first of all thanks to all the help along the way everything is moving well thanks to all the knowledge donaters:the compost has a good smell
the red plumeria is sprouting new little leaves
the sweet corn is pushing the sky
the sunflowers are growing high
and many other beautiful plants are celebrating the spring here
david sevitt
i want to start a green house with kids?
should it be flowers or organic food
starting in september

Hi David. To answer your question, there are a few bits of info necessary. And as for food or flowers, that again depends on your answers to the questions below.

What size green house are you hoping for?

How much ground space do you have available?

Are you looking for building plans or a prefab kit?

What is your winter night low temperature?

What heat source is available?

Will it be used for hydroponics or soil grown plants?

David there is a wealth of info on greenhouse maintenance on our Greenhouses forum here on ATP. http://garden.org/forums/view/...

Since I live in Florida I really don't need one, but I do run an outdoor school garden at our local elementary school. Our growing season here runs concurrent with the school year, so we grow edibles from September through April. We have both food crops and a butterfly garden since we needed to attract pollinators to the new garden area (formerly part of the playing field).

I can tell you for sure, all the kids get much more kick out of growing something they can eat. When you show them a potato and say "what's this?" they all know but when you turn the potato around and show them where it is sprouting and say "then what's THIS?" they are absolutely captured by the idea that the potato tuber they would normally eat is making a new baby plant that will grow many more potatoes. Then, after the plant has grown, you should see the excitement when they get to dig up potatoes! It's a treasure hunt, especially of you grow gold, red and purple potatoes.

Every aspect is a learning opportunity, even a dead or dying plant, a bug or caterpillar eating a leaf "What can we do about this?" "Why can't we let the cute little bug live on our plant?" We talk about non-toxic solutions to bugs and disease - hand picking caterpillars (you must have the kids wear gloves, then they will touch everything) and just removing diseased leaves to spraying benign things like soapy water and baking soda solution to prevent the bugs/fungi but not poison the food.

We talk about everything from photosynthesis "the leaves are nature's solar collectors" "the sun on the leaves makes food for the plant" to re-nourishing the soil, composting, soil testing and really scientific stuff for the older kids. We teach Kindergarten (age 5) up to 5th grade (age 12). I tried a garden at a middle school (6th to 8th grade) a few years ago, but the kids are much more into interacting with each other at that age and it was not as successful.

dyzzypyxxy said:David there is a wealth of info on greenhouse maintenance on our Greenhouses forum here on ATP. http://garden.org/forums/view/...

Since I live in Florida I really don't need one, but I do run an outdoor school garden at our local elementary school. Our growing season here runs concurrent with the school year, so we grow edibles from September through April. We have both food crops and a butterfly garden since we needed to attract pollinators to the new garden area (formerly part of the playing field).

I can tell you for sure, all the kids get much more kick out of growing something they can eat. When you show them a potato and say "what's this?" they all know but when you turn the potato around and show them where it is sprouting and say "then what's THIS?" they are absolutely captured by the idea that the potato tuber they would normally eat is making a new baby plant that will grow many more potatoes. Then, after the plant has grown, you should see the excitement when they get to dig up potatoes! It's a treasure hunt, especially of you grow gold, red and purple potatoes.

Every aspect is a learning opportunity, even a dead or dying plant, a bug or caterpillar eating a leaf "What can we do about this?" "Why can't we let the cute little bug live on our plant?" We talk about non-toxic solutions to bugs and disease - hand picking caterpillars (you must have the kids wear gloves, then they will touch everything) and just removing diseased leaves to spraying benign things like soapy water and baking soda solution to prevent the bugs/fungi but not poison the food.

We talk about everything from photosynthesis "the leaves are nature's solar collectors" "the sun on the leaves makes food for the plant" to re-nourishing the soil, composting, soil testing and really scientific stuff for the older kids. We teach Kindergarten (age 5) up to 5th grade (age 12). I tried a garden at a middle school (6th to 8th grade) a few years ago, but the kids are much more into interacting with each other at that age and it was not as successful.

