This past week we hosted our 9-year-old friend Myles for a little summer camp we we were calling “Work and Play, Skate and Farm camp” or “Camp WaPSaF.” We had a good mix of activities including tubing, archery, skateboarding, tie dying, game playing, and a dance battle, but here are some of the garden and nature-related things we did together. They seemed to be a big hit.
🌻Nature Photography Scavenger Hunt
We wandered around the yard and gardens to find all the things, take pictures of them, and then went inside to complete some of the tasks that required research. The list included things that we knew would be easy enough to find but would require some searching.
🌻Gel Prints with Leaves and Flowers
We collected leaves and flowers with interesting textures, made collaborative prints with gel pads and acrylic paint, then hung our art up on the wall.
🌻Plant Propagating
We went into the garden to take cuttings of herbs (Mexican mint marigold, rosemary, and lemon balm), dipped them in rooting hormone to make new plant starts, learned about the growing process, then made a little video. We also had some seedlings with established root systems already so he could take some home to plant.
🌻Tea Harvesting & Seed Packets
We harvested baskets full of tulsi to dry and packaged some seeds (in this case it was a fairy garden seed blend with larkspur, coriander, and three kinds of poppies). He got to go home with some tulsi tea and a homegrown packet of seeds to plant in the fall.
This was our first ever Camp WaPSaF but maybe we’ll do it again next year. It was a lot of fun. 😊