Growing Better Plants with Lechuza Self-Watering Planters

Lechuza is a great new concept in planters for growing your own plants and flowers in the home or outdoors. The self-watering planters come with their own built in sub-irrigation system to ensure the plants receive an optimal water supply at all times. This takes all the guesswork out of watering and allows the plants to achieve optimal growth. Each planter has a removable liner which holds the soil and plants. This allows for easy cultivation and means the plants can be moved between interchangeable models of planter. Lechuza planters are a great way to grow beautiful plants to add colour to your home or garden.

The Lechuza planters come in three finishes: hi gloss premium, matte and wicker-style cottage and in a variety of colours and designs. They are made in Germany using 100% recyclable plastic and are UV safe, frost proof and shatterproof. The sub-irrigation system is very clever and means that even the least green-fingered gardeners can grow beautiful plants and flowers. There is no need to water every day - in fact, once the plant is established, you only need to water every 12 weeks. You can't over water either, even in plants kept outdoors, a drainage system allows excess water to drain away without depleting the reservoir. A water level indicator allows you to keep a close eye on water levels.

We were sent a Lechuza Balconera 50 planter in Caribbean Blue so we could have a go at planting some flowers ourselves. Growing plants is such a lovely activity to do with the family. Children learn so much through getting their hands dirty, planting seedlings and nurturing flowers. And now, with the Lechuza planter, we don't even have to worry about forgetting to water our plants in the long term. It makes gardening a much lower maintenance activity and gives better results.

The colouful, balcony planter is such a fun and appealing design. Children will absolutely love growing plants in it and they will get good results thanks to the ingenious self-watering system. Achieving success helps build a child's confidence and encourages them to try new things, so knowing that the watering is taken care of, means there is a good chance of them growing a plant to be proud of and developing green fingers along the way.

The planter comes with a removable inner section that is easily removed using the retractable handles. The water level indicator pushes together and slots into position easily. A bag of substrate is included, which goes into the planter before the soil, to help control the water supply. For outdoor use, you remove the screw-in drainage plug, which is simple to do. It is all very straightforward to assemble ready for planting.

We were sent an amaryllis bulb for our planter. Personally, I would have preferred to plant one in a more upright, deeper pot for indoors, but it will be happy in the balcony planter and it is a good flower to grow for the season. To plant it up, I enlisted my little helpers and their green fingered grandad!

Once planted, you conventionally water the bulb for 3 weeks to help establish the growth of the roots. After the growing in phase you fill the reservoir via the shaft until the water level indicator reads max. The plant will then get its water through the irrigation system allowing it to achieve optimum growth.

I hope the milder weather continues, giving our amaryllis the best chance to grow into a beautiful flower. The Balconera planter is perfect for balconies but can also be used on a windowsill for growing herbs. You can get brackets to mount the planter on railings or walls to create a lovely colourful display. The Balconera comes in a range of colours to suit your style. They cost £29.99 and come complete with the plant liner, substrate and sub-irrigation system.

Find out more and see the whole range at www.lechuza.co.uk.

Making Home Improvements a Family Affair

DIY is usually a lot of hard work!  When you have children who are eager to 'help', the simplest tasks can become an even bigger chore as you try to paint the walls and supervise your toddler while he sticks his fingers in the can of emulsion.  If you have some jobs that need doing around the house, there are ways that you can involve the whole family without it becoming a DIY disaster.  Delegating tasks to each member of the household will make everyone feel important and hopefully make it easier to get on with the job in hand. Plus, the kids can learn valuable skills that they can develop in later life.

Make wooden planters

If you are improving the garden, displaying wooden boxes filled with plants is a great way to add colour to even the smallest outdoor space, plus it's a good way to teach the little ones about gardening. Making the wooden planters yourself is something best done when the kids are not around as it will involve cutting wood using a jigsaw.  But once the boxes have been put together, sanded and primed, you can then allow your little co-workers to help you choose a paint colour and design. Maybe even let them decorate their own planter while you paint yours.

Take a family trip to your local garden centre and allow each family member to pick their own plant for the garden. Giving children the responsibility of looking after their plant, will teach them the importance of nurturing and caring for it.  Getting into the habit of watering the plants makes little ones very useful in the summertime!

Create a feature wall

Whether it’s in the kids' room, the living room, the playroom or in the kitchen, a feature wall is a great asset to the home, which totals revamps the living space. Whether you opt simply to add a lick of paint or apply a funky wallpaper design, there are various options to choose from. You can let the little ones accompany you when it comes to choosing the paint colours and wallpaper styles. If you need to strip a wall, little ones will love to help peel the old paper off.  Once they get bored you can get out the steamer and finish the job in no time.

Special paints can transform a wall into a blackboard or make it magnetic - perfect for the playroom!  There are lots of wall stickers available that will transform a wall in just minutes.  Let little ones help with the decision making so they feel involved.

Stencils are also a great idea, and younger children can have a go – just ensure you tape newspaper over any areas you wish to protect.

Sometimes you need to get in the professionals for any big jobs that need doing. You may need to repair your sash windows, install double glazing, plaster the ceiling or put in a gas fire.  Little ones can be curious but it is important to keep them away from the work in progress.  Ensuring they are entertained whilst this work is going on is a must.  But they still want to feel like they are helping.

