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Apr 4, 2021

Children in the garden | The Real Dirt - Chico Enterprise-Record

The Real Dirt’ is a column by various local master gardeners who are part of the UC Master Gardeners of Butte County. Gardening teaches patience. Children live in the now, but life is a blend of immediate and delayed gratification. Waiting for a seed to germinate or a flower to open forces a child to slow down and focus on the process of its development. This is called patience practice. Learning to be patient is an essential element of future success and may also help children cope with stressful situations. Practicing patience teaches children to calm down and relax. When calm and relaxed, they are better prepared to control their impulses and emotions. This promotes good mental health. Studies have shown decreased anxiety and better moods in children who spend time in garden activities like digging and planting. Further, a study published in the American Journal of Public Health in September 2004 studied the impact of natural settings on children diagnosed with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The study found that simply being outdoors in a natural setting may reduce ADHD symptoms. Working outdoors in the garden with children encourages brain health. Intellectual skills like remembering, analyzing, and predicting outcomes are practiced in the garden. Learning the differences among various plants and the different parts of each plant (e.g. leaf, stem, root, flower, seed) facilitates cognitive development. The garden is a great place for kids to ask questions and explore outcomes. Anyone who has spent time working in a garden knows that gardening is a physical activity. Turning dirt with a trowel or shovel, raking leaves, even just walking around the garden exercise upper and lower body muscles. Young children fine-tune motor skills. All children expend calories which may be instrumental in preventing obesity an...

Apr 4, 2021

2021’s Most Coveted Flowers? Pale Dahlias for the Garden - The Wall Street Journal

Benzakein, founder of Floret farm, in Mount Vernon, Wash., and author of the new book “Discovering Dahlias” (Chronicle Books). “Blush, champagne, buttercream—those colors have become really popular in the last couple of years, and there’s extra frenzy to find varieties in that palette.” SHARE YOUR THOUGHTSHow do you get dahlias to grow and thrive? Join the conversation below. Ceramist Frances Palmer plants hundreds of dahlia tubers each spring outside her 1860s home in Weston, Conn., including Café au Lait, a ruffled pale-pink and ivory variety whose popularity many experts attribute to a 2010s endorsement in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. In her garden, Ms. Palmer mixes the cultivar with similarly pallid species such as milky Sally Holmes roses and white Japanese anemones. Grow an assortment of dahlia shapes, she urges, from ball to waterlily, so your bouquets vary in “form and shape as well as a nuance of color.” Here, a few delicately toned beauties new to market, with their price per tuber. BAREFOOT Swan Island Dahlias, an Oregon business nearly a century old, hybridized this pearly, peachy specimen with a 4-inch wingspan of quilled “semi-cactus” petals. In development for five years before coming to market in 2021, the dark-stemmed plant reportedly blooms prolifically. Preorder August 1 for 2022, $30, dahlias.com ...