New Scientist Last Word Blog: Closing time - New Scientist

New Scientist Last Word Blog: Closing time - New Scientist

A nice article explaining the opening and closing of flowers during the night and day.

our song!

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

Pulling weeds and pickin' stones
Man is made from dreams and bones
Feel the need to grow my own
'Cause the time is close at hand
Grain for grain, sun and rain
Find my way in nature's chain
To my body and my brain
To the music from the land

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

Plant your rows straight and long
Thicker than with pray'r and song
Mother Earth will make you strong
If you give her love and care
Old crow watchin' hungrily
From his perch in yonder tree
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless the seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down
- David Mallet

an interesting planter on commercial street.

This one was for fake plants though.

re-using stuff as planters

woolly bags- breathable sides release excess moisture and aerate soil. waterproof lining prevents water dripping.

bamboo

old tyres

old pots

old cans




egg shells

planters

looking at planters!

old cans

tetra packs

Poster

There is a lot of work to do with the poster. we are working on sketches and putting in the creature. thinking about using them for info graphics also since the poster has become way to text heavy, even after we reduced the text.

shibumi follow up.

The plant poster put up on the wall near the garden.

with feedback!

....their heights and the height of theirs tree..

The kids have been wonderful planters- extremely enthusiastic and involved. The teachers say that they have been wanting to make a fence for the tree to protect it from goats, but they couldn't as the school was closed for a 5 day break.

Unfortunately during these 5 days, we had a major goat attack. the stupid animals ate up the top of the tree. The strong singapore cherry tree survived the attack, but lost some of its limbs in the process. So, today we decided to make the fence finally, using some thorn bushes and stolen sticks from a construction site.

Today Bhairav, Varun and Yashwant also planted mustard.They are cool as they grow fast, and most of the seeds plant. if you grow them in the shape of a smiley face, you're likely to have smiley shaped garden in a week or two! We tried three different ways of growing them. lets hope this works.

growing mustard in the ground..

Growing mustard in a planter...to prevent ants from getting to the seeds.


growing mustard in cotton...this works because seeds have food supply and initially need only water, sun and the right temperature to grow in.

hiding them in a place where they will get partial sun...

new visitor to our garden!

(Creature library)

the mystery of the bhindi....

In our last post i mentioned that the bhindi was growing extremely well...and it was until two days ago, when we noticed that the little saplings had begun to droop down into the soil. Initially we thought that the amount of water we were giving them wasn't enough, and so increased the watering levels. But this didnt seem to help. I then realised that some plants were still standing, healthy, and these were far away from each other, surrounded by many drooping ones. This made me think that maybe there were so many plants that they werent getting enough space.

So i decided to transplant them into individual containers. While uprooting the saplings my doubt strengthen. The roots of five saplings had joined into one and the plants looked extremely week. They seemed to have started to fight for the nutrients from the soil. Hopefully, giving them more space will make them grow healthy again!:)

breaking out of the cuticle, all fresh!

the strawberry creature!

When it came to making creatures for the plants, things seemed to be a lot more difficult than we had expected, as they always are. the main focus of our toy was the plant and not the creature. We wanted the creature to just be the initial connection between the kid and the plant. so it was important for us to find a balance between making the creature fun, but not too fun so so that the focus wouldnt change from the plant to the creature. we thought it would be good to give the creature a play pattern or features that would also serve as a function towards caring for the plant. for example, making the creature out of sponge, so that the kids could use it to water the plant. Strawberry creature uses his little detatchable pockets to protect the strawberries from touching the soil and rotting.

We felt it would be nice to give a very handmade feel to our creatures. We decided to use waste cloth from tailors and other waste materials that we found.

The plant creatures show characteristics of the plant but dont look exactly like the plant itself. we wanted to use elements from the plant and give the creatures a fun personality.

Anuj plays with strawberry creature.
he is filled with beans and has little buttons all over him, like the seeds of a strawberry.
He dresses himself in little pockets that he attatches onto the buttons.

him with strawberries.

cockoo him!


super healthy him...doing hand stands!
At work...protecting the Strawberry.

transplanting mint!