Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 488
Flower Crops
Hello Everyone
Every year Bill, Bob, Emily and Henry like to have a sunflower growing competition. Sunflowers grow so high that they are way above all the other flowers in the garden.
They grow way above all the people in the garden!
The sunflowers have to be grown in a sheltered place to protect them from any wind that might break them down.
But there are some farmers in the world that grow sunflowers as a crop.
Sunflowers look a bit like the sun and they actually follow the sun through the day while they are growing before they bloom. Once they are mature they usually face east where the sun will rise every morning.
Sunflowers are native to the Americas, but are a very popular crop grown around the Mediterranean and in some tropical regions too. The seeds produce an oil that is used for cooking, but can also be used to feed animals like chickens.
Sunflowers can be annual (sown every year) or perennial (come up every year).
They are usually yellow but can be shades of orange or even dark red.
The more the sun warms the flowers the more they produce nectar which can feed bees. A bee takes a whole lifetime to make a fraction of a teaspoon of honey and having such large volumes of food in large flowers growing close together is a real help to them.
There are other flowers that are grown as crops in fields.
lf you ever see a blue crop in a field, it is likely to be flax flowers. Flax is also known as linseed.
This crop is grown to produce linseed oil or a fibre that is woven into cloth known as linen. You may have linen sheets on your bed or linen tablecloths in your dining room.
The flowers are pretty and quite small. They grow well in cooler countries.
lf you see really bright yellow fields in spring you are probably looking a crop of rapeseed. This is grown widely now in Europe and Asia. A crop growing over winter can help to protect the soil through harsh weather and deter weeds from growing.
Rapeseed is actually related to the cabbage family. lt is grown to produce human food and animal fodder to feed animals like cows. lt has been cultivated for thousands of years.
lt is a wind-pollinated crop but yield is increased if bees pollinate it and they use the flowers to make an early honey.
Rapeseed has a seed that is very rich in oil which is turned into cooking oil or a protein meal which is a by-product of extracting the oil from the seeds.
The oil can even be used as biodiesel to be used in motor vehicles. This means a saving of using fossil fuels and is a source of renewable energy.
Of course, some flowers are grown to be used as flowers.
Flower farming has a special word. lt is called floriculture.
The earliest seasonal flowers in the shops are daffodils grown in the southwest part of the country – including the Scilly lles. This industry is called the cut flower industry. The flowers are grown in lines like other crops, not in picturesque groups like the ones in the grass outside Auntie Alice’s garden hedge.
Daffodils can be yellow, orange, white and pink. Some like Soleil d’Or have scent too.
The country in Europe that grows the most flowers to be cut and put in vases is Holland.
Their fresh flowers are transported far and wide. They grow a lot of house plants and bedding plants too.
But a lot of people that worry about products with high ‘air miles’ are encouraging farmers and small holders to grow rows of seasonal flowers for the home market. A home market means selling to people in your own country.
Lavender is a beautiful colour. People who own lavender farms don’t have to have hundreds of acres to grow their crop but they do need a lot of flowers to make just a few drops of lavender oil.
This oil is used in the cosmetics industry.
There are lavender farms in the south of France and in England too.
Roses have traditionally been used in the cosmetics industry too. Damask rose petals can be used to make soaps and rose water. Rosehips can be used to make rosehip syrup, rich in vitamin C.
l have been talking about growing flowers commercially so far – that means to make money but l think that l should also mention companion planting too because it is very useful.
This is usually done in gardens and on allotments and of course, children’s vegetable patches..
Companion planting means planting plants that will lure harmful creatures away from precious food crops or attract beneficial ones towards vegetables that may not have large, colourful, showy flowers that easily attract pollinating insects.
Companion planting is an organic way to control pests.
Nasturtiums and tobacco plant flowers will attract aphids (greenfly) away from your crops for example. You can grow these plants from seed.
The herb chervil will attract slugs (and copper strips will repel slugs).
Pelargonium, sage, borage and catnip are all plants that repel pests, so they are worth growing.
Herbs like rosemary, thyme and oregano will attract bees and other pollinators. Parsley and dill will attract other beneficial insects and so will sunflowers.
Talking about sunflowers has brought me full circle.
You can make roasted sunflower seeds into snacks to eat, but if you have lots of sunflower heads to spare, just leave one out for the birds to pick at near the bird table in the winter.
They will be very pleased to have the food to eat and will in turn hopefully stay around in your garden to eat your slugs and snails for you!
lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.
Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: What do you get when you cross a flower with an ape?
Bill: l don’t know. What do you get when you cross a flower with an ape?
Bob: A chimp-pansy!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Sunflower
Sunflower crop
Flax
Rapeseed crop
Nasturtium
Tobacco plant flowers
Lavender farm
Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, we had the Rocky Bay Flower Show come to town and it was a great success.
There were lots of show gardens and stands.
There was a small fairground for the little children to go into and lots of things to buy as well.
The Rocky Bay Nursery has a stand and sold a lot of things.
