After trialling two fantastic monthly subscription boxes from Mud and Bloom* in January and February, this month Flora got her very own blogger mail when March’s box arrived addressed to her! This is the first time anything blog-related has arrived specifically for her and I’m sure you can imagine how excited she was – so, what did she think of the contents?
About Mud and Bloom boxes
If you haven’t read our January and February reviews yet, then let me tell you a bit about Mud and Bloom’s monthly gardening and craft subscription boxes for kids. The boxes come through the letterbox addressed to your child and contain at least two seasonal activities: one gardening and one nature craft – along with instructions, quizzes, and games. Anja Ffrench, the founder, is keen to teach children about the seasons, plants, insects, birds, soil and rainfall. And to make life easy, everything you need is provided in every box – instructions, seeds and even compost, so you don’t need to worry if you don’t have a garden.
The box activities are aimed at 3-8 year-olds and have been created by qualified teachers, with influence from Forest School, Montessori and Steiner education to support the EYFS, KS1 and KS2 national curriculum.
March’s box
Here’s what was inside this month’s box:
- instructions for growing cucumbers (organic seeds and compost pellets provided)
- instructions for growing giant sunflowers (organic seeds and compost pellets provided)
- some fabric squares, thread, glue, and a glass toadstool, plus instructions on how to make a fairy garden, complete with tipi and bunting
- a fact sheet and signs to look out for in spring
- and a quiz.
Cucumbers and sunflowers
We’ve grown our own cucumbers for the last few years and Flora LOVES them so these were excellent seeds to get. And I think you’d be hard pressed to find any child that doesn’t love growing sunflowers, especially ones that could grow up to 3m tall.
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As last month’s tomato and basil seeds had outgrown their little fromage frais pots and been potted on into proper plant pots, we could re-use the frais pots again. After we’d watered the compost pellets and they’d swelled up, we planted our seeds (two to each pot) and put them on the window sill. Five days later the sunflowers were already sprouting, although no sign of anything from the cucumbers (that said, I know from past experience that cucumbers are much slower to germinate).
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And here are our tomato and basil plants from February‘s box, below some of my cornflower seedlings.
Fairy garden
Flora was so excited to create her own little garden. The activity sheet was for a fairy garden with plants, a tipi, and bunting. But she decided hers was going to be a dragon garden, with no bunting. So I just helped make the tipi and she did the rest. I’d love to say she took inspiration from Beth Chatto’s dry garden but in reality, she just wanted to use her collection of rocks and shells, so that’s what she did. She added the dragons, some giant ladybirds, some little vials of crystals (dragon jewels), the supplied toadstool, the tipi, and a few bits of conifer, and I think the result is really rather stunning.
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Facts, signs of spring, and quiz
We love the Nature News facts, we always learn something. For instance, we didn’t know that the birds’ Dawn Chorus is sometimes simply a signal to each other that they’ve survived the cold night! And once again, Flora got all the quiz questions right and she could tick off all the signs of spring in our garden too.
Will we be subscribing?
* We were going to subscribe this month but Flora was gifted the March box as a thank you for our previous two months’ reviews. Although she was under no obligation to review this one, in all honesty, we couldn’t not write about it!
Yes, we will be subscribing, without a shadow of a doubt. These Mud and Bloom boxes are such a fantastic and fun way of doing things with your child and learning at the same time. And all this for only £7.95 including UK P&P. I’ve extolled the virtues of Mud and Bloom at length in my previous reviews so I don’t want to keep banging the same drum (!) But I would like to say thank you very much again to Anja Ffrench for letting us trial all these boxes.
As far as I’m aware, there’s nothing else like this and of this quality out there for children. Both Flora and I think any child (even those over eight years old) would be absolutely thrilled to receive this through the letterbox addressed to them.
I love this activity you do with Flora. The best part is the happiness we get when the plants grow. I would have definitely subscribed to this box. 🙂 Love all the pictures. have a nice day Lisa.
http://glossnglitters.com
Aw, thank you Via, we had so much fun with this box. We didn’t follow all the suggestions but sometimes I think that unleashes more creativity, especially when someone is as crazy about dragson as Flora is, haha! x
I wish these boxes were around when I was a child, they look so much fun! It’s lovely how they addressed the box to Flora, what a sweet touch, getting presents through the post is always so exciting. I love Flora’s garden, it’s very creative! It sounds like these boxes are both enjoyable and educational and a perfect way to get children outside in the garden. Fab post Lisa! xx
Oh me too, I would have LOVED one of these boxes when I was Flora’s age! Mind you, I love these boxes now too, Flora and I have so much fun doing them, the fact that they’re educational is just a bonus! xx
These look fab! I love that Flora went her own way and made a dragon garden, it looks fabulous! I hope these boxes are still about when my Emmy gets old enough to enjoy them! Fab review 🙂 Love Laura x
Haha, Flora always goes her own way! Occasionally it coincides with what I want too but more often than not it doesn’t 🙂 These boxes are so much fun, honestly, we absolutely love them. Fingers crossed Anja (if you’re reading this) will keep them going until Emmy is old enough to enjoy them too! xx
This looks like a great subscription box and fun activity 🙂
Perrine
It really is – highly recommended, and not just for kids! 🙂 x
I love the idea of these boxes. Not only is it fun but it’s a great way to get kids outside and (more importantly in my opinion) I love that she’s growing up knowing where her food comes from! So amazing to grow your own vegetables x
Sophie
http://www.glowsteady.co.uk
I grew up eating vegetables that my father grew so I really wanted Flora to experience the same. Luckily she loves it, so these boxes are just the icing on the cake! xx
What an amazing idea for a subscription box! I’m so glad Flora enjoyed her box and that she was excited to receive it! My god-daughter is 3 and her Daddy and Granddad are farmers so I think that she’d LOVE this box and having her own little project!- – https://sophhearts.com x
Wow, your god-daughter is so lucky to be growing up on a farm! But yes, I think she’d love this box, it’s so much fun and such a fab alternative to the dreaded iPad! xx
Oh my let’s talk about Flora having a green thumb, cause these beauties are already sprouting so lovely! I can’t wait to see the final look…please post some pics, I simply adore flowers especially sunflowers ?? I get so jelly that flora gets to have fun with all of these cool gardening kits and she’s learning from the best cause you have a beautiful garden! Lol, btw I love Flora’s cute little sea creature toys tehe
xx Lena
She really does have the magic touch for seed sowing, I get her to do all of them now! I will definitely post some pics when they get going properly this summer. Honestly, these boxes are so much fun, we’ve been so lucky to receive them, I can’t wait to see what’s in April’s box, the dragon garden will be a tough act to follow, haha! Thank you for your lovely comments, Lena 🙂 xx
I’m definitely looking into this for little bear, it looks and sounds like an amazing box for kids. It will be great getting him into this sort of thing. It’s a great price for what you get especially since it include p&p!
You really should, it’s such a fab way of getting kids interested in nature and growing their own stuff. Flora loves the seed planting and the creative activities so much – our April box has just arrived so can’t wait to get stuck into that one shortly! x
This box looks fantastic Lisa and Flora has made such an amazing job on her dragon garden- your stone dragon is gorgeous too! I loved your previous reviews of the Mud and Bloom boxes I really must give them a go as Leo would love them!
How kind of them to gift a box to Flora too I can only imagine the excitement I know how much kids love getting post!
Melanie | http://www.frasersfunhouse.com
She was never going to build a fairy garden, haha, we have far too many dragons around our garden for that! Thank you so much and I hope you do try a box for Leo, I’m sure he’d love it. Our April box has just arrived and we can’t wait to get stuck in to the contents ? xx