How Does Your Garden Grow Kit

Description

Whether you grow fruit, vegetables or ornamental plants in your plot, you are bound to know something about what makes a good garden.

Everybody knows about the role of buzzy bees in pollinating crops and most people know that ladybirds eat pests such as aphids. However, the garden is a dynamic ecosystem with many beneficial interactions taking place continuously. These include the role of bacteria and fungi in breaking down leaf material and the creation of drainage holes by earthworms.

This unique kit is based on research carried out in the Bio-Protection Research Centre at Lincoln University in association with the Organic Biological Husbandry Unit and Kings Seeds. The kit will help you to discover a number of important things such as the acidity of your soil (slightly acid for potatoes, slightly alkaline for brassicas) and how to attract bees to your crops and ladybirds to eat your pests.

What does it contain?

The kit contains the following 13 fascinating techniques for you to experiment with:

• Flowers for pollinators (one packet of Pollinator Blend seed mix)
• Flowers for beneficial insects (one packet of Beneficial Insect Blend seed mix)
• Activity of soil inhabitants – 1 (five bait lamina probes)
• Activity of soil inhabitants – 2 (four tea bag units)
• Soil sedimentation test (technique only)
• Soil nitrates and nitrites (four nitrate/nitrite sticks)
• Soil acidity (five pH strips)
• Helping plants call for reinforcements (one Predalure sachet)
• The good bacteria and fungi in the soil (two agar plates)
• Physical properties of soil (technique only)
• The value of earthworms (technique only)
• The value of birds (technique only)
• Magnifying glass