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ThemesInvolve your Kids with These Child Inspired
Landscaping Themes
Trying to
convince your children to help with the gardening can be a chore on
a good day, so why not making it easier by planting a landscape
that is more interesting to them. If your child plays sports,
consider planting flowerbeds in their team colors. It is a great
way to show your support and will make the flowers more special.
However, if you
want to be a little more creative, consider planting one of the
following themes. No matter which theme you choose, do not forget
to have the kids help by creating clay accents and painted signs.
Your child's colorings or drawings can also be used to decorate
planters or other objects with a little decoupage and clear acrylic
spray. The best thing about these types of gardens is that it
allows you to spend time with your children while getting a
necessary chore out of the way.
Alphabet:
An alphabet
garden is a great way to involve your children while teaching them
at the same time. Make sure that you have enough space for
twenty-six different plants before getting started. Then, find a
plant that represents each letter of the alphabet. You can start
with asters, bellflowers, coneflowers, and daisies and continue all
the way down until you hit xylosmas, yuccas, and zinnias.
Cowboy or Wild
West:
Imagine a garden
that is littered with wagon wheels, cowboy boots, covered wagons,
and maybe even a few arrows or a dream catcher. A cowboy-themed
garden is not as centered around the plants as other themes, but
more around the decorations. True, you can use plants such as the
Texas Star, Texas Bluebonnets or the infamous yellow rose. You
might also want to plant native plants or ones commonly used for
food and medicine in the 1800s such as corn, beans, squash, chives,
wild lettuce, wild strawberries, and sunflowers. However, you will
need space for a campfire and surround the entire thing with split
rail fencing. You might also want to create a wanted poster with
your child's picture and some barbed wire.
Crayon:
Similar to the
alphabet garden, a crayon garden becomes a teaching garden for
younger kids. It also creates an array of colorful plants and can
be as interactive as well. Kids can paint rock borders around the
plants and colorful signs for each color. You can also add garden
sculptures of items that are the same color. In your red area, you
could have a metal fire truck, a clay ladybug, a stop sign, or a
statue of a red fox. You could also plant edible colors such as
cherries, tomatoes, chili peppers, etc. If you cannot find an
object, have your child create one out of clay or color a picture
that can then be glued onto a wood base and sealed.
Fairy Tale:
If you want to
instill a love of reading, consider a garden with a fairy tale
theme. You probably already have beans for Jack and the Bean
Stalk, peas for Princess and the Pea, and pumpkins for
Cinderella. You can also go deeper into the stories and
plant an apple tree for Snow White, tulips and water lilies
for Thumbelina and strawberries for Little Red Riding
Hood. You could also find plants that are named after fairy
tales such as the pink butterfly plant (Asclepias incarnata
'Cinderella') or dwarf Balsam Impatiens (Cotoneaster apiculatus
'Tom Thumb'). Then, there are plants that have been named after
fairy tale elements such as 'Forest Prince' serviceberry, (Amelanchier
x grandiflora), dragon flowers (Physostegia
virginiana), and the Magic Carpet Spiraea (Spiraea japonica).
Nursery
Rhymes:
Another
literature-based theme is one centered on nursery rhymes. Of
course, you must start by planting a few Canterbury bells for the
infamously contrary gardener, Mary, and then decorate them with a
few shells. You should also plant a few peppers and pumpkins for
the two Peters-Peter Piper and Peter, the pumpkin eater-and a plum
tree for little Jack Horner. From there, you could plant the herbs
lavender and dill mentioned in the rhyme Lavender Blue and
posies for Ring around the Rosie. Mulberry bushes are
another favorite, mentioned in Here We Go Round the Mulberry
Bush and Pop Goes the Weasel. You can also consider
plants such as Little Miss Muffet daisies and fairy tale pink
daylilies. But do not stop with plants, there are a ton of
decorations you can add. Put a plastic spider on your waterspout
for Eensy Weensy Spider, a statue of Humpty Dumpty on your
wall, and a cow over any moon bushes (Datura meteloides)
that you have.
Space:
Space is not only
the “final frontier” it is also a great landscaping theme. Star
with a few sun plants like the ever popular sunflower or the
Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun' (Rudbeckia hirta). Then, add a
couple of moon plants such as the moon vine (Ipomoea alba)
and the previously mentioned moon bush (Datura meteloides).
Of course, you cannot have a moon without a few star plants. Some
plants are star shaped such as the Lanai lavender star verbena
(Verbena 'Lanai') and the royal star magnolia (Magnolia
stellata 'Royal Star') and the star jasmine (Jasminum
nitidum). While others plants simply have star in their name
such as the Climbing Crimson Star Clematis (Clematis x
'Crimson Star') starburst ice plant (Delosperma floribundum
'Starburst'), and starlight carnation (Dianthus plumaris x
'Starlight'). If you are feeling adventurous, consider adding
the Magnolia 'Star Wars'.
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