I’ve been delaying posting the plans for the next Kids in the Orchard on June 2nd from 2 to 3:30 because I’ve been closely watching the weather. 

We are definitely going to have the kids help paint and decorate the lemonade stand.  Be sure to bring an old shirt to put over their clothes or just wear old clothes that you don’t care if paint gets on them.

My other plans, which is why I’ve been watching the weather – is that we’ll be chalking our ENTIRE driveway!  Yup – we’re going to give the kiddo’s bundles and bundles of chalk and let them cover every inch of our rather large driveway!  I’ve been dreaming about this and I can’t wait to see it all full of color and creativity!  We have a  lot of chalk but if you have a few sticks hanging around maybe just throw them in the car in case we don’t have enough to cover the entire square footage.

See you on Wednesday!

Bottle trees!  What a great way to decorate any garden!  My father in law knows how to weld so he puts together scrap metal and makes us these great trees – perfect for putting bottles on!Different colors of bottles create a beautiful addition to any garden! 

We made a special new, symmetrical bottle tree that fits great in the herb garden area of our place.  I love this new look for the bottle tree.

Yesterday was the first day of our 2014 Summer Kids in the Orchard program.  It was a great day with LOTS of kiddo’s showing up!  We made fairy gardens, grass heads and enjoyed a cider float!

I have some pictures and a story to share with you all from our afternoon together.

The Story of the Apple Fairies

Apple Fairies live in our orchard and are essential to the success of all the things we grow here.  We need them to help the trees bloom, aid the bees in pollination and to take care of our precious fruit as it grows.  Today, you get to make your very own fairy garden to encourage fairies to come to your gardens to live and prosper like they do in ours.

First – take the container you selected and head over to the pool you saw when you parked.  From there, hop 100 times along the pumpkin patch to the dirt pile at the far end.  It is essential that you hop 100 times to get there – that’s what helps make the dirt magical and perfect for the fairies to flourish.  Once you’re at the pile of dirt, take the shovel there and fill your container so it’s full to about one inch from the top with dirt.

For the next step, carefully carry your containers to the picnic tables.  Count the apple trees you see along the way.

At the picnic table grab a bundle of popsicle sticks.  If you counted correctly you will have the same number of popsicle sticks as the trees you just counted (15)! Using the glue and yarn, build structures or scenery that you think your fairies will enjoy.  Feel free to leave your extra popsicle sticks on the table for others to use.

Now – we need to add some magical stones to our fairy garden.  Fairy’s like beautiful, colorful stones and the perfect ones can be found in an area where there is a lot of round rubber items.  Can you find where they’re hidden?  Once you do, pick five magical stones that you think your fairies will love.

Fairies often have guests from all over the country visit them!  Our favorites are the fairies that visit from the ocean!  Think about the tour we took when you first got here.  Go on the hunt and find one seashell so the garden fairies’ ocean visitor will feel at home when they visit.

The final addition to the fairy garden are some plants!  We have two succulents and one dill starter plant for each of you to add to your garden!  Be sure to water these regularly so they prosper!  Can you find Diane for these green goodies?

For this weeks garden snack – we unfroze some of our apple cider and I headed to our local creamery – Sassy Cow – for some delicious vanilla ice cream.  Yup – we had cider floats!

And…the kids LOVED them (the mom’s, grandma’s and aunts did too!)

For the second project we made grass heads!  We took a square planting pot – filled it with dirt.  Then glued on eyes and a nose.  The kids all put some grass seed in it – add a little bit more dirt and when they get home they have strict instructions to water them everyday!  Soon – grass should be growing out of the head and the kids will be able to cut their grass heads hair however they’d like.

The kids all did an amazing job with there fairy gardens and grass heads!

 

I’ll be posting soon what you can all expect to enjoy during week 2 of Kids in the Orchard!

Our vertical planters all started with this one wall.  Jared made it using half logs.  Once I looked at it – I realized the same goal could be accomplished using tires!

The first tire wall planter was established!  Be sure to drill holes through the bottoms of the tires so the water will drain out.
Here’s the tire wall that Capri helped me plant this spring.  It makes a great ‘wall’ to keep people away from our rock retaining wall.  ‘Found objects’ were used to make art on the wall – flowers from hubcaps and gulf clubs and a fun white Christmas tree sticks out the top!

Convert an old chicken feeder into a beautiful planter!  I spray painted our purple just to add a bit more color to it!  This is one of my favorite planters that we have!

I am so excited for the first day of Kids in the Orchard next week Wednesday, June 25th from 2 – 3:30!   I have a lot of exciting activities planned throughout the summer but some are a bit dependent on the weather.  I’ll be posting a few days in advance of each week about what the main ‘activity’ will be on that particular day so be sure to check the previous Saturday or Sunday. 

On June 25th our main project will be Fairy Gardens or Terrariums. 

I would love it if those participating could bring some sort of container for their fairy garden/terrarium.  It will be a take home project so remember you will have to lift it into your vehicle when your done. 

Your garden container could be anything – an old slow cooker that doesn’t work…

The insert to that slow cooker…

an old crock or lunch box…

buckets, pails, big bowls, old pots, pans, or whatever your imagination dreams up!

I do have *some* containers that you would be able to purchase for just $3 if you can’t find one to use. 

The kids will be scavenging the orchard for items for there fairy gardens as well as making a little fairy house or bench from popsicle sticks.

We also have one more planting project planned but I’m going to keep it a secret until Wednesday!  AND Diane thought up a delicious treat using a product from our orchard for the kiddo’s to enjoy while they’re here!

Another idea for a container…

Do you have an older looking picnic table sitting around?  Well – if you don’t want it…feel free to drop it at the orchard we’ll always take more.  But if you just want to spruce it up a bit – add some paint!

This one is my favorite – it’s my patchwork picnic table!  When the paint starts to come off – just paint it some more! 

I love to use tires at the orchard!  It all started with the tractor tire playground –now we use them for everything!
I spray painted a few tires and now they are some colorful planters in my garden!  One is turquoise, purple and gold.

The second is silver and gold.  Easy and fun!

One of my favorite things about the orchard is that it gives us the opportunity to take unwanted items, old items, odd items, and use them as planters or garden art!  I will be featuring a fun creation of ours weekly to give you ideas for your own gardens.  Also – you’ll have to come and try to find all the fun creations we’ve made when we open in the fall!

We put an old wheel onto a poll to make a trellis for our clematis flowers. 

Last year Diane struggled to get them to climb around the thick poll. This year, she used an old spring from a crib to create a great trellis for the beautiful flowers to climb up.  Twin goes from the spring to the top of the wheel to help the climbing continue.  I can’t wait to see it as it continues to grow!

Old silverware makes a great wind chime!