Princess Castle Greenhouse

My love for Disney is so obvious on my blog that even MiracleGro took notice of it!  Recently, they contacted me and asked if the kids and I would like to review one of the new products from the MiracleGro Kids line – the Princess Castle Greenhouse.  Two things immediately came to mind:

1. It’s a Disney-related product, so of course we want to review it!  We love all things Disney here!
2. And, there are colorful flowers involved and it’s the perfect time of year to be thinking about adding some color to our flowerbeds. 

We received the kit a few weeks ago, but life has been insanely busy around here and we just finally found the time to really dig into it and check it out - - - it was worth the wait!

After getting everything out of the box, Gracie organized it and got right to work following the directions to put our greenhouse together.  The directions were easy enough for a young child to follow (the box recommends the product for ages 5+ and I think that’s very appropriate.  Ian could have easily assembled it as well.

The greenhouse includes a base, insert (to hold the planting cups, 4 “walls” and a “roof”.  Everything fits together nicely. 

Already I was thinking that this kit was just pretty darn cute, and we hadn’t even started doing the “real” part of the project yet --- the plants!

Next on the list of things to do was to take the Gro-Mix packet and add water to it.  It was fun to watch the mix expand in the bowl!

We filled the Grow-Pod Containers (plastic cups) with the Gro-Mix (as directed).  Then, we added a different kind of seeds to each cup (the kit includes sunflowers and both pink and white cosmos).

Once the seeds were placed in the cups, we added a thin layer of Gro-Mix to the top and inserted the labels in each cup.

The lid was put in place; and we placed the greenhouse in a sunny window in our living room. 

Now, all that’s left to do is wait and watch our plants grow! 

I love that the directions include information about watering your plants (and when). I will be the first to admit that I do not have much of a green thumb; so the additional instructions are welcome!  It should be simple to know when watering is needed as the Gro-Mix will actually change color to a light brown.  Yeah!

There is also information about the three different kinds of plants.  Another thing I don’t possess is a tremendous amount of patience; so I’m excited to see that we should see the sunflowers sprouting leaves in 5-8 days, followed by the cosmos plants in 7-15 days. 

While we’re waiting, MiracleGro Kids included a Growth Chart for the kids to plot the growth of the plants, as well as an Informational Pyramid full of helpful tips.

I’ll be sure to update later with the status of our plants.  We are already looking forward to being able to transplant them outdoors once they grow a bit.

These kits are available at your favorite local retailer, such as Wal-mart, K-mart, Lowes, or Home Depot.  In addition to the Princess Castle Flower Garden Greenhouse that we received, there is also a Pixie Hollow Flower Garden Greenhouse and a Mickey Mouse Vegetable Garden Greenhouse available also.

These products would not only make great gifts for any Disney-loving child in your life, but they also make a great homeschooling project and an opportunity to teach your child more about plants and  gardening.  Be sure to check them out!

NOTE: I received the product mentioned above for free in exchange for my posting about it on my blog. I never recommend a product that I do not personally test and believe to be of good quality and beneficial to my readers.