Yeah! Today is the day that I start my series on gardening with children called...
It is also the day I announce all the nitty gritty on the contest!
This is something I am very passionate about...we need to get our kids out in our gardens. We need to instill a passion for growing real food. We need to teach them where their food comes from and to respect the earth that gives it to us!
I am hoping that this will motivate us all to get out there and let 'em get dirty!
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Here are the contest details:
We will be looking for the best and most creative ideas for child friendly gardens. It can be incorporating a sunflower house in your own garden or it can be a garden designed and planted exclusively for children with a playhouse and everything!
This contest will run through September to give everyone a chance to see something grown to maturity like a bean tepee.
The most important rule is that all of this has to involve kids. I want them out there planting and watering and harvesting...these gardens are not to be showcases that are lovely but devoid of children. These are to be gardens that are hands on with real kids in them!
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Here are the contest categories and prizes:
Best overall (judges pick) winner receiving $75 gift certificate
Reader's choice (you get to pick) winner receiving $75 gift certificate
Sub-categories for specific garden elements:
Best re-purpose, recycle, re-use, winner receiving $25 + book
Best use of veggies, winner receiving $25 + book
Best use of flowers, winner receiving $25 + book
Most involved in the contest, I personally will judge this by seeing who links up the most, tweets the most, spreads the word about the contest the most, the best cheerleader... in other words does the best PR work for me so I don't have too!
Each week I will do a post with some idea for gardening with children. At the end of each post I will have a way for you to link to your blogs so you can share your ideas and progress with everyone. Extra points if you involve your kids in these posts...I love pictures of kids in the garden!
I will have a blog roll for everyone that is involved so we can all easily see and visit others involved with this project.
If you are entering you need to put a button somewhere on your blog so everyone who is participating can easily see who else is involved. I really want for us to visit each others blogs and encourage one another in this.
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So there you have it my first ever real contest(one that does not involve naming a llama anyway). I hope you all participate, you don't have to have your own kids. You can garden with your grand kids, neighbor kids or friends' children. It doesn't matter as long as your get just one child excited about gardening!
Just leave a comment today if you are going to join us, grab a button, and I will get started on a blog roll.
<center><a href="http://sweetgrace.typepad.com/the_inadvertent_farmer/2010/04/kindergardens-let-em-get-dirty-childrens-garden-series-and-contest.html/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Inadvertent Farmer" src=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/sweet_grace_boutique/kinderGARDENbuttonhorz.jpg /></a></center>
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I'm going to leave you with a short list of veggies that are great for kids!
Pumpkins nothing more fun than one's very own pumpkin patch
Sunflowers they can grow their own giants
Potatoes so much fun to dig
Gourds interesting shapes and fun for crafts
Radishes quick growing colorful and fun to harvest
Cherry Tomatoes bright, abundant and child size
Sugar Snap Peas a fast growing sweet snack right from the vine
Of course there are many more veggies and tons of flowers that kids love. I will be covering them all and fun ways to use them over the course of the series!
Come back next week to link up with your ideas...Now go get dirty!
Note, if you have trouble with the buttons let me know