Get creative

Why not get them to create their own artwork using brightly coloured materials such as fabric, tissue paper, glitter and paint.  It will certainly ensure they’re entertained. You can then frame their artwork and hang it on one of the walls in the household. This will make them feel like they’ve really helped with the home improvements.

'Grow Your Own' with Poundland

If you like the idea of growing your own produce or getting out in the garden, but don't want to spend a fortune, then Poundland has the ideal range for you.  They stock a variety of seeds, pots, fertiliser, garden ornaments, bulbs, gloves, tools, solar lights, hanging baskets and compost all at just £1 each giving every green fingered gardener a selection of great items at bargain prices.

We were sent an assortment of the items to try out and were particularly excited about the idea of growing our own potatoes using the canvas potato planter, the Organic Potato Fertilser, the potting soil and the Maris Piper seed potatoes.  We don't have any room for a vegetable plot in our garden so growing things in tubs and planters works really well for us.  I really hope hope we get a good crop of spuds later this year so the children can get to eat the produce they have planted up themselves.  We also planted up Rocket, Herbs and Strawberries, as well as Sunflowers and Dahlias.  Fingers crossed for a bumper harvest!!

Kizzy and Freddy enjoyed helping their dad in the garden during the glorious Bank Holiday weekend.  Gardening with kids is a great outdoor activity where they can learn about science and nature and get their hands dirty!

I was really impressed with some of the sets of seeds such as the Nice and Spicy Collection that included four types of chilli, pepper, coriander, basil. mustard greens and oriental spicy leaf seeds.  Excellent value at just £1 and an amazing collection of spicy ingredients to use in the kitchen.  The 10 litres of potting soil comes in a small pack which becomes reconstituted to its original volume by the addition of water.  This makes it easy to buy in store and carry home.  The herb seed discs make it very easy to grow your own herbs such as Parsley, Basil and Chives in pots. 

Check out the gardening range in store at your local Poundland and you could be growing your own for just a few quid!!

Gardening With Children

Our garden is not great for growing things.  It is very shaded and the soil is terrible (basically George Wimpey put some turf on top of builder's rubble and called it a lawn!)  However, just because I'm never going to have a productive cottage garden, it doesn't mean we can't enjoy growing things with the children.  Using pots of compost makes the process much easier to manage and also creates an attractive display.  The simple process of having fun with dirt and water is enough to get little ones eagerly involved.  Whether or not anything grows is secondary, but we keep our fingers crossed that the children will get to grow something that they can be proud of.

This weekend, blessed with some glorious sunshine, we embarked on a bit of gardening with three year old Freddy and ten year old big sister Kizzy.  We were lucky to have been sent two lots of fab gardening products to try out and Freddy was in his element with his new shiny watering cans, tools and seeds!  Both brands are perfect for little gardeners, encouraging them to get outside in the garden and explore their environment in a positive way, learning new skills and discovering nature in a hands on way.

Seedlets

Seedlets sell an impressive, quality range of gardening gear that is age appropriate, to encourage children to grow their own with the help of sunshine, rain and bugs.  Chris Collins, Blue Peter's resident gardener is the name behind the brand and he features on the website giving children ideas for projects and offering top tips on gardening.  The project ideas are for begginners, intermediate and experts, so children can find their level and really get involved in the gardening process supported by mum or dad.  Seedlets really bring the whole gardening experience to children from an early age, teaching them about science and nature in the process.

The products themselves are grouped into three stages.  The Beginner's Stage includes some lovely colourful, plastic tools, watering can, a broom, gloves, tool bag and a magnifying glass, as well as some easy to grow seeds and an insect hotel to encourage bugs into your garden.  The range is well designed and perfect for tiny tots.  Stage 2 looks more grown up with wooden handled metal tools and a gorgeous metal watering can.  A sieve and a propagator help to hone gardening skills and a thermometer and rain gauge help little gardeners to explore the other factors affecting plants in the garden.  The Advanced stage 3  products introduce some more grown-up type tools such as a spade and rake and also includes vegetable seeds and a snazzy tool belt.

Stage 1 and 2 Hand Tools

The Seedlets products are available from the Handpicked Collection and are really reasonably priced from just £2.99 -£10.99

www.myseedlets.com

Wilko's

Wilkinson's have a great range of products to encourage kids to have fun growing things in the garden or on the windowsill.  They are stocking some Johnson's Little Gardeners products that include growing kits that the children will love.  Kids can grow their own pizza toppings, their own spooky pumpkin or sweet strawberries.  The grass haircut kit comes with stickers to decorate the pot to make your own grass haired monster!  The packaging features cartoon children that are very appealing, making these products really kid-friendly.  They make gardening a fun activity.  Priced between £1 and £5 they are a great way to get kids growing.

Find out more at the Wilko's Kids Growing section of the website.

*******

Using their lovely selection of tools, pots and growing kits, Kizzy and Freddy had a great time planting up a selection of pots.  They talked about what plants needed to grow and what would happen to the seeds over time.  It was a lovely activity for them to do together and they felt quite inspired to do more.  Both brands had packaging that came complete with hints, tips and gardening facts making them educational as well as fun. We are now planning on getting some grow bags to grow some home produce.  The children like the idea of growing strawberries and I'd love a potted herb garden!  With my two eager green fingered helpers, we will be growing our own in no time!