Children in the Garden

This Spring introduce your children to the wonderful and rewarding art of gardening ~
Get them outdoors and enjoying nature ~
Help them to create their own special space to experiment with plants and garden art. This can be a fun and simple project to do over a weekend.
Keeping them busy every year tending and adding to it.
Bringing them hours of enjoyment and accomplishment.

My children had gardens growing up and had so much fun creating them along the years and were very proud of them. Showing them off by giving garden tours to everyone who visited. They filled them with not only plants and love, but garden art and crafts they created.
20 years later their gardens are still there. A bit overgrown and sadly forgotten. But ready to embrace a new generation of caretakers, "Their Children". How fun that will be to do all over again when they come to visit Grandmama!

~ My son's garden was a collection of plants found right on our land. A woodland garden. Full of elderberry bushes, moss, ferns, wild daffodils, rocks and fossils he'd collected from our all of our travels. He used wild strawberries he found for the ground cover. He picked these every year and ate them with his cherrios :)

~ My daughter's was a fairy garden. Early spring it exploded with crocus, tulips and daffodils. Our cat loved to hide in them and popped out to scare her quite often :) Followed by double daylilies in the summer with gorgeous primrose for the ground cover. She made little paths of tiny pebbles that lead in all directions in her garden. Tiny fairy statues adorned the paths with Fairy houses made of mud and moss.
I smile every time I pass by them.

My Granddaughters fairy garden. We work on it every time she visits.

A simple garden journal is a good way to start.
Map out their garden ideas on paper as to what they envision their garden to become. Keep a garden chore chart along with the journal. With stickers to mark when garden chores are done. When to water, weed, flick those flower eating bugs into a can, dead head the old blossoms and mulching. This reinforces their organizational skills and a sense of responsibility.
Help them work and fertilize the soil to get them going. Maybe encourage them with their own set of children's garden tools.
Then its off to your local nursery or an adventure on your property to gather some plants and watch the fun grow!

By ~ Julie DeGroot

Happy Easter

Have a Beautiful Day Everyone!

When it Rains, Look for the Rainbow

The bog blog

morning sunshine

I've been posting the progress on this garden project on my blog and thought I would give an update here on Gardens of Etsy. Here is my blog with some before pix.
http://willowtreepotteryandgallery.blogspot.com/2011/01/bog-blog.html
http://willowtreepotteryandgallery.blogspot.com/2011/03/bog-garden-continued.html


I did some research on bogs and learned that many bog plants, pitcher plants for example, evolved the way they did because bogs can be naturally low in nutrients.  So I filled my bog with a mixture of peat, sand and a little bit of garden soil for the plants that aren't true bog plants.

wind chime for the deer

I came home from the nursery Friday with 2 big pots of pitcher plants to add to the little ones I put in earlier.  The pickeral weed already put in may not be allowed to grow.  The deer really like it.  I hung a wind chime over the bog in hopes that would bother the deer. I also put in some sedges(grassy looking plants).


The ironweed, turtle head, amsonia and irises are all starting to grow and will look like something in a few more weeks. So I'll keep posting as things keep growing.

pitcher plants and sedge

Earth Day Tribute to Mother Nature~ Promote your Earth inspired creations ~

Earth Day Tribute to Mother Nature

April 22 marks the 41st Anniversary of Earth Day. A movement started by U.S. Senator, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin in 1969. His idea was for a "National Environment Teach-In", a day set aside to stimulate awareness of the crisis state of our environment. The following spring, April 22, 1970, was dubbed, the first "Earth Day".

A celebration of our Beautiful Mother Earth and the awareness of the environmental impact we all have on our world.

Just think about it....... what we do everyday affects our water, our forests, our air, our land and pretty much, just about everything.

Take action to reduce your footprint on our earth. Educate yourself

Grow a organic Garden and/or Buy from your local farmers market

Plant a tree

Recycle ~ Reuse ~ Use less

Start a Compost

Be a smart consumer ~ Teach others

Do it for yourself, your children, your grandchildren and for all the generations to come.

Let's keep our world Beautiful! Make everyday Earth Day :) I leave you with these inspiring words spoken by so many

"We are not the owners of the land, We are the caretakers for Mother Earth"

~ Welcome ~

Welcome to the Gardens of Etsy Team Blog.

A place for us to share our passions, our creations, our love for the art of gardening and nature inspired art. A place for inspiration ~ A gathering space for friends ~ A viewing point for natures beauty.

The diversity of our team is awe-inspiring, from Superior, Unique one of a kind Garden and Home decor, Beautifully Handcrafted natured inspired Jewelry, Handmade fibers to Organic seeds, Herbs and Live plants, truly outstanding work everyone!

If you love gardening, nature and the great outdoors you are most welcome to join us. http://www.etsy.com/teams/8056/gardens-of-etsy

When you find some free time come sit and relax with us in the garden.

Any Gardens of Etsy team member interested in creating a blog post here please feel free to contact me. We would love to hear from you. Have a Great Day in the Garden! Julie

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My Garden ~ By Julie DeGroot (gardenjewels)

It's where I go to free my mind, refresh my body and calm my spirit. Where I find myself seeking enlightenment and a place I find inspiration. I've sculpted the earth into a place I hold very dear to me. A viewing point for nature's beauty. ~ Peace & Tranquility ~

It embraces me when I enter it. The growing gifts from family, friends and my travels greet me and I smile. Each having a story, a place, a person within it. Gathering stones and pebbles found on adventures through the woods, creeks and places I've visited, scattering them among the plants. A reflective pond with waterfalls sets in the background, my husband and I dug by hand that summer long ago. Filled with love and my koi, patiently awaiting to be gazed upon. Tucked away niches to meditate in, as I search for contentment.

One of my favorite places, a tranquil Japanese teahouse my talented husband and son built me for Mothers' Day. It welcomes me to sit for a spell at days end. Wonderful memories, natures' beauty, and my art surround me and comfort me there. Bringing me reflections of color, movement and sounds to sooth my soul. ~ "The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration." ~ Claude Monet ~