Fun for Kids - Growing Up Green

Calling all young sprouts! Get ready for some hands-on fun in the 10th Annual New Jersey Flow & Garden Show’s “Growing Up Green” program.

Education specialists from the New Jersey Audubon Society and Grounds for Sculpture, the public sculpture park in Hamilton, lead free daily activities for younger show visitors.

The young gardener as artist
Taking her cues from current exhibits at Grounds for Sculpture, Margareta Warlick will have kids making garden sculptures from found objects like tree branches. She also will offer painting sessions with paints made from natural pigments extracted from common flowers and insects.

The site occupied by Grounds for Sculpture was formerly used as a state fairgrounds and horse racing track. In recognition of that festive history, Margareta will remember the tradition of wearing special hats to the races by having youngsters create colorful “derby hats” that they can wear home.

Margareta is a Rutgers-trained master gardener, too. She will have kids make mini-greenhouses from empty water bottles to propagate houseplant cutting or start tiny seeds. Flowers that kids will make from recycled plastic bags will serve as the starting point for an explanation about how plants are pollinated. These are botany lessons made painless and fun!

NJ Audubon Children's Program - Saturday, Feb. 19th from 11:00 to 3:00pm.

Make Your Own Meadow
Did you want to make your own backyard more inviting for beautiful birds and insects? Learn what attracts these creatures and how to create a mini-backyard habitat for them. We will create seed balls (a method of distributing seeds by encasing them in a mixture of clay and soil) and teach children how to distribute them in their yards this spring. The seed balls will be taken home, and once the seeds sprout, children will see a colorful clutter of wildflowers bloom!