Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County

Gardening for Children

Kids Post: Fun Facts and Activities with Holiday Trees

Evergreen trees are used around the world to celebrate the winter holiday season. Whatever the language, people around the world decorate trees to celebrate their religions, the New Year, and their love of family and friends.

Evergreen trees are used worldwide to celebrate the winter holiday season.
“Holiday tree” in many languages

WNC home to Christmas tree farms
Do you have an evergreen tree displayed in your home this holiday season? Western North Carolina grows 20% of the Christmas trees in the United States! And this year a 19½-foot Fraser Fir grown by Larry Smith of Avery County is standing tall in the Blue Room of the White House.

19.5-foot White House Christmas tree from Mountain Top Fraser Fir Farm, Newland, NC, 2018. Owner Larry Smith with his mother, Leona Smith. Photo courtesy of Larry Smith.
White House Christmas tree from Mountain Top Fraser Fir Farm in Newland, NC, 2018.

Evergreens
Most holiday trees and other decorations are from trees that stay green year-round.

  • Conifers—including the fir, spruce, and pine we most often use for our holiday trees—have needle-like foliage.
  • Broadleaf evergreens—such as holly, magnolia, and boxwood—are often used in holiday decorations.

What should we do with our live-cut tree after the holidays?

  • Make a wildlife habitat: Take off all the lights and decorations and set the tree outside to provide shelter for rabbits, birds, squirrels, and other wildlife.
  • Mulch: Wood chips from holiday trees make useful mulch for garden paths or around shrubs and trees.
  • Recycle: If you don’t want to chip the tree yourself, recycle it! Many recycled trees are used for mulch in community gardens. Asheville residents can place trees at the curb for regular brush collection—but first remove lights, ornaments, and stands. Or drop off trees for recycling at the Buncombe County Landfill. 

Cautions:
– Don’t burn your holiday tree—indoors or out! Dry evergreens burn extremely hot and may cause house fires or wildfires. I remember one outdoor campfire as a child when the adults threw an old Christmas tree onto the fire and sparks flew everywhere!
– Artificial trees may seem a good alternative to a cut tree, because they will last six years in your home, but they will last for centuries in a landfill.

Homemade bird feeders to decorate holiday trees
If you put your tree out in your yard, it is fun to decorate with homemade bird feeders to keep the spirit of giving throughout the winter. Hanging fruit slices, seed cakes, suet bags, or strings of cranberries, raisins, and/or popcorn on your holiday tree’s branches helps feed the birds. You also can smear peanut butter and seeds on pine cones or toilet paper tubes and hang them in the tree.

Caution:
If you have bears or other potentially nuisance wildlife in your area, skip these feeders in favor of planting bird-friendly flowers and shrubs in your landscape.

Adult supervision is needed with the following feeders
When my children were younger, we made birdseed ornaments using unflavored gelatin. Here is a link to step-by-step instructions, with photos: http://jmgkids.us/bird-seed-christmas-ornaments/

This link provides instructions to make a birdseed suet cake: http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/design/gardening-with-wildlife/suet-diy.html

Homemade birdseed holiday tree ornaments
Birdseed holiday tree ornaments

More fun holiday activities
Instructions for holiday crafts and coloring sheets and worksheets to download.
Just for Kids by the NC Christmas Tree Association

Word scrambles, crosswords, mazes, and connect the dots activities.
Games & Puzzles by the National Christmas Tree Association

Download this illustrated ABC book. Woodsy Owl guides children through the world of nature and wildlife.
Woodsy’s ABCs by the USDA Forest Service

Article written by Carol Brown, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer.

Kids Post: Go Batty for Garden Bats!

Halloween means witches, ghosts, skeletons, black cats . . . and . . . bats! What???

Did you know that bats are garden helpers? But, bats often get a bad rap. They aren’t all that attractive. They hang out in strange places. They may scare us when they fly around in the dark. And some bats can spread diseases if they bite!

Bat_Eric Ellingson_CC BY-NC-ND 2.0_Flickr
Bat in flight

Bats in North Carolina
We have 13 bat species in Buncombe County alone! The ones you are most likely to see are big brown bats because they may roost in attics. These and eastern red bats are the bats that often fly around lights at night and are most likely to visit our gardens.

 Bat benefits
They eat insects. Were you covered in mosquito bites every time you went outside this summer? Bats eat mosquitoes and garden pests such as stink bugs, fruit flies, moths that produce cutworms, webworms—and more—helping keep insect populations in check.

