Hats off to Autumn!

With autumn nearly over and the inevitable beanies and scarves about to come out of the woodwork, why not make use of those summer hats that have been flung back into the cupboards? It’s a great way for the kids to learn to reuse and repurpose things around the house that are not being used. We all know that kids love to cut things up, so getting to chop up an old hat or two will definitely put huge grins on their faces.

You can use a brimmed hat of any size, as long as it will sit flat on a table and hold your plant correctly. And the brighter the better, to give your garden or home an injection of colour.

 

What you will need:DSC_0053 copy 2

  • 2 straw hats or any wide-brimmed hats
  • Pencil
  • Craft knife
  • Scissors
  • Some flowering plants (we used Viola hederacea)
  • Potting mix
  • 2 small plastic pots with drip trays (relative size to the hat)

Steps of the activity:

  1. Use one of the pots as a template and draw a pencil mark around it on the hat’s crown.
  2. Using your craft knife, make a small cut along the pencil line to open it up, then cut the rest of the hole with a pair of scissors. (Make sure to help small children with this part to avoid accidents).
  3. Put the pot into a drip tray and a little potting mix into the pot.
  4. Push the sides of the hat’s crown down and place the pot and drip tray in the hole of the hat.
  5. Gently push the plant out of the seedling tray, either by squeezing it or using a blunt pencil pushed through the holes in the bottom of the tray. Very gently remove some of the soil from the seedling, being careful not to break off the roots, and place it in the pot.
  6. Fill up the rest of the pot with potting mix and feed with a pinch of fertiliser, but not near the stem. Water until the water comes out of the holes in the bottom of the pot – hence the drip tray.

Place your new hat pot indoors on a table or somewhere eye-catching outdoors.

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