Autumn 2024 Green Shoots Project The Daisy Garland Green Shoots project has been specially designed to inspire children and young adults with complex epilepsy to get outside and practice a bit of ‘green therapy’ by sowing seeds and growing nutritious low-carb vegetables and edible flowers. Over 75 of the families we support have signed up to be part of this exciting sensory project, with many more joining us along the way; and we look forward to charting their progress here on our website and The Daisy Garland Facebook page over the coming months. This project has been made possible through funds raised and donated by our Daisy Garland fundraisers and supporters. We are enormously grateful to each and every one of them. September As the evenings draw in it's easy to think of September as the beginning of the end. But wander through a veg patch or stroll down a country lane with hedges and trees laden with berries and nuts and you'll realise that things are far from over. Let's take a peek at what our Green Shoots families are up to this autumn... Lily's mum, Vanessa, told us: "We had a funny year growing this year. Some of our wild flowers didn't take. We've been away (typical!) when things needed watering more. We grow green beans every year but they're not growing so well this year - had trouble with slugs earlier in year... Lily was given a big wooden planting pot so she painted it to use outside... she planted it up with geraniums and next year will grow veg in it... lots of toms ripening 🍅... mini sunflowers doing well 🌻... had loads of apples from our tree this year." A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible. Welsh Proverb Vanessa, I could not agree more! It's been a very strange year for growing and my goodness I've lost count of the slugs and snails who've happily munched their way through our courgette and runner bean plants. We didn't have a single blackcurrant this year - usually our 3 bushes are laden with fruit, but not this year. A puzzle as to why? Our green pepper plant did OK. We did well on the beetroot, lettuce and sweet pea front. Our tallest sunflower clearly heading for the stars! Rubbish tomatoes this year. A small handful still green sitting patiently on the vine hoping for warm sunshine (not sure this will happen). But, hey ho, that's the joy of gardening! Some years you win. Some years you learn. And of course there's always next year... SARA xx (Founder and CEO, The Daisy Garland) "We finally got going and have some lovely things growing." Marie Esme's beautiful sunflower... ...tomatoes and cucumbers. We're enjoy the sensory Green Shoots journey! Love this time of year when you can pick your own snack straight from the tree, then get back to the digging and weeding... SARA xx "Amy harvested her first runner beans last week and said they were delicious (with her cauliflower cheese).... Sadly we have an infestation of black fly so may not get many more." Julie Top Tip: Place home grown broccoli florets in a mug of cold water (as you would a bunch of flowers). Pop the mug in the fridge and the broccoli will last for weeks. The same applies for shop-bought broccoli: remove packaging, cut 2cm off the bottom of the stalk and place in a mug of cold water. Bye bye yellow, rubbery, broccoli! We've had lots of fun watching everything grow 🌱 Dad came home with a present for us. A watering can to mimick rain. I go outside and he's hung up my fork etc. We now have done grow bags on the go and looks like a little Beetroot starting. We don't know what we are doing and starting late. But figure if we practice and get the habit now we might have a clue what we are doing to sow some stuff in spring. We will be sticking with pots so no groundwork, but we are buying a big raised bed with cover and have big pots and grow bags for the stuff that really should be in the ground x " Marie Erika's Top Tips for Marie: "I think beetroot is good. They say it can crop all year round in warmer locations as well as Chard. In addition as autumn/winter crop I am trying Brussel sprouts (especially the red one is hardy), Leek Giant Winter), Curley and Cavolo Nero kale, purple sprouting broccoli and will sow some winter lettuce a bitter later. Oh they say spring onion 'White Lisbon' is good for Autumn and various greens like perpetual spinach, Pak choi, Mizuna. Perhaps even Christmas potatoes are not too late too?..Good luck Marie!!! I've got all excited for you xxx" Green Shoots has brought a bit of fun and excitement into our lives. Never thought of planting seeds or growing anything before... "Green shoots update. Courgette, beetroot, cucumber and sugar snap peas!" Sarah "One of the things that you could do on a rainy autumn day is sample your tomatoes and cook a chutney. But you have to be into Green Shoots 🌱 " Erika "Final carrot harvest. They have been so tasty eaten raw or cooked. Here we have the biggest, the longest, the wonkiest and the smallest from today’s haul." Rosalind "Even though we're not keto diet anymore some things stayed, wish you could smell courgettes frying in olive oil with garlic thyme and black pepper." Claire "Vegetarian keto breakfast for Gethin this morning with his home-grown tomatoes." Helen Growing our own food has made me think about nutrition and what we eat in a different way. I'm really enjoying cooking with