Children always seem to be attracted to cacti. The great variety of shapes and sizes makes them fun to collect. Planting them together like this is a fun way to display them. And the good news is that they will still look great even if they get neglected.
This exercise will give you the opportunity to talk about how cacti have adapted to the hot, dry environment of the deserts where they come from. You can also discuss the variety of different types that exist.
An hour to plant up, plus a nice trip to the garden centre.
1 Ask your children to place some crocks in the base of the pot or bowl. They need to cover them with a layer of shingle or coarse sand. This is to give the plants the good drainage that they need.
2 Next they should mix some coarse sand into their compost, then nearly fill the pot with it.
3 Tell them to sort the plants into those with prickles and thorns, and those without. They should carefully take the non-prickly plants out of their pots and plant them into their bowl. They need to ensure there is enough soil around the roots - plants like to feel safe and well firmed into their new home, not loose and floppy!
4 Now for the prickly ones! The children need to pick them up by wrapping a folded sheet of newspaper around each one, so that they do not get the prickles in their fingers. Ask them to plant them in their pot and carefully firm them in.
5 When they are all planted, the children should place pebbles in the spaces between the plants, then use the sand and shingle to cover any soil they can still see.
6 They can water the pot gently using a watering can with a sprinkler end on it.
7 They should place their new garden on a windowsill and wait for it to start growing!
8 The garden will only need to be watered when the soil is dry. These plants come from places where water is extremely rare!
9 Drainage is all-important for these plants. Mix up two parts of compost with one part coarse sand or grit.
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