Ok, so I live in MI and usually a 2-3 weeks after Memorial day weekend my daughters and I purchase flowers to plant. This year I was thinking about planting seeds with my daughter and watching the process from the very beginning. My question is: Is this feasible in my area? If so, when should we plant the seeds and how long before my daughter starts seeing flowers? Should we start them somehow in the house now? Or what is your best gardening advice?
Thanks for the ideas everyone! I really appreciate them.
Not exactly a flower, but zucchini grows well in most places (I'm not really familiar with the climate, but a gardening store, or even gardening section at Home Depot, might be able to help). Zucchini also grows pretty quickly, so you don't have to wait a really long time to watch the process. And then you have the yummy squash to eat through the summer as an added bonus (good way to teach kids to eat their veggies!)
We've done marigolds and sunflowers from seed. Buy the Mammoth sunflowers, they are AWESOME and grow past 10ft tall! Then you can save the seeds from the sunflower head and plant them year after year! I start mine in plastic trays - as soon as this weekend even. Keep them in the garage or house at night. When it is warm and sunny during the day, put them outside. We are still having pretty chilly day temps here in MI, so you might want to cover them while outside - you can make a little "green house" by covering the tray with plastic wrap, poke a couple of holes in the top for ventilation. I have some old windows that I use to start plants under outside. If you don't currently have a plastic tray to use, go buy one that has the clear plastic lid to pop on top, those work well. Just put the lid on if day temps are less than 50 degrees or so, you don't want to roast your plants either!
When we start them soon enough, they are almost 1ft tall by the time school gets out for summer break. Last year we potted some of them up and decorated them with ribbon and stuff and gave to the teachers!
When my kids were younger, I started seedling in the house with a mini green house (they have them at the home garden centers) or use an old "paper" egg carton to start. You will need compost or peat moss to start (I do not use dirt.) Make sure they are watered, covered, an in full sun until they start to sprout, then partial sun. Last frost is usually after mother’s day here in Michigan and then you can transplant them outside. I usually leave seedling (almost all plants) under a table or chair (out of the sun) for a few days so that they may get use to the climate change.
As the kids got older, I just planted the seeds outside, which is a lot easily, but takes longer-especially with our so called Michigan seasons. As I say, this is a learning experiment-and no matter what you and your daughter will have a fun (which is all that matters!) Happy Gardening...
Start them now in the house. If you don't get enough sun you might want to put a grow light above them as well. Plant them outside once they are big enough and it's plenty warm!!!!
