Arbor Day Activities

Hello everyone!  In honor of Arbor Day tomorrow, I would like to share a few activities that you can do at home with your kids that will encourage a love of trees and nature that will last a lifetime.  Not only will they be developing strong, earth-friendly habits young, but you will have a ton of fun together as well. This rustic twig frame is a simple and quick project that even very young children can do.  All you need is a few twigs, some string or twine, glue (hot glue works well), and a photo for framing.

Collect 2 bunches of twigs.  One bunch (about 6 to 8 twigs) should be approximately 2 inches longer than your photograph. The other bunch of twigs should be about 2 inches wider than your photo.

Arrange the twigs so that they surround the photo and extend outward about an inch in each direction.  Tie the twigs at each corner using the string or twine, making an X pattern.

glue the photo onto the back of your twig frame.  Hot glue works the best, but be careful of young children and hot glue.

Glue a small loop of string to the top batch of twigs for hanging the photo.

This string of leaves are a great way to decorate a room.  You can string these across a window or along a mantel or around a chandelier for a great holiday decoration.  Here's what you'll need to get started.

1. Construction paper (any natural colors)
2. Crayons or markers
3. Scissors
4. Glue, tape or staples
5. A long piece of yarn or string

Draw a leaf on construction paper.  Make sure to draw a stick stem on the top.  Your leaf will hang from this stem, which will be folded over.  You can freehand your leaves, trace a real leaf from outside, or download a leaf template.

Cut out the leaf and fold the stem in half.  You can draw on leaf veins if you wish.

Attach the leaf to the long string using tape, glue, or staples.  Draw more leaves and repeat the process.

I hope these give you some great ideas for adding a few Arbor Day celebrations to your house.  And remember, the best Arbor Day project of all is to plant a new tree in your garden.  We have so many beautiful options to choose from, and as always, our experts are on hand to assist you with selecting the perfect tree for your yard.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll see you back here tomorrow for more snippets from the garden.

Arbor Day 2010

Hi everyone!  With Arbor Day just two short days away, now is the perfect time to consider planting a new tree in your home landscape.  We have a wide range of beautiful trees to chose from down at Garden Supply.  By planting a tree, you will not only be enhancing your own yard, but you will also be helping the environment.  Did you know that trees remove pollutants and dust from the air?  Trees also provide natural insulation- enough to cut your heating and cooling bills by up to 30%.  Come talk to our experts about choosing the perfect tree for your garden, and celebrate Arbor Day with us! Here's a little fun history on Arbor Day.  The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska.  It was the idea of Julius Morton, a Nebraska journalist and politician.  Throughout his long career, Morton worked to improve agricultural techniques and served as President Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture.  But his most important legacy is Arbor Day.

Morton felt that Nebraska's landscape and economy would benefit from the wide-scale planting of trees.  He set an example himself by planting orchards, shade trees and wind breaks on his own farm, and he urged his neighbors to do the same.  As a member of Nebraska's state board of agriculture, he proposed that a special day be set aside dedicated to tree planting and increasing awareness of the importance of trees. For Nebraska's first Arbor day, more than one million trees were planted.  A second Arbor Day took place in 1884 and the young state made it an annual legal holiday in 1885.

In the years following that first Arbor Day, Morton's idea spread beyond Nebraska with Kansas, Tennessee, Minnesota and Ohio all proclaiming their own Arbor Days. Today, all 50 states celebrate Arbor Day. Arbor Day is also now recognized in other countries, with variations being celebrated in Australia, Japan, Israel, Korea, Yugoslavia, Iceland, and India.  Sometimes one good idea can make a real difference.  For more information about this holiday, please visit the Arbor Day Foundation.

Over the next few days, I'll share a few simple Arbor Day crafts and activities you can do with your kids at home that will foster a love of trees that will last a lifetime.

This fun pine-cone bird feeder is a snap to make and would be perfect to hang in your newly- planted commemorative Arbor Day tree. Here's what you'll need to get started.

• A large, open pine cone
• Vegetable shortening, lard, or suet
• Oats or corn meal
• Bird seed
• String

Simply tie a few feet of string to the pine cone and then cover the cone with the food mixture below. Roll the pine cone in birdseed and then hang it from a tree branch outside.

Food Mixture:

Mix 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, lard or suet with 21/2 cups cornmeal or uncooked oats until well blended. Optional: add chopped dried fruit, chopped nuts, seeds like sunflower or millet, and/or suet which are high energy bird foods.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!  I'll see you back here tomorrow for more great Arbor Day ideas.