May has been a special gardening month in Nani’s Corner. We have painted rocks, dug soil, and planted pizza ingredients. So now it’s time to answer some plant-based questions! This week’s garden projects will look at a bit of the science of soil and stems.
Kid Plant-Based Questions:
Do plants eat and drink? How do they do that?
Celery Food Coloring Experiment:
This experiment is great for kids of all ages! When you set up an experiment, tell them what you are doing and what to watch for. Make it a conversation with questions and possible answers. Ask the child what he thinks will happen.
Supplies:
To find some answers you will need:
3 stalks of fresh celery each with leaves at the top, the fluffier the better
3 clear glasses or empty jelly jars
3 different colors of liquid food coloring.
Answer and Experiment:
1. Fill each glass halfway with clear water and ask the child, “What will happen when we put a few drops of food color in the water?” Put enough color to make each glass clearly a different hue from the others. Now comes the experiment.
2. Examine the base of a freshly cut celery stalk.
“We’re going to give this vegetable a drink of water, and we’re going to watch how quickly it drinks. You drink through your mouth, but celery has no mouth. How does it drink?”
3. Place one stalk in each glass, and go outside to play. Check back in one hour, two hours, 24 hours. Ask the child to explain what happened. Older children might want to keep a chart to describe how the celery’s color becomes more intense as time passes.
4. Cut one of the celery stalks to examine the round xylem tubes that move water up from the roots of the plant. Ask the child to imagine whether a plant would prefer a drink at its base or over its leaves. Next time you water your basil plant, make it all about the base.
Alternate Option:
This experiment is even more fun with a white carnation. You can slit the stem and put glasses close enough together so that half of that stem can sit in red water and the other half in blue. You will have a multi-color carnation in a short time.
Getting to the Root of Fun:
Not all plants are built like celery, but most can get very thirsty. Go to the garden and pull up a weed. Ask the child what the roots can do. Wash soil off the roots so it’s clear that some are white or orange or tan. Besides holding the plant in place, they drink up moisture in the soil.
Make up your own experiments! You might be creating a junior botanist.
In Nani’s Corner we shop local small businesses, so check in at your favorite garden store for plants and supplies:
- Beaver Valley Farm & Country Store (Pelham)
- Delahunty Garden & Landscape Center (Windham)
- Lake Street Garden Center (Salem)
- Springlook Farm Garden Center Nursery (Derry)
FULL LIST OF ALL GARDEN RESOURCES HERE
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