fresh herbs. They add a new dimension. "Autumn has arrived! I decided not to bother cleaning up this afternoon and instead unloaded our Green Shoots flower press and decorated the tree. Needless to say the carefully covered stems with wrapping and fiddly macramé quickly gave way to stick it on with sellotape but the effect is very pretty." Rosalind Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. Albert Camus "Finally put our bug hotel up." "Green shoots 🌱 Despite the cold weather everything seems to be finally flowering In picture order they're courgettes, red sunflower, zinnia, cucamelon and cucumber. One cucamelon is still going strong the other not so much. Still not managed to take pictures of the cucamelons on the plate... Most of them haven't made it that far... Bear LOVES them so much so he's been getting annoyed that I need to wash them and cut them before he can eat them! " Francesca "As part of Green Shoots project Anna got insect hotel, last autumn. Due to "unhappy" circumstances we couldn't use it. Now we don't have anymore garden but close to my flat is nice community green space with bee friendly area, thus it was easy option where build the hotel." Jan I warms my heart see my boys working together on this project. We've had a garden for years but never thought we would be growing our own food! It's given us something new to focus on and look forward to. "My second favourite crop and seed gathering underway." Erika "Picked from our allotment 10 minutes ago. A feast for the eyes and tum. You know it's autumn when... 🎃" SARA xx October "Sprouting strawberries and plum and cherry tomatoes! I won't be singing rain rain go away anytime soon." Sadia Our primary school nature table, to me, was a thing of timeless beauty. No matter what season. My go to place for quiet and calm. These are the things from that nature table I remember well: a tiny jam jar filled with wild violets and herb Robert in spring; dog roses, wild garlic, sheep's wool and sea glass in summer; rose hips, pine cones, conkers, and beech nuts in Autumn (and if you were really lucky, a disguarded birds nest complete with tiny blue eggshells). Growing up in the Cornish countryside made it easy to find these things, and more, on your way to school. Giving you the opportunity to dawdle and eat your break time snack (usually an orange Club biscuit) en route! Have you ever stopped to look at the dew glistening on a cobweb on a cold and frosty morning? A mindful way to start your day for sure. You could even bring a little bit of the outside into your home creating your own nature table/shelf to celebrate the seasons. Here's one I made earlier... Happy Autumn everyone! 🍁🍂 SARA xx "Home grown corn Oran was very pleased with his latest produce." Justine "Oran’s sweet corns are amazing, much better than mine turned out. I don’t think mine got fully pollinated, they still tasted amazing but only half the cob had any corn on them. Will try again next year! The only things I have left are some turnips which should hopefully be ready for around Christmas and I did sow more carrots to see if I can get a late crop before it gets too cold, they are growing so even some baby carrots would be nice. The tomatoes this year were a bit rubbish, hardly any sun, so a lot didn’t ripen, and some were quite bitter. Next year I’m going to try cauliflower, cabbage, and a few other things so that will be interesting” Thomas "Lots of green tomatoes probably for a chutney." "Hard to resist autumn leaves.... each one a treasure in its own right... We sent flower presses to our Green Shoots gardeners last year. But I love using my make-shift flower press where I sandwich leaves and flowers between a couple of sheets of white paper slotted between the pages of a big book weighed down under a pile of heavy books. I leave them there for several months, almost forgetting about them, but not quite. Dried leaves and flowers make the most beautiful bookmarks." SARA XX "Here is Teddy with his tomatoes 🍅 which were started off by Grandad and luckily did very well as unfortunately ours did not." "Teddy with his Teddybear sunflowers 🌻 We have just moved house and were sad to leave our 1 surviving very tall sunflower in the garden just before it opened up, but we were glad we could bring the little ones in the pot with us. Along with the hydrangeas (which started as cuttings, also from Teddy’s Grandad) and cosmos." I’m building up to sowing some sweet peas for earlier flowers next summer. Now I’ve got a greenhouse they will be happy in there over winter. Mary "We do have some exciting news! Chloe was chatting to a lady about her plastic greenhouse and her little Green Shoots 🌱 and the lady very kindly offered her a 6 x 6 greenhouse she said she was upgrading to a bigger one how kind. So over the weeks we've set about disassembling it, cleaning it and we decided to paint the aluminium frame black no mean feat. and hopefully in the next month we might be able to get the glass in. Chloe is very excited." "We've made a base from left over drive blocks" "Two coats of hammerite ultima took some patience" "She can’t wait to get the glass in the greenhouse. Her Green Shoots have now developed inside with houseplants too. She’s growing money plant cuttings in mini vases of water and watching the roots grow. More updates and pics coming soon!" Chloe, Wow! and what a fabulous job you're doing! Such a stylish greenhouse! Can't wait to see it filled with little Green Shoots! 