Summer 2026 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. 67 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 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. JUNE Rosy radishes, succulent strawberries and crispy salad leaves can only mean one thing: summer's here! This is such an exciting time in the garden with buds and blooms popping up everywhere ensuring there's something to new and exciting to see every single day. The little birds, bees and butterflies will be enjoying your garden too, so it would be great to pop a shallow dish of fresh water out for them every day so they can paddle and sip whilst enjoying the lovely sunshine 🐦⬛ 🐝 🦋 🌞 Let's see what our Daisy Garland Green Shoots gardeners are growing this summer... "Our Crown Prince Squash are ready to be planted into some bigger pots..." Charles "They're now too big for the house, so have been moved out to the greenhouse. Roots still not strong enough for outdoor planting." Charles "Now planted in the plant bed! now to keep the slugs away." Charles A little Crown Prince recap... Included in last year's Daisy Garland Autumn Grow Boxes were seeds rescued and recycled from the 'bellies' of two of the Crown Prince Squashes grown on Sara and David Garland's allotment. In their little brown packets, these seeds highlight the never-ending cycle of nature and the endless joy it gives when watching a tiny dry seed sprout into something as big and bold as a Crown Prince Squash! We'll be following the progress of these little seeds over the summer and autumn months... hopefully from plot to fork! 🍽️ 😋 Rewind 9 months to where it all began... Harvesting De-seeding Rinsing Drying Packaging Dispatching Receiving Sowing Watering Waiting... Sprouting (look closely!) Growing! Nine months down the line and the time has come for our Crown Prince Squash plants to spread their wings transferring from pot to allotment plot. And not before time! They're getting a little top heavy now the flower buds have started to form... In preparation for planting out, I dug four holes in the soil (about 30cm apart) the depth and slightly wider than each pot the Squash had grown in. I gave each of the four plants a good water an hour or so before planting. This makes it nice and easy to remove the plants from their pots. I did this by turning the pot upside down, gently sliding my fingers either side of the main stalk near the base of the plant... ...firmly squeezing the pot with my free hand, gently easing the soil from the sides of the pot, sliding the plant out with the rootball attached. The pot slid off quite easily showing good root formation at the base of the squash. One Crown Prince happily settled into it's forever home 🌱 Carefully fill the hole with soil, pressing the soil down on all sides to firm the plant in before giving it a really good water so the soil settles well into the gaps around the roots. Later that evening we sprinkled a few organic slug pellets around each plant just to get them off to a good start without worrying about them getting nibbled. For those wanting to do the same, you can find organic slug pellets at most garden centres or buy them on line. These little plants will really take off over the coming weeks, snaking their way across gardens and allotment plots each flower turning into a handsome Crown Prince Squash. If you have a small garden or yard and are growing your Squashes in grow bags or large pots filled with compost you might want to think about growing them vertically - click HERE to learn how to do this. Happy transplanting everyone! Sara x PS My Wisteria, grown from seed, has returned again this year. I'd almost given up hope that anything green would grow from the little dry brown sticks poking up from the pot over winter. But hey presto! Green leaves, finally!! Thank you to Isabelle's lovely mum, Erika, for sending us a big handful of pods from her own beautiful Wisteria so we could share the bean-shape seeds inside these velvety cases with our Green Shoots families. Spreading the Wisteria love! (The magic of nature!) First year's growth 🌱 Wonderful Wisteria... (what I'm aspiring to!) "My squash is getting very friendly with the lavender next to it, so I really need to move it! I was going to get a grow bag, but my neighbour offered me a bigger pot - do we think this would be big enough? My instinct is still to go with a grow bag, but this pot is very big so I'm not sure! Also, I'm really scared to move it! I moved one in my mum's garden, and it went all floppy. It's since grown some more leaves and looks better, but I'm nervous! Thank you " Hannah Hannah and Poppy are patiently waiting for their allium buds to burst into flower... Alliums and Baby Snapdragons growing well in Charles's garden 🌱 🌸 🌼 Sara, our CEO, had high hopes when back in March she planted these little Chinese Chive seeds. It's June 9th, and from 2 pots planted only one chive has sprouted! 🤔 If at first you don't succeed... try try again! This time she's going to sow them directly into the ground. Let's see what happens! We'll be sure to keep you posted! Meanwhile... look what Nikki our Family Support Assistant is growing in her little pop up greenhouse! 🥒 More updates coming soon! Manage Cookie Preferences