Although it's mid-April we have had a terrible Spring here in Minnesota. Over the weekend we got just over 19 inches of snow! Needless to say, we are all looking for a little green in our lives! So, we pulled our our root viewer and hit the garden store for some seeds! Even if our outside is still an endless sea of white, inside we have some beautiful little sprouts coming up!
I love root viewers, they are a fantastic way to explore how plants grow and change with children. You can see everything from the seeds, to the tiniest sprout, to the roots growing and expanding in the ground. This is our second year to use ours and the magic is not lost on Henry or Nora. We planted these together, and have been monitoring their progress. Even I love to water them because you can literally see the water trickling down to all the roots! It's an amazing process.
This year, we're growing radish, dill, and carrots. The radish, in particular, has been super satisfying to watch since it sprouts quickly and has an extensive root and leaf system. But last year we also did onions which worked well too. Bonus, for the root plants is watching the vegetable appear which will happen over the next several weeks.
This year, I added some small jars of left over seed to sit in a basket with our root viewer. This has given us the opportunity to look back and remember where we started and how the seeds have grown and changed.
If you are looking for a root viewer, there are many on the market. Here are some that I think look nice!
Viewer 1 (ours); Viewer 2; 3. Grow a Maze; Viewer 4; 5. Hydroponics Kit
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