The staff set up a ‘question and answer session’ in a marquee every day at three o’clock and visitors could sit in the audience and ask questions about problems they were having in the garden.
I told you about the mayor’s plans to start the Rocky Bay Flower Show back in February. It was a new project to bring tourists into town in the middle of the summer.
He had decided to set up the Rocky Bay Flower Show and he had asked the teachers at the school to ask their children if they would like to create a stand for the school.
Miss Pringle suggested that the children might like to bring in any houseplants they had and write out all their needs in their best handwriting on a label to be displayed next to the pot.
lt would be really great if the plants were ones they had grown themselves from seed or cuttings. There was plenty of time to get ready for the show.
But the children had a better idea.
They wanted to design their own show garden!
After all, children are very good at having ideas, and they are very good at drawing pictures.
Miss Pringle agreed and said she would have to have a long think about the idea and discuss it with the mayor.
ln the end, it was decided; the children’s garden would go ahead! The children were very excited.
Their garden would be a small garden full of bee-friendly plants.
The whole garden would be square.
There would be a space to place a couple of chairs in the middle for people to sit in the sunshine. This place would be flat and shaped like a bee.
The rest of the garden, around the flat place, would be a large flower bed full of bee-friendly flowers. There would be an entrance at the front so that you could walk into the middle of it.
Every child in the school that wanted to take part would plant up one pot of annual flowers. This could easily be done with seeds.
Captain Jack and l would lay down the centre of the garden using gravel and mark out the edges of the garden with tiny walls.
We would put soil inside the walls and the children could transfer their flowers from the pots to the ground.
A few of the children would take it in turns to stand by the garden and answer any questions visitors might have. They would have a teacher with them at all times to help them out if necessary.
When the visitors came to see the garden, they were very impressed.
They were impressed with the design and they were impressed with the beautiful show of flowers.
They were also impressed with the children’s knowledge!
They knew the names of all the flowers that had been planted and they knew a lot about bees too.
It wasn’t only the visitors to the flower show that were impressed with the garden.
The bees loved it too!
The garden was filled with bees!
This was evidence that it really was a bee-friendly garden!
If you want to make a bee-friendly garden, remember that bees like flat flowers rather than frilly ones – they need to get into the centre of them easily to collect nectar and pollen.
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Quick Quiz
lmprove your English
1.
Can you correct this phrase?
An amount of people
2.
What is the difference between:-
To rob a car
To steal a car?
3.
What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences?
l remembered to post the letter.
l remember posting the letter.
4.
When do you use ‘a’ and when do you use ‘an’?
5.
Can you correct this sentence?
Can you tell me what is the time please?
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A FLARED JACKET FOR A 12” DOLL
This is a smart yellow jacket for casual wear.
The white top can be found on Blog Post 390.
JACKET BACK (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and yellow dk yarn cast on 20 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Decrease 1 stitch at the beginning of the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 11th, 15th, 16th rows of stocking stitch
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
JACKET FRONT RIGHT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and yellow dk yarn cast on 11 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 1 row
Purl 14, knit 2
Repeat these last 2 rows at the same time decrease 1 stitch on every 4th row at the side seam until 7 stitches remain
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch keeping the garter stitch border at the front edge
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
JACKET FRONT LEFT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and yellow dk yarn cast on 11 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 1 row
Knit 2, purl 14
Repeat these last 2 rows at the same time decrease 1 stitch on every 4th row at the side seam until 7 stitches remain
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch keeping the garter stitch border at the front edge
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
SLEEVES (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and yellow dk yarn cast on 12 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 18 rows of stocking stitch
Cast off
JACKET BELT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and red dk yarn cast on 3 stitches
Knit 90 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
Sew the lapels down
Then with right sides together using over-sew stitching
- Sew up shoulder seams
- Sew the tops of the sleeves in place
- Sew up side seams and under arm seams
BLACK TROUSERS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and black dk yarn cast on 16 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 36 rows of stocking stitch
Cast off 2 stitches at the beginning of the next 2 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch
Change to 3¾mm knitting needles
Knit 4 rows of 1×1 rib
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
With right sides together using over-sew stitching sew up front and back seams then sew the inside legs
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
1.
Can you correct this phrase?
An amount of people – X
A number of people – CORRECT
2.
The difference between:-
To rob a car – to take something from it
To steal a car – to take the car
3.
The difference in meaning between these two sentences:-
l remembered to post the letter.
= l had a task to do and l did not forget to do that task. l posted the letter.
l remember posting the letter.
= l have a memory of posting the letter. l know that l posted the letter.
4.
When do you use ‘a’ and when do you use ‘an’?
You use ‘a’ when it is followed by a consonant sound and ‘an’ when the following word starts with a vowel sound.
So a banana and an apple
But also
A unicycle and an hour
The rule is to do with sound not spelling!
5.
Can you correct this sentence?
Can you tell me what is the time please? – X
Can you tell me what the time is please? – CORRECT
An indirect question takes the word order of the declarative (stating something) not the interrogative (asking something).
