Lulu’s Garden Double Book Review

Hi everyone! The lovely people at Hawthorn Press recently sent us two of their books to review. I know how you love to read about gardens and things to do so I have read, pondered, laughed, crafted and generally got a good feel for what they are all about. Want to hear what they are? Well read on Macduff…

Findus Plants Meatballs by Sven Nordqvist

 

Findus is a cat so I immediately liked this story as I have THREE cats. None of them are called Findus though and to be the best of my knowledge none of them have planted meatballs! Now, I think I should point out that this is a fiction book (that means it’s a made up story!) Or at least I think it’s a made up story, you can never be quite sure… The Findus series originates from Sweden and there is a wide range of stories featuring Findus. I love this one as it centres on the garden. Farmer Pettson is busy sowing his vegetables which inspires Findus to do a bit of planting of his own. Chaos ensues and it is VERY funny to see what happens to the vegetable patch. I hope the same doesn’t happen to our own veg patch mind you! There are lots of lovely pictures in this book too. I would definitely recommend this book as a fun read for everyone!

Lulu’s Rating: 4 lovely glittery stars

 

Gardening with Young Children by Beatrys Lockie

 
 

Gardening with Young Children is a guide to how to encourage kids like me to get outdoors, engage with nature and learn to garden. It is full of practical advice on what to grow and when. There is lots of information on wildlife as well as plenty of recipes and projects to make. There are poems and songs in the book too which breaks it up and makes it quite different from all the other books on this subject. The book feels a lot more old fashioned in terms of style than many of its competitors and I think if it had new photographs and lots of colour pictures it would be a lot more engaging for children and grown ups. There is a lot of useful content and it would be a useful reference book but sometimes it can be a bit dry and hard to read. However, it is worth the struggle on as there is a lot to learn and some lovely projects to try. I have shown you my step-by-step guide to one of my favourite projects below.

Lulu’s Rating: 2 twinkly stars

 

Make a Garden Crown

 
You will need:

To make:

1. Get some card board (make sure its is corrugated.)

2. Bend it round your head to get it to the right size. Hold it in place with a paper clip.

3. Take the crown off, ask a grown-up to cut off any excess cardboard to get the height of crown you want and ask them to staple the edges together securely.

4. Now it’s time to decorate your crown. I painted it funky colours but you could add glitter, shapes or even go into the garden to find other things to stick onto your crown such as leaves, berries or flowers.

5. Once the paint is dry you can go and collect some leaves. Carefully slot them into the corrugated holes in the edge of the crown to complete your Garden Crown!
Princess Lulu and her magic crown!

Princess Lulu and her magic crown!

Thanks to Beatrys Lockie for the inspiration for this lovely craft project.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my book reviews and my Garden Crown project and it has inspired you to get outside and do some projects of your own (and to read a nice book!)

Lulu xx

 

Daft on Daffodils

Isn’t it wonderful to see the beautiful displays of daffodils at the moment? They seem to be in almost every garden with their nodding, golden heads heralding the start of Spring. They are very cheery (a bit like me!) So, if you are daft on daffodils, here’s a lovely daffodil craft project you can do during the school holidays to add some daffodil cheer to the inside of the home as well as the garden…
Daffodils always make me smile

Daffodils always make me smile

Paper Plate Daffodil

You will need:

To make:

1. Take one of your paper plates and on the reverse side draw the outline of your daffodil shape. Ask your grown up to cut this shape out, then paint it a lovely bright yellow.

Painting the flower is a lot of fun

Painting the flower is a lot of fun

2. Take the other plate and draw a similar daffodil shape but slightly smaller and this time draw it on the correct side of the plate. You can paint this one the same colour, or add some coloured paper to give a different texture. We chose some lovely yellow crepe paper to glue onto the plate.

I liked adding the glue to the flower

I liked adding the glue to the flower

3. Stick your two plates together. You will now have a lovely 3D effect because the plates have been used opposite ways:

4. You now need to make the daffodil’s trumpet! Root-toot-toot! To do this get a toilet roll tube. Ask a grown up to cut approx 2cm deep slits, approx 1.5cm wide, at one end of the tube (you will have roughly 9 “tabs” when you have finished. On the other end cut lots of slits to make a fringe effect. Once this has done paint the inside and out orange:

5. Once the trumpet is dry gently fold back the fringing. Then glue the tabs at the opposite end and stick the trumpet in the middle of your petals and glue a loop onto the back to hang it up:

The finished daffodil to keep us cheery all winter ;

The finished daffodil to keep us cheery all winter ;

If you need any more advice on bulbs or would like to contact us about getting some planted in your own garden then please get in touch.

Hugs & kisses,

Lulu xx