2023 Author: Anita Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-22 03:30
Gardening is a wonderful way to spend time with children, even the youngest ones, who show a genuine fascination with the life they see emerging from the ground!
If your children are very young, it is better not to dream of a garden worthy of specialized magazines, but if you simply like contact with the earth, the vegetable garden or the flower bed are a pleasant way to introduce your little ones to a we alth of cultural and food knowledge!
We plant them with your fingers
Gardening requires a lot of patience and perseverance - it's a daily occupation - so first make sure you have a few minutes each day to visit your garden.
You can of course buy sprouts at the nursery, but it would be good to plant some seeds to watch them grow! Your child will be so happy to follow the simple instructions you give him! A little soil in a small pot, one or 2 seeds, we water and we wait! And he will be very impressed (and impatient!) to see a little green appear after a few days. By giving him the responsibility of one or two small plants in the making, you will interest him from the start, especiallythat he will be convinced that the plant grows because of him!
| Featured Vegetables | |
| Lettuce to cut | about 1 month before biting into it! We water often. |
| Radish | the fastest vegetable of all: just one month! |
| Cherry Tomatoes | easy and abundant cultivation, but fragile in the cold. |
| Carrots | if you are growing in a pot, allow at least 30 cm in height, about 2 months. |
| Spinach | about 6 weeks before harvest. |
| Cucumbers and pickles | particularly easy to grow, about 2 months. Warning: invasive and ultra-productive plant! 2-3 plants are more than enough. |
| Beans and peas | fascinating from germination to harvest! Easy to maintain, but allow 2 to 3 months before putting them on the menu (stakes required). |
We plant them with our hands
The perfect place doesn't have to be very big, just open and sunny. Even those who live in an apartment can do some gardening by equipping themselves with a few large pots placed on the balcony. Naturally, the key element is the sun (more than eight hours a day), since it is the vitamin par excellence for growing vegetables, herbs and flowers. Get some basic tools: small shovel, scraper and watering can and show them how to use them. theweeding and watering is part of gardening too!
Gardening in containers
1. Choose a pot at least 15 to 20 cm wide for fine herbs and 30 to 35 cm for cherry tomatoes, beans, etc. Its depth must be at least 20 cm.
2. Make sure the pots have holes in the bottom for water to drain
3. Put gravel in the bottom of the pot, it allows the soil to drain well.
4. Use seedling soil
We plant them with the head
Herbs
- Tarragon, savory, thyme, rosemary, oregano: one watering every two weeks
- Dill, sage, lemon verbena: 1 watering per week
- Basil, parsley, chervil, chives, mint, parsley: 2 waterings per week
Vegetables
- We don't water every day, but we water abundantly! Kind of like the normal weather cycle of sunny days, then rainy days, etc.
- When it is very hot, water only in the evening, otherwise when the nights are cool, the morning period is ideal.
- We water the soil directly, at the foot of the plants and not in “rain”
- Abundant leafy vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes) require more water than others (onion, potato)
Did you know that…
… thyme, sage, tarragon and marjoram repel pests while dill and fennel attract beneficial insects?… basil improves the growth and taste oftomatoes?
We plant them with… a smile
- Make small signs (discount stores have them) on which you write the name of the plant. If you have more than one child, distribute the plants so that each has their own by writing the name of the child on the sign.
- Make a special calendar for the child to draw vegetables on, so they can have a visual cue of how plants grow to maturity.
- Take photos every week to fill a journal in which you can write the children's thoughts.
- Make a height scale out of rigid cardboard that will be used to measure the plants and to confirm their growth.
- Buy a small guidebook or visit websites that explain the particularity of plants, vegetables and herbs. You will kill a culture twice: that of the belly and that of the mind!
- Always reserve a special place in your meals for vegetables from your garden. Make it a feast for the senses!
- Sing while gardening? Why not! Especially if it's fashionable here!
- For some additional ideas, visit these two websites: Botanix Kids and Kids Gardeners.