🌱🌱🌱🌱 SARA XX Update: "Chloe's Money Plant cuttings..." Esme's delightful dahlias... "Jacob took his Daisy Garland pressed dried autumn leaves to school and made a card for his mum and dad. Beautiful." "Two in one: Green Shoots update and potential keto recipe Our currant crop: kale, leek, courgette and chilly from I think onion and courgette are optional and milk could substituted with double cream for a higher ratio. It turned out to be a bombastic brunch." Erika. Daisy Garland HQ resembled a mini post office this morning: 60 Green Shoots Autumn Grow Boxes piled high and ready to label, weigh and smoother with postage stamps. Eagerly anticipated by those who've signed up to join our 2025 Green Shoots proeject, our Daisy Garland Grow Boxes are on their way to: London, Wigan, Devon, Cornwall, Scotland, Worcester, Sheffield, Staffs, Warwickshire, Nottingham, Middlesex, Essex, Manchester, Surrey, Southampton, Merseyside, Hertfordshire, Belfast, Kent, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Somerset, Wales, Wiltshire, Milton Keynes, East Sussex, Leeds, Shropshire, Berkshire, Bristol, Birmingham, Bedford, Suffolk, County Durham, and Newcastle. Look out for the postie! Ahhhh, but what's inside? We can't wait to see you pics! Happy growing and love from Sara, Karen, Nikki, Jean and Flossie the office pooch xx "Huge excitement here this afternoon, G was thrilled with her parcel and we are now off to get some pots to plant the bulbs in! Thank you so much!" The excitement in our house when she sees The Daisy Garland logo on anything is immense! She is always so excited to be part of something alongside the other children. Until recently she had never met any other children with epilepsy so seeing them on the Facebook page growing plants and vegetables (just like her) gave her a real sense of community. Thank you for including her again. xxx "Eve so excited to receive her green shoots parcel. We can’t wait to get playing and watch them grow Thank you " "Emily loved opening her green shoots box. Just need to get some compost during half term . Thank you The Daisy Garland xx" "We were so excited to receive our Green Shoots box (Izzie asked her brother to help her open her “present”!). So kind of you to send We have been out in the garden this weekend - Izzie had the most fun clearing the beds ready. It’ll be lovely seeing the colour in the spring! THANK YOU xxx PS I loved the tissue paper! " "Well what a wonderful surprise George had! He wrote to you all over the weekend for the lovely gift of Bulbs.Thank you SO, SO much for lift his day.He kicked this morning off with a Seizure lasting 45 seconds, but ate his breakfast and got planting. Lots of love. Marguerite & George xxxxx” George we LOVE your card and your beautiful writing. Thank you. "Thank you so much for our bulbs! Annabelle and Lily (the cat) were both very curious about the contents of the box and we are looking forward to planting them together " "Thank you Daisy Garland " Isi, loves our Green Shoots project 🌱 She was thrilled with her autumn grow box and can’t wait to get planting! "Green shoots has arrived for us - can’t wait to watch them grow. Isobel had a good time opening the box." "Tallulah just come home from hospital and received this her reaction was something else massive thank you." "Anna's Green Shoots project parcel just arrived. Our next stop is garden centre to buy flower pots.So excited again to grow our own salad and flowers. Thank you The Daisy Garland team." The bulbs came today, thanks for those! I’ll get them planted this weekend and send you the photos in the Spring, when I am sure they will be amazing. I haven’t grown Nectaroscordum before but they look lovely on the photo! What a great scheme this is, I can just imagine how exciting it would be for the kids to have something of their own to look after and nurture and watch them grow!! Thomas. "We were having a miserable epilepsy kind of day today but the postman's drop off from the fabulous Daisy Garland Angel's have helped to turn it around. Hoping for a positive weekend so we can get some fresh air and plant these beauties. Thank you Daisy Crew x" https://www.facebook.com/1467762987/videos/1307312166936524/ "Thank you The Daisy Garland - Tia’s green shoots box has arrived We are going to plant them over the weekend Tia really liked the bee tissue paper - you would never believe Tia wouldn’t use her hands pre diet! P.s - I love the 20 years of Daisy Garland sticker on the box xx" "Thank you for Lilys bulbs. Lily can't wait to plant them in the garden " "Thank you The Daisy Garland we got our Green Shoots box yesterday and opened it this afternoon. I especially loved the bee paper and was desperate to use it for some scrapbooking but Amelia favourite activity is ripping paper and as soon as she saw it, it was like Christmas and I couldn't take that away from her lol. We opened it together. She doesn't understand but loved getting her hands dirty when we do the planting together. It's half term and we have some seasonal seed sowing too so so we will do a green shoots slot this week. We will give a few bulbs to my mother in law too who has a lovely raised bed and we will have