Spring Has Sprung!

Last week, the doorbell went and, as usual, The Boy rushed to the porch door.

"Postman!" he shouted, and turned away. I went and rescued the dejected looking postman and the large box that he was carrying, which ironically was addressed to The Boy. When he realised this, he squealed with delight and was eager to open it up.

This lovely gardening kit was sent to him from innocent so that he could plant his own seeds and take part in the exciting promotional project that is going to be featuring for the next few weeks. Throughout March and until the end of April, every box of the innocent kids’ smoothies or fruit tubes will come with its very own pack of easy to grow seeds. There are six different varieties to collect including carrots, tomatoes, cress, basil, violets and sunflowers – all of which will show little ones how a garden grows.

So yesterday afternoon, we did some gardening. First we made some eco-friendly newspaper plant pots, the brain-child of Christine from Climbing Rainbows.

Then we planted our seeds into the newspaper pots, but we saved one set of seeds for a special pot to be kept in a secret place. More on that in a bit!

In total, we planted sunflowers (my favourite flower), violets, basil, tomatoes, carrots and cress. We'll be planting more seeds over the next few weeks; peas, courgettes, leeks, and seed potatoes. Gardening is an important activity to help teach your children about the world around them, how things grow, what is needed to keep plants alive, etc. While planting these seeds, we discussed that they needed water and warmth to start them off, and then once the leaves have appeared that they need sunlight. We counted the scoops of soil we put in, talked about textures and materials. Gardening is such a fun and educational activity, that really provides children with a sense of achievement.

While waiting for our seeds to grow, we'll be visiting the innocent gang's garden and uploading photos of our plants' progress. Join in with the seeds that you get from the innocent smoothies 4-pack boxes and learn some top gardening tips, upload photos andyou could be in with a chance to win cool prizes from innocent's friends at Rocket Gardens and the Royal Horticultural Society.

And so to the competition.

But not quite yet. In about a week's time, I will be posting on my blog, a photograph of one of my plant pots but in a secret location. I'll also be posting photos on twitter and instagram of the seeds as they grow, using the hashtag #innocentseeds. The competition will involve guessing where the special pot is, and what is growing in it. Correct entries will be placed in a virtual hat (otherwise known as Rafflecopter) and one of those clever souls will win a innocent smoothies gardening set like I received.