Gill Garden Center + Landscape Co.
Corpus Christi, TX Garden Center
Here’s a fun project kids can do to attract birds to your landscape. Take natural pinecones, roll in peanut butter, and then roll in bird seed. It’s a little messy….just right for kids! Attach a hanger and place them in your trees. Birds come and feed on them and everyone gets to enjoy watching!
-DeAnna
Gillian is my neighbor and her older brother, Michael, works at Gill’s. The other day her mom, Ann, sent me a photo of a fairy garden in a hanging basket Jillian designed and built with help from Whitney at our Alameda store. Just had to share it with everyone! I asked Jillian if I could interview her for this blog, and she cheerfully agreed, Friday at 5pm. She greeted me at the door; we quickly moved to her back yard where all the action was. Our first stop was a basil plant she was excited about; she loves basil! Her mom makes a soup in a special “bullet”, mixing squash, celery, basil, broth & topped with cheese. Gillian gardens at school too! She and her classmates are growing parsley, yellow squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and dill. We then moved to her special fairy garden, hanging from her playscape. She has a pig and a rabbit and toadstools and a fairy house that lights at night (and yes, you can get one at Gill’s!). She and her best friend, amazingly also Jillian (spelled with a J), started their interest in fairies from a book, and it’s grown from there. Finally, I asked Gillian what she thought she might like to do when she grows up. Her response was quick and sure. She wants to own her own restaurant and plans to make dishes with only garden fresh ingredients! Wow, I was impressed, and am anxious to be her first customer! Go Gillian!
-Sally
Last week I had the pleasure and absolute delight of giving a tour of our Nursery to Girl Scout Troop 9638. As I lead the girls and one boy (younger brother) around, it gave me a chance to see what our Nursery looks like from someone else’s eyes. We talked about how fruit develops from a flower, what’s so important about soil, and how we can use plants in our daily lives as medicine, aromatherapy, and surprising edibles. Watching them get excited about breaking open an Aloe plant or pick their own Purslane “weeds” and munch on them woke me up to how important it is for our kids to garden, and to get their hands in the dirt! I am happy to announce that all the girls from Girl Scout Troop 9638 who came to Gills are on their way to getting their ‘Flower Badges’ and hopefully we piqued their interest in exploring gardening on their own and with their families.
-Marta
Meet Elliott, my grandson from Denver, Colorado. Last year, at the ripe old age of 10 months his favorite thing was digging in the dirt. He’d happily dig in a plastic box of planting soil for an hour, using child sized garden tools from Gills. Now, at almost 2 years he’s advanced to planting and tending his first vegetable and herb garden.
Elliott’s garden has radishes, carrots, squash, lettuce, arugula, tomatoes, mint, and basil. Yes, he really planted them himself! The rows aren’t perfect and more seeds are grouped closer to the edges where he could more easily reach. He doesn’t care. It’s his garden and he’s already reaping and eating its bounty.
The radishes are fast growing and he loves to eat them freshly picked and washed. He enjoys picking mint leaves to chew while playing in the back yard. Soon there will be tomatoes to snack on, then carrots to eat.
I suggested to his mom for next year’s garden, mixing carrot and radish seeds together. It’s a tip I heard on Justin Butts’ radio program. The radishes come up first and their fast growing leaves provide a living mulch for the carrots, which grow more slowly.
We’ll see what Elliott thinks about that!
-Kathy
Be a garden artist and paint your own fun and colorful garden art!
Supplies:
How To:
Fun options for your blocks:
Please share your own garden art block creations on our Facebook page!
-Merlien
We all know how hard you’ve worked to have a beautiful landscape. Now how do you keep it thriving and surviving the summer heat? Here are some of our top tips for keeping everyone happy and healthy:
-DeAnna & Debbie
Plant Zinnias with your kids or grandkids, (or just for you!)
We have customers of all ages. Maybe two of our youngest gardeners, very active gardeners, are brother and sister Kai & Isla. Kai is a third grader and Isla a first grader, both attending Windsor Park Elementary.
It’s no surprise, they’ve grown up watching their parents and grandparents garden. And it seems they all love to experiment with what they plant, where they plant it and how they take care of it.
I asked the kids what they are thankful this Thanksgiving. Kai said he is thankful for nature and camping; Isla for being outside, NOT watching TV & NOT eating fast food!
For starters, they prefer raised beds. They use sandy loam topsoil mixed with Nature’s Blend from Gill’s and then they add compost between crops. Kai says their compost is made up of kitchen scraps (veggie peels, egg shells, strawberry tops, etc…) mixed with leaves and grass clippings.
The kids have three different growing areas in their backyard. One garden is behind the garage along the back fence where they grow veggies on a string trellis. They have a crop of green beans ready to harvest right now!
The second garden is along the side of their house where they have huge tomato plants mixed with marigolds and lots and lots of basil.
Their third garden is in the back corner where Jeff, their dad, built a L shaped raised garden. It was a gift to his wife Erika! It’s the largest garden and has the most diversity with different greens, radishes, herbs, carrots, kale, kohlrabi, pumpkin, broccoli & Bok Choy.
And to top it off, they have a big pot of beautiful fresh spearmint on their patio next to a pot of pineapple and a grow bag with potatoes they’re experimenting with!
I asked them if they liked to eat what they grow. Yes, they do! One of Isla’s favorite recipes is fresh kale from the garden mixed with olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic and lemon. Yum! They also love simply munching on leaves while playing in the backyard!
I thought my visit was going to just be about plants, until they asked me if I wanted to see their chickens. They have four chickens, soon to be producing eggs. One of their fun pastimes is picking worms off their greens to feed their chickens!
Kai & Isla both seem to love digging in the dirt, watching veggies grow, and eating healthy food! So this Thanksgiving week, one of the many things I will give thanks for is parents that share the miracles of nature, gardening and good old healthy living with their children!
-Sally