progress photos from us both. The paper won as the best thing in the box but the paper wins at Christmas and birthdays too so no surprise there lol." "Esme’s just opened her Green Shoots box and she’s so chuffed with it! Thank you. Mabel loved it too as she got a bit of cardboard and joined in with Esme’s excitement at opening the box!" "Gethin says thank you very much for his onions he opened the bag and said oh onions, I like onions. I’ve shown him the pictures of the flowers and tried to explain but they are still onions xxx" "Looking forward to planting these today Spot the picture where he plots to run away with his new seeds" "James wants to say thank you for his flowers to plant, he can't wait to get stuck in and mucky." "Here's Paige opening her green shoots bulbs, we're going to plant them this weekend....we have a bit of woodland and were going their this weekend to get them planted, the last picture is the wood." Nusrah and her big sister with their Daisy Garland Green Shoots Box 🌱 "A big thankyou to The Daisy Garland for Muntaha’s green shot bags. we are looking forward to plant them this weekend. " "Thank you for the spring bulbs. We will plant them this weekend " "Eve so excited to receive her green shoots parcel. We can’t wait to get playing and watch them grow Thank you " "Thank you for our wonderful Green Shoots parcel. It's been a busy half term so not played them yet but looking forward to it!" "We have been very busy planting in great grandads pot thank you The Daisy Garland Tallulah loved doing this now she is feeling a bit better." "Thank you for Tahira's green shoots parcel. Will be planting soon " "Lily's hoodie from other year still fits . Lily planted her bulbs today. After being encouraged that they don't go in a straight line .... They like to go in groups.. Thankyou Daisy Garland. Looking forward to seeing what comes through " "This wonderful box full of bulbs arrived last week. Today is the day we get to plant them. This is a new venture for us as previously we didn’t have a garden big enough for planting but now have a large garden to fill. I’m hoping to gain my green fingers badge, but won’t know if I’m successful till the spring We managed to grow some sunflowers this year so hoping my luck continues " "Isla is very excited to plant her bulbs!" "Huge thank you to The Daisy Garland for Arlo’s bulbs, we will be planting them tomorrow! xx" "Thank you for our bulbs! I forgot to get a photo of Sandy opening them but he enjoyed planting them at the weekend!" " Thank you so much Chloe is thrilled with her wonderful DG Green Shoots parcel. After repotting up some of her house plants she's excited to plant these over the weekend xx houseplant bathroom take over! Cuttings growing nicely and green house frame nearly completely painted xx" "Thank you The Daisy Garland for Theo's Green Shoots package, he's looking forward to planting everything! " "Arlo was so excited to plant the bulbs xx" "Emily planted her green shoots bulbs this morning . Looking forward to watching what happens xx" "Here's Paige in our woods planting the bulbs...lovely day for it too! We've actually planted hundreds of snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells this year as part of the rewilding our Amenity wood, we will post the success next spring " "Here’s Teddy with his Green Shoots 🌱 bulbs " "Charlie the dog always has to get involved in Amelia’s Green Shoots 🌱 pictures." Sara's bulbs planted. Roll on spring! "We enjoyed plant our bulbs this morning The Daisy Garland -thank you Excited to watch them grow " "Thanks so much to The Daisy Garland for our green shoots box...we are hoping to plant ASAP. We have all been poorly with covid apologies for the delay xx" "Tallulah would like to share what shes been building with her daddy and grandad ready for our growing this is a poly tunnel with sprinkler system " "Planting our Green Shoots bulbs!" "We planted our bulbs " "Me and Jacob have planted all the bulbs into pots in the garden today. Fingers crossed for spring. Thank you Daisy Garland 💜" "Thank you so much for our fab Green Shoots package We've had a poorly little one on our hands, so only just managed to plant them tonight Thank you we can't wait to watch them grow " "November Green Shoots Herbal patch is full of herbs with nasturtium roaming freely.Parsley is going strong since the spring. We are really enjoying using a lot of it as it makes huge difference to any dish. Chard and kale are new favourites. There is basil and few chillies still growing away in the greenhouse and winter lettuce doing very well in the cold frame. Red chicory (or radicchio?) yet to be tasted soon. It looks like Isabelle's dad may have some Brussel sprouts for Christmas. Allotments are so wonderfully peaceful at this time of year " Erika "Yesterday, we finally got out and planted our bulbs. Annabelle enjoyed being outside in her standing frame, feeling the bulbs and playing with some leaves from the garden. Can’t wait for the bulbs to poke their heads up in the spring!" Hannah. "Tia has planted her bulbs & put soil on them ready to watch them grow (I've slightly rearranged them before we put the soil on top! )" Chloe To learn more about our Daisy Garland Green Shoots Project please click HERE Watch this space for more updates coming soon! Manage Cookie Preferences