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How to Grow Pumpkin in Brisbane with Kids

Growing Pumpkins

Third column from our ‘Gardening with Kids’ expert and Nashville State School Prep Teacher, Sue McKenzie

Planting seeds with young children can be a lesson in patience and wonder. It is an amazing experience for a young child to plant a tiny brown seed in soil and with a little water and sunshine, within days witness the wonder of a small plant emerging from the soil. It is an amazing thing to watch the tiny plant grow gradually over days and weeks to develop leaves, flowers and possibly fruit. It is a great lesson in lifecycles if you can save the seed and replant again.

Young children are not always the most patient of people and here at Nashville School we have hastened the process of planting by growing giant pumpkins. We were able to source some seeds from a Giant Atlantic pumpkins and recently planted them. Within one week the pumpkins plants had begun to grow and were 5cm tall.  These pumpkins plants grew at a phenomenal rate and the children were able to see a noticeable change between morning and afternoon in their growth. Now after 2 weeks they are 15cm tall and are ready to plant out in the garden. We are very excited about the possibility of growing giant pumpkins as fruit from this variety have been known to reach over 200kg in weight. We are having great fun learning about size and measurement using our pumpkins plants and are anticipating learning lots about weight as our pumpkins grow. I will keep you informed in future columns as to how successful we are.

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This article was published in Issue 3 of our print magazine, April/May 2014.

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Janine Mergler

Janine Mergler is a veteran Queensland teacher, graduating from QUT with a BEd majoring in Social Sciences. After many years in the classroom, Janine moved on to academia. She has proudly trained new generations of teachers in her role as a lecturer at Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Education. She has also worked in the Queensland Government as an education specialist, developing education resources and delivering community awareness programs to help families conserve water. Currently she is the owner and editor of Families Magazine, a publication specifically targeted at parents who value a quality education for children.  Janine leads a team of professionals who write about family lifestyle, early childhood, schools and education information and family-friendly events.

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