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I'd love to introduce my dcks to gardening now that the weather is nice, but I've only got a small area to use. Its about 3ft by 6 ft. I'm wondering if it would be better to just do flowers since its a small space. Or maybe tomato plants or something like that. What would you suggest? For several of them this will be their first gardening experience.
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Gardening!!! I love gardening!!!
And gardening with kids can be so much fun!
We just did a gardening unit. We grew "chia" pets. You can get chia seeds in the baking aisle in Walmart. There are so many cute ideas for chia pets. YOu could have the kids use stickers to create faces on plastic cups or let them draw them or take a picture of each kid to put on the cups... We made chia pets with grass seed instead of chia seeds. Walmart had really cute animal cup chia pets for a $1.98. I bought each of the kids one. We set them in a window sill and watched them grow "hair" and then they got to take them home.
We also composted with worms. I bought some red wiggler worms. (there are only a couple types of worms that work for composting) I used an ice cream pail with small holes drilled in it to put the worms in with just a bit of soil. We added some kitchen scraps and newspaper. The kids helped me rip up strips of newspaper and then we used a spray bottle to add some water to keep the worms moist. We talked about how the worms eat the things we gave them and then the worm poop nourishes the soil and provides food for our plants. The kids giggled and giggled when I showed them worm poop. :
: They had the opportunity to touch the worms and watch them crawl across the table. I keep this pail in my pantry and we add a few kitchen scraps every few days...
An extension idea to the worm composting. We've painted with worms - fake worms. I bought some plastic fishing worms and let the kids put the worms in paint and drag them through some paint and then onto paper.
I've also had the kids paint flower pots or tin cans and plant flowers in them to take home.
We started beans on a wet paper towel in a ziploc bag and taped it to the window. The kids got to see them sprout and grow. You could then plant these and have the kids help you harvest the produce later in the year. Beans are a great one to grow with kids because they produce all summer long.
I also have a large garden. I do keep mine fenced off from the kids but they often sit at the fence and look at the plants/produce growing and changing.
One thing I want to try this fall, is putting soil inside a pumpkin and letting all the seeds sprout. An after school program in my area did this and said it was so fun for the kids. It produced tons and tons of pumpkins for the kids.
You could try a bean pole teepee.
Last year I planted "butterfly weed" and other butterfly attracting plants. This was SO fun for the kids. They got to see all kinds of different butterflies up close and the plants were so fragrant and beautiful.
I also put out fake flowers in their outdoor play area. With small garden tools. They can "plant" them in the sandbox or in small flower pots.
Tomato plants usