How Does Your Garden Grow

Which Plants Are Growing

A Read-Along Activity

S96_Header_TommyPrefersTheStrawberries
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Do you know this nursery rhyme?

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

S96_01_BubblesChecksHisRanunculusPlants
Bubbles Checks His Ranunculus Plants
The teddy bears were singing it the other day when it suddenly reminded Bubbles and Tommy that it was time to check on the plants they had sown last month and see how they were growing. They had planted ranunculus bulbs into pots in the greenhouse. Now they are big plants, and almost ready to go out into the garden, where they will flower.

If you look closely at the leaves on the plants, they look like buttercup leaves, don't they? That's because ranunculus are members of the buttercup family and they have some characteristics (that's just a big word which means "things about them") in common. Go and find a buttercup leaf and compare it to the ones in the picture.

S96_02_ItLooksLikeAButtercupLeaf
It Looks Like A Buttercup Leaf

Bubbles had been visiting the plants regularly and giving the other bears updates on how the plants were growing, right from when there was only a little tiny green leaf in each pot. Now they look really good and Bubbles is very pleased! He had looked after them very well, watering them and making sure they didn't get too hot (or too cold) in the greenhouse.

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Tomato Plants

Tommy was much more interested in the strawberry plants they had planted - the plants already have very small fruit on them but it is not quite ripe yet. Tommy wanted to try one anyway, so the other bears let him, but he declared it very hard and very bitter! Yes, Tommy, you have to wait until they are red all over and ripe before you eat them!

They also had a look round at some of the other seeds they had sown. They had planted some seeds for salads in their salad trough - and there they were - little tiny radish, beetroot, lettuce and rocket plants. No, Tommy, still not ready to eat yet!

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Salad Seedlings

All the bears had also planted sunflower seeds in a tray and those seeds have grown into tiny plants too. Very soon the bears are going to have to plant them out in the garden so they can grow tall and have flowers on them.

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Sunflower And Marigold Seedlings
There are also some marigold plants growing - again, they are very small at the moment, but they can be planted on into pots soon, so that there will be marigold flowers all around the garden - the bears are going to put them near the beans and peas, and near the tomatoes - apparently they are very good "companion" plants and stop the plants near them from getting insects and bugs. Very kind!

There are also some runner bean plants, and some broad beans and peas are growing now too.

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Runner Bean Plants
They will all have to go out into the garden very soon as well - especially runner beans because they grow up to 7 feet tall! Way, way taller than any of the teddy bears!

Have you sown any seeds this year? Are yours growing well? If you didn't, there is still time to at least sow some salad seeds - they grow quite quickly, especially now the weather is getting better and the days are longer. They will be really yummy too, as Tommy knows, and you'll find that food tastes especially nice if you've grown it yourself!