They can be pollinators. Some bats in Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, and other tropical areas and deserts pollinate fruits—such as bananas and mangoes—as well as agaves and cactuses.

They make fertilizer. Then there is bat poop . . . called bat feces or guano. This makes an excellent fertilizer containing nitrogen and phosphorus, important nutrients for growing strong, healthy plants.

Eastern Red Bat_Logan Ward_CC BY 2.0_Flickr
Eastern red bat roosting on tree branch

Bat cautions
Back to the scary bats . . . a bat in your house can be frightening. A bat flies around the house because it is confused and trying to get out. To help the bat leave, stay calm, get an adult to help get the bat into one room, dim the lights, open all the windows (remove the screens!), and stand quietly away from the windows until you see the bat fly out. Do make sure that the bat has left the house—the bat may get tired and hide behind a sofa or dresser!

And those diseases—never touch a bat! You may see them roost in trees during the day—they like to sleep upside down! You may see a bat on the ground that looks sick or dead. Don’t touch! Find an adult right away.

Bats in flight around bat house_by Mark & Selena Kiser at Bat Conservation International
Bat house

Helping bats
You may want to buy or build a bat house to welcome bats to your garden. Bats use these houses to start new colonies or as new homes for colonies evicted from attics or other places. If bats are a problem in one location, provide a bat box before evicting them! You can mount bat boxes on posts, poles, or on the sides of buildings.

Article written by Carol Brown, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer.

Information on making and placing bat houses
Bat Houses
by Bat Conservation International

Kids Post: Mini-Gardens for Little Kids

While in hand-to-hand combat with the weeds in my asparagus bed, my young neighbor with her active, inquisitive 3-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter stopped to watch me work. The weary mom sighed, lamenting that she wanted her children to enjoy gardening . . . someday . . . but that would have to wait until they were older. Little kids, in the garden? I knew where she was coming from. Her comment triggered the memory of my 2-year-old grandson “helping” me pick tomatoes—proudly presenting his tomato—still attached to the tomato plant—roots and all!

Child's sand bucket garden
Child’s sand bucket garden

Today, there are wonderfully illustrated, age-appropriate children’s books on gardening practices and the science of plants. Books make a nice introduction to both plants and gardening and provide good talking points about how things are done and why. (A book list of children’s gardening books—beginning with board books—is included at the end of this blog.)

For toddlers, mimicking gardening acts—planting, watering, weeding, checking for bugs, picking flowers or vegetables—is a main source of enjoyment. Because toddlers delight in repeated play activities, a sand garden—a sand-filled container complete with an array of plastic flowers and garden tools—can provide hours of gardening fun.

By the time a child is 3 or 4, a large pot can become a container garden, putting the garden literally at a child’s-eye level. A single plant is a good beginning, but try pairing a vegetable plant with a pollinator plant in a pot clearly marked with the child’s name. This gives the child a specific place to practice the planting, watering, weeding, bug-checking, and harvesting with adult guidance. Taking pictures of the garden as it develops and making a simple My Garden Book helps the child develop a sense of accomplishment.

Child's saucer garden
Child’s saucer garden

Saucer gardens are another way of incorporating child’s play into gardening activities. The gardens can be as elaborate as moss gardens for a fairy village, or special terrains for woodland creatures incorporating sticks, rocks, red clay, small plants, or trees. Add plastic dinosaurs, animals, or superheroes to provide the action. Saucer gardens can be as simple as lettuce gardens to provide salad greens.

By the time a child is 4 or 5, a designated spot in the family garden, or a place in the yard, can be turned into a kid’s raised bed garden.

  • Keep the space small—4- by 4-feet maximum.
  • Have it in a safe place within parental view.
  • Establish a routine for maintenance.
Child's found space garden
Child’s found space garden

Provide a laminated card with a simple pictorial checklist to help the child focus on what needs to be done each day. An inexpensive magnifying glass is a great help in identifying bugs, worms, and changes in the plants. And, don’t overlook children’s ability to locate a found garden spot themselves, like these unused concrete steps turned into a moss garden.

Article written by Mary Hugenschmidt, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer. 

Click here to download a list of gardening books for children 5 and under (PDF format).
Gardening Books for Children Five and Under

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Buncombe County Extension Office
49 Mount Carmel Road
Asheville, NC 28806
Helpline 828-255-5522

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