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Kids Go Gardening - greenies

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Sprinkle a handful of grass seed, add water and watch it grow! This is a good time to grow something, like a hairy caterpillar or a hairy head!

Grow a hairy caterpillar

You will need:

  • An old sock or nylon stocking
  • Lawn seed
  • Potting mix
  • Rubber bands or string
  • Eyes from a craft shop (or buttons for eyes)
  • Some twigs for feelers
  • Paint, glue, glitter, decorations (optional extras)
  1. Mix some grass seed into your potting mix, we used a heaped tablespoon of lawn seed to a cup of potting mix.
  2. Fill your stocking with the potting mix and seed mix.
  3. Tie off the end and use rubber bands or twine to make segments like a caterpillar.
  4. Dunk your caterpillar in water for ten minutes or give it a good soak overnight.
  5. Place it in a sunny spot and water every couple of days as you watch your caterpillar grow greener and hairier.
  6. Attach some eyes and feelers. You might want to give your caterpillar a haircut and pluck out any whiskers growing in the wrong place.

Hairy friends

Sprinkle a spoonful of lawn seed into the end of your stocking. Add potting mix and tie off the end. Soak it in water then sit it on top of a jar. Mist spray each day with a squirty bottle filled with water. Add a face and watch the hair grow. Cut and style as required! If you have used potting mix with fertiliser in it and keep watering, the grass will keep growing.

DID YOU KNOW?

  1. A real caterpillar has 12 or 13 segments, six permanent legs, one pair on each of the first three segments, plus up to 10 soft legs along the rest of its long body. The soft legs disappear when it becomes a butterfly or moth.
  2. A real caterpillar has six tiny eyes on each side of the head, and two short antennae which help it feel its way
  3. A caterpillar quickly out grows its skin. It must swap its old skin for a new one four or five times before it turns into a butterfly or moth. Some caterpillars eat their old skins.
  4. Caterpillars eat a lot but they are quite fussy! Different types of caterpillars eat different kinds of plants, which are called their ‘host’ plants. For example, white butterfly caterpillars love to eat cabbages and broccoli.

How do you know you have hungry caterpillars in your garden?
When you see holes in your plants’ leaves, and black caterpillar poo (called frass).

Look for these products, tips and advice at an Go Gardening garden centre near you.



1-Mar-2023

 


Friendly hairy caterpillars


To grow hairy friends, you will need these


The filled sock ready to soak in water


Friends with hair!

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