Thanks that was an incredible help

Moonhowl said:Hi David. To answer your question, there are a few bits of info necessary. And as for food or flowers, that again depends on your answers to the questions below.

What size green house are you hoping for?

How much ground space do you have available?

Are you looking for building plans or a prefab kit?

What is your winter night low temperature?

What heat source is available?

Will it be used for hydroponics or soil grown plants?

Thanks alot for your help

dyzzypyxxy said:David there is a wealth of info on greenhouse maintenance on our Greenhouses forum here on ATP. http://garden.org/forums/view/...

Since I live in Florida I really don't need one, but I do run an outdoor school garden at our local elementary school. Our growing season here runs concurrent with the school year, so we grow edibles from September through April. We have both food crops and a butterfly garden since we needed to attract pollinators to the new garden area (formerly part of the playing field).

I can tell you for sure, all the kids get much more kick out of growing something they can eat. When you show them a potato and say "what's this?" they all know but when you turn the potato around and show them where it is sprouting and say "then what's THIS?" they are absolutely captured by the idea that the potato tuber they would normally eat is making a new baby plant that will grow many more potatoes. Then, after the plant has grown, you should see the excitement when they get to dig up potatoes! It's a treasure hunt, especially of you grow gold, red and purple potatoes.

Every aspect is a learning opportunity, even a dead or dying plant, a bug or caterpillar eating a leaf "What can we do about this?" "Why can't we let the cute little bug live on our plant?" We talk about non-toxic solutions to bugs and disease - hand picking caterpillars (you must have the kids wear gloves, then they will touch everything) and just removing diseased leaves to spraying benign things like soapy water and baking soda solution to prevent the bugs/fungi but not poison the food.

We talk about everything from photosynthesis "the leaves are nature's solar collectors" "the sun on the leaves makes food for the plant" to re-nourishing the soil, composting, soil testing and really scientific stuff for the older kids. We teach Kindergarten (age 5) up to 5th grade (age 12). I tried a garden at a middle school (6th to 8th grade) a few years ago, but the kids are much more into interacting with each other at that age and it was not as successful.

thanks for your reply
it seems like i am slowly getting involved in many gardening matters.....its catchy.
do you know maybe ....since i sowed coleus seeds from a packet they all look green and not the whole hoo hah of weird colors.....if i buy two coleus plants (the weirdest i can find)and plant them close to each other for polination.
does that mean i will get even weirder plants from the seeds they will produce?
sorry for the word weird....
what kind of seeds will i get from one plant alone on an urban porch?
i like the idea of edible plants for a hot house

Yes I think you'll find a good many gardening addicts on this site.

Seedlings won't necessarily develop the full color of the mature plant on the first few leaves, so give your baby plants a chance to grow.

Cross pollination is hit or miss with Coleus, David. I've only ever planted two types in my garden, and although they have both seeded themselves often, the two of them don't seem to have cross-pollinated, at least not yet! They must be self-pollinating because they come true from seed.

You're certainly forgiven for calling them "weird" although "wild" comes more to mind for me.I mostly propagate my Coleus by cuttings since they root so easily. That doesn't give them much chance to 'mix it up' but now that you asked, I'll try putting the two kinds next to each other and see what happens. In theory, they certainly should cross. But if you want to 'help' nature along a bit, a tiny kids paintbrush works to transfer pollen.

This is a picture of my favorite "Dip't in Wine" that seeded itself generously in one of my Earth Boxes last fall.

Thanks for your reply. Years i have propogated coleus from cuttings this year one coleus i tried to save through jerusalem cold wether in a so called warm place i thought. Suddenly seeded itself with one seed that triggered my enthusiasm to try propgating from seeds.parallel to the seeding i did i saw these strange colored coleuses in the local nursery. I will be patient to wait for the colors to change