact by yesterday they were showing signs of healthy green regrowth.

With the broad beans out, I turned my attention to the pea bed. By this point my eldest had finished washing her bike so I asked if she fancied helping me rack over the bed. She was keen so we set to. She then volunteered to help with the watering so I pulled out a series of shallow trenches with the hoe and she helped me water the base of each trench. Her favourite job is sowing seeds so I sat and directed whilst she carefully scattered seeds into the 8 trenches - two mangetout, one sugarsnap pea, one petit pois, and 4 different types of pea, including a heritage purple podded one. She carefully stuck in lollystick labels as she went. Next I showed her how to carefully pull the soil back over the pea seeds to fill in the trenches. Finally, I asked if she wanted to help push some pea stick in and she replied with enthusiasm as she loves "planting trees". And that was it - job done. It's the first time she's ever managed to keep her attention and enthusiasm focused until a complete job was done. And I really enjoyed it too. People have many ideas of how best to treat mum on Mother's Day but this was the best way I could have spent my day as far as I was concerned!

Mother's Day Gardening Club

What a lovely hour I spent this afternoon with my gardening club. With Mother's Day at the end of the week, I had organised for the children to plant up a couple of pansies then decorate the flower pot with some foam shapes and finish it with a decorated label complete with message to mum. This was followed by making a Mother's Day card with a daffodil design on it.

The tasks were completely manageable for this bunch of 4 to 7 year olds and they clearly enjoyed themselves. The end results were pleasing too and I'm sure their mums will be very happy with their gifts and cards. There was a good opportunity for some teaching too - how to pot on plug plants, not to pick wild flowers, how many petals a daffodil has and so on. But what I loved most was that for pretty much the whole hour the children were thinking about their mums and how much they love them!

Make Mother's Day Flowers

You will need:

Pansy or viola plug plants
Multi-purpose potting compost
A clean flowerpot (e.g. 20cm diameter)
Self-adhesive foam shapes (from Baker Ross)
Wooden flower stick (from Baker Ross)
Felt tip pens

1) Fill a flowerpot three quarters full with compost.
2) Carefully plant 2 plug plants in the flowerpot.
3) Brush off any loose compost from the sides of the flowerpot and wash hands. Next decorate the flowerpot with the foam shapes.
4) Decorate the wooden flower stick using the felt tip pens. Include a nice Mother’s Day message such as "Best Mum" or "I Love Mum".
5) Finally, push the wooden stick into the compost next to the pansies.

Make A Daffodil Mother's Day Card

You will need:

A cardboard egg box
Yellow poster paint
A piece of yellow paper
A piece of stiff coloured card
Scissors
Glue
Felt tip pen

1) Cut out a piece of the egg box to make the trumpet of the daffodil and paint it yellow inside and out. Leave to dry completely.
2) Cut out 6 petal shapes from the yellow paper about 5 cm and 1.5 cm wide.
3) Fold the stiff card to make a greeting card and stick or write "Happy Mother’s Day" on it.
4) Glue the yellow paper petal onto the card to form a flower shape.
5) Glue or use a sticky pad to stick the yellow trumpet onto the middle of the flower shape.
6) Use a felt tip to draw on a stem and leaf.