Someone has asked me to help them get their kids (5 & 9 years old) growing veg in the garden because the primary school gardening club which they both enjoyed has pretty much come to a standstill since the teacher that ran it left. They only have a small garden approx 16'x14' all slabbed apart from a small strip 16'x1' currently filled with weeds & a 6x4 shed takes up a big chunk of the garden.
The kids will not eat peas or beans so there is not much point growing them but they will eat pretty much any other fruit or veg (fruit will go down better with the kids). I have already given them some spuds, strawberry runners & assorted salad seeds I had on hand when they approached me. I am supposed to be going round there on Thursday with suggestions for what else they can grow. They don't want the slabs lifted so everything will have to be container grown or fit into the narrow border.
What would you suggest to make the best use of space that will be happy in containers & give a reasonable yield?
The parents have no gardening experience so it all needs to be fairly simple to maintain. Chances are I will have all the plants & seeds they need for this year but I don't have much experience growing purely in containers.
carrots- I have some coming along fine in a large pot.
beetroot in a trough- that might work although I haven't tried it
We also have 2 blueberry bushes (well, one's a little twig at the moment) in pots and they're just about to burst into blossom- lovely.
tomatoes- in pots again/growbags
Hi
For a long time i lived in rented places and had those plastic raised beds. shame about peas and beans but i grew onions, cut and come again salads, carrots and parsnips even sweetcorn in the deeper ones. I would also recomend fan training a pear apple cherry or plum in the real beds doesnt even need to be on dwarf stock becuase you can train them horzontally rather than let them bulk out. simularly you can fan train gooseberries and currants
Strawberrys are great and asparagus does well and you could plant on top of it.
Good luck with your project
ps i did sucessfully grow meteor peas and dwarf french beans did great (just in case they change thier minds!)
x sunloving
mini cucumbers growing upwards, small, round carrots, radish, our grandson(11),grazes on all these at the plot, plus cherry tomatoes and peas :)
Things that grow quick and have big seeds for children to handle.
Marrow, courgette, pumpkin, . You will only want to grow one of those in a small space
Runner or french beans which grow upwards. Peas too (they take up less ground space.
Beetroot is a fairly big seed and because the leaves are colourful you can plant them in between flowers. Plant the seeds in toilet roll tubes then when the tops show plant them, toilet roll tube and all. The paper will rot in the soil (I know they will go straight in the ground but the kids are learning so this is all part of the process of showing them how seeds come up)
It is the right time to sow all these now and growing on the window sill in a container, use yoghurt tubs with holes in them for drainage to start with.
There is a double lesson then, recycling and growing together.
Slugs and snails love little plants, so planting indoors not only shows kids how the seeds come up. It gives time for the plants to get big enough to prevent damage. You can also teach ways of pest control to the kids either sinking tubs (recycled) with beer in to catch slugs or use pellets which ever is your choice.
There are some salad leaves packs which will grow in tubs and an outdoor tomato plant will too, you may have to buy one for that and keep in indoors for a few weeks yet.
Carrots are something else which can be grown in a large tub or mixed in the flower bed. They can also be started off in toilet roll tubes. If you do not have enough the kids can make them out of coiled lengths of newspaper sheets cut to size.
Quite a lot of learning with all of that.
Even use plastic pop bottles, with the bases cut off as mini greenhouses.
Do let them eat the produce young, freshly picked and raw, if they want to. To get 100% of the nutrients and flavour. They may not grow enough for a meal anyway...
Radish is great for kids as it grows really quickly. A herb patch is good too as they like to smell the different stuff. I work at a school which has a small veg patch. They grow a little bit of a great variety. Even if they do not like eating peas and beans, I think they are a good thing to grow as they cut and come again really quickly. Even if it is just one plant of each. Make sure that any stakes have something on top to save their eyes. I fot the kids to save their Yokult type pots at lunchtime, which encourages recycling too. Potatoes can be grown in plastic bags, as can most other things. One good thing to do, if you can't wait to grow things from seed, or perhaps don't have the space for it. Ask around your gardening pals just to donate a few seedlings of lots of different stuff. Kids like instant gratification and easily lose interest.
We were watching an old recorded GW & Chris Beardshawe planted 3 pots of different sizes with strawberries round the edges & stood them on top iof each other.
Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots, Onions,
...erm possibly unusual stuff like the purple carrots, white or yellow beetroot, yellow or striped tomatoes, white sweetcorn or one that's mixed white n yellow kernals, the spiral broccoli, purple brussel sprouts..white cucumber..squash..
