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Welcome to the planet Zarg!
It's an alien space garden – or at least, how we imagine one might look! |
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If you'd like to make one, you'll need to get hold of a large piece of cardboard box card.
Cut it down into an irregular shape, like this.
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The terrain is just stuck on roughly with tape, and is made from sections of eggbox…
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…and fruit packaging for landscape.
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An upturned plastic trifle dish makes a home for the aliens.
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You need plenty of kitchen foil for the next step.
Stretch it across and smooth it across all the objects on the landscape. Once you're happy with the position, stick it in place with glue.
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To make the space pod plants, you'll need some cress or radish seeds, because they grow really quickly and will survive inside the balloons.
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See through balloons are best, because they allow light inside and enable you to watch the plants grow!
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For each pod you need a couple of cotton wool balls.
Dip them in water so that they're damp, but not soaking.
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Next, dip them into the cress or radish seeds…
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…and push them together. |
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Get a friend to open up one of the balloons and carefully squeeze the pod inside.
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Then blow up the balloon.
The air in the balloon is a mixture of carbon dioxide and oxygen, which is a good atmosphere for the plants to grow in. They already have water in the pods, and they'll be able to get light through the balloon – so fingers crossed!
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Tie a knot in the balloon, turn it upside down and position it on top of a pod mountain (this is just another plastic trifle dish with the base cut out, covered in foil).
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The seeds should grow really quickly and with a bit of luck, you'll see some results in just a couple of days.
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No alien garden would be complete without some trees – or rather, alien crystallised trees!
They're easy to make.
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Get a large cup or jar of hot water, and add to it three cups of sugar.
This might sound a lot, bit it will all dissolve.
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Stop adding sugar to the water when saturation point is reached.
You'll be able to tell this because there'll be a collection of sugar at the bottom of the jar which will not dissolve.
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Then, add in some food colouring of your choice.
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Cut some lengths of string and tie them to a pencil, like this.
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Add paperclips to the end of each string to give them weight. |
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Submerge the strings into the jar.
After a couple of days the sugar will crystallise on the string…
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…and will leave you with something like this!
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The trees sit inside cut-down sweet tubes which have also been covered with foil.
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You can create alien pools on your landscape with coloured water (use food colouring), or – if you've got more time – jelly!
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The jelly pools are made from unflavoured gelatine, food colouring, glitter and water. If you want to add some plastic surprises (bugs, eggs etc), just add them before the jelly sets.
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This is another alien garden that was built with a bedside lamp and some spare Christmas lights.
Have a go and see what you can come up with!
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