Nestled in the heart of Capitol Hill and nearly as old as Washington, D.C., itself, the U.S. Botanic Garden is the Nation's Garden:
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Here are some great ideas for fun activities to do with plants:

As Summer approaches, it's a great time to learn more about gardening and botany.  The activities listed below are a few ideas you can try at home.  Be sure to try these with a parent or gardian; they can not only help look out for your safety -- they can also help!

• Make garden journals to keep throughout the year (Use a book making technique and include monthly divisions, lined, plain, and graph paper for pages. Provide time to write, draw, record, and paste up after each garden time.
• Fall will be here soon.  MAKE A SCARECROW! Hammer two narrow boards in a cross. Use one of your old shirts, pants, shoes, mittens, and accessories for the body. Head can be an old t-shirt stuffed and rubberbanded. Read, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything.
• Tuck a bulb here and there to have some early spring flowers.
• Transplant perennials. Perennials are plants that, in most areas, will live year after year.  Try lamb's ear -- You'll love the soft leaves!
• Plant garlic cloves (one small section will harvest a whole by the end of school), carrots, radishes, turnips, beets, mustard greens and flower seeds recommended for fall planting. Mulch heavy with hay when small plants to withstand cool weather.
• Gather seeds from marigolds, cotton, native wildflowers, sunflowers to plant next year, or make a seed identification book, or use in a drawing or collage.
• Press flowers. Lay a sheet of cardboard on ground. Add two sheets of newspaper. Lay flowers separately and cover with two more sheets of newspaper. Keep adding layers and top off with another sheet of cardboard. Tie up with rubberbands or string and place under something heavy. Try to store pressed flowers in a cool, dry place. Wait ten days then take apart carefully.
• Use the garden as a multicultural study to reflect your own and your friends' ethnic backgrounds by studying plant origins and continents, plant migration, and gardening techniques from around the world.
• Have a lady bug release in April. Watch for the larvae and pupa in the garden before the end of school.
• Make flower prints with real flowers dipped in tempera then on paper.
• Find all the wonderful books on gardens in the library.
• Older children like to make up a rap/song about worms, slugs, decomposition, and other parts of the garden ecosystem.