They might even go for the purple podded peas or the yellow mangetous, or borlotti beans, or a purple or yellow french bean..
Might be worth letting the kids choose, with parental guidance of course.. ;D get them to make a list of what they like.
humm..fruit..strawberry..maybe in hanging baskets or pots.
As suggested courgette ,not just beacause it's a big seed but because once it gets going it crops fast ,yellow ones look really good.
On the peas subject my grandaughter won't touch them on a plate but take her down the lottie and she eats loads picking and podding in the sun 8)
Carrots (asorted colours) are on the list as are radishes (assorted colours), mixed salad leaves, spring onions, centiflor tomatoes (red & yellow), courgettes, various herbs. Strawberries & potatoes are already planted. I am thinking about getting some trellis up against the fence by the border & growing a hardy kiwi & some cucumbers or achocha up it. Peas & beans are the first thing I thought of because they are so easy/fast growing but the parents seem resistant as they only want things the kids will eat.
Non standard colours or unusual looking veg seem to appeal to these children eg: they are not keen on cauliflower but if I give them a purple one they actually want to eat it because they like the colour & they have stripped my achocha plants as high as they can reach when visiting over the last couple of years because they like eating the spiky fruits (they refer to achocha as hedgehog plants).
They normally insist on helping in my garden when they visit so I don't think keeping them interested will be a major problem. I do have to move tools like my mattocks, sickles, machete etc... out of sight as they always want to use the most dangerous tools if they see them but they do at least seem to of grown out of the habit of damaging plants whilst playing (they were obsessed with king kong for months the year before last & my garden was viewed as a jungle they had to slash their way through).
Kids will be around when I go over on Thursday so I shall get imput from them, I want to find out what they grew at school last year so I can replicate that.
You've already had loads of excellent ideas. I just wanted to say, what a lovely thing it is to help a family in this way, how nice of you. :)
How about some upside down grown tomatoes - I see JML or similar are advertising something like that on tv but am sure you could improvise something similar - hang it from the washing line or a hanging basket bracket?
How about some edible ornamental squash/gourd type things, grow well and the kids can paint them in the autumn or use them for halloween decorations/carving?
We went to a community garden and made an insect home to attract ladybirds - would the kids enjoy drilling a few holed in the end of a log?
How about a wormery?
I've got a book full of ideas for environmental/gardening activities - I'll have a look tonight and see if there's anything else.
Good luck, it sounds like you will be giving the kids something priceless and very precious, wish I'd known someone like you when I was a kid!
Any of the mini veggies..cabbage,cauliflower broc etc. Different colours of small tomatoes, kids love that as they don't know about speckles or yellow tomatoes etc, same with carrotts, all differnt colours and shapes too, especially the little round ones.. Funny looking summer squash , I can help with seeds if you shout quick.Have all but Tigger, not sure about that one aqnd i don't hqave the mini broc.
Minature pumpkins[attachment=3]
Kids love Batwings .
I don't have a picture to hand but Flying Saucer squash are cute, also Tigger melons if you have a warm space.
I've grown pak choi and mizuna etc in pots before, and they've done really well. Nice and quick growing but you have to watch out for the slugs!
Quote from: sunloving on April 20, 2010, 08:28:28
I would also recomend fan training a pear apple cherry or plum in the real beds doesnt even need to be on dwarf stock becuase you can train them horzontally rather than let them bulk out.
I think I dropped myself in it with that idea, I made the mistake of mentioning I could graft additional varieties onto the same tree or in some cases multiple types of fruit. They would like a cherry/plum/peach/nectarine tree. Multi grafting trees is simple enough but making something multi grafted & suitable for fan training is a pain in the backside.
Quote from: detailista on April 20, 2010, 12:35:05
How about some edible ornamental squash/gourd type things, grow well and the kids can paint them in the autumn or use them for halloween decorations/carving?
Halloween doesn't really get much attention around here it is overshadowed by Gwyl y Golau/Samhain/the Festival of Lights (http://www.ecodyfi.org.uk/samhain1.htm) or whatever else they are calling it at the moment. I'ts more common to see pumpkins etc... being carved for alternate purposes (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/7706100.stm).
I've ordered an edible flower mix from chiltern seeds I have no idea what will be included in the mix but it should add a bit of colour, help with attracting pollinators & make salads more interesting.
As far as what they have previously grown in the school gardening club it seems to be just potatoes, runner beans & sunflowers at least that's all they remember growing so it's easy to expand on.
What about a bean fort to hide under?