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Create Your Own Greenhouse

Have you wanted to create your own greenhouse? Not sure how? Well these tips and ideas from Custom Made will help you make your greenhouse a reality.

A couple of good reasons to have greenhouse are:

  • It might get too cold to grow certain types of plants. If you have a greenhouse it will allow temperature control to allow you to grow plants that would die if it got frost or too cold.
  • Allow you to grow seeds and young plants. It is always sad and annoying when you try and establish a plant and it dies for a number of reasons, the temperatures outside were too much for it, or you went on holiday and it got neglected. Having a greenhouse will let the young seedlings and plants thrive to then relocate in the garden or you can keep in your greenhouse.
  • Having a controlled environment helps kids learn more about gardening. As said in point two, if your seedlings die it might discourage the kids. Seeing the plants grow from strength to strength will help foster the love of gardening and children will want to do more and more.

What do you need to create your own greenhouse?

  • Flat head shovel, rake
  • Pressure-treated boards for base frame
  • Landscape fabric
  • Landscape staples
  • Heavy duty staples
  • Pea gravel

The great infographic from Custom Made shows you the steps to create your own greenhouse. Don’t forget to have the right garden tools for the kids. Once the your greenhouse is up and running the kids will want to get busy planting. Our Little Green Fingers Gardening Tool Set is just right for little hands and will be the perfect addition to your brand new greenhouse!

Greenhouse Dreams
Infographic by CustomMade

We hope you have fun creating your own greenhouse and your plants love it too! Let us know how it goes and what you plant in your greenhouse.

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Halloween Crafts for Kids

Pumpkin ready to paint for Halloween. Image courtesy of Michael Elliott at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Pumpkin ready to paint for Halloween. Image courtesy of Michael Elliott at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Many kids love Halloween. There are parties, costumes, and every kid’s favorite – candy. Trying to keep kids entertained until Halloween night can require the patience of Gandhi himself. Here are some easy Halloween crafts that you can use to keep the kids entertained.

Puppets

Ghost puppets are easy to make and can inspire hours of creative play. Get a white handkerchief, black marker, and a rubber band. Drape the handkerchief over your child’s middle three fingers, secure with a rubber band, and draw on eyes and a mouth with the marker. You can also put the cardboard from a paper towel roll and stuff the head with cotton balls if you want a more permanent puppet.

Lollipops

If you are planning on handing out lollipops as part of your treats for trick-or-treating, you kids can help you decorate them. Cover the lollipop with a tissue, tying securely with a rubber band or piece of ribbon. Use a marker to draw eyes and mouth on your ghosts and they are ready for giving.

Spider webs

Take 3 craft sticks and glue them together so that they make a star shape. Taking white or black yarn, weave it over one craft stick and under the next, working your way outwards from the center. When it is finished, glue down the end and attach a plastic spider. Your creation is now ready for hanging.

Candy Cauldrons

Find an empty plastic container and paint it black. You will also need to paint three small wooden balls black as well. Once everything is completely dry, glue the balls to the bottom of the cauldron. Add a wire handle if you would like, and fill your cauldron with your favorite Halloween candies.

Paint a pumpkin

Pumpkin carving is a bit messy and difficult, and can be dangerous if you do not want small children handling the knife. Instead, get some permanent markers or acrylic paint your pumpkin to look like a monster, clown, or other Halloween character. For kids, the smaller “pie pumpkins” or even the mini-pumpkins will work perfectly for this craft.

Paper plate masks

While your child may not be able to dress up in their costume until the day or evening of Halloween, you can easily create your own masks. Help your child cut eyes and breathing holes out of a paper plate. Punch a hole on either side to attach a ribbon or string to tie the mask on. Then you can allow your child to decorate the mask with crayons, marker, paint, or by gluing items to it.

Family celebrating Halloween. Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Family celebrating Halloween. Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Reusable treat bags

Purchase some reusable cloth totes or shopping bags as well as some Halloween-colored fabric paint. You can also look for iron-on transfers and stencils to make decorating easier. Allow your kids to decorate their own bag. If you do this a few days before Halloween, it will be dry and ready to go along when trick-or-treating.

A little creativity and you can come up with your own Halloween crafts for kids as you wait to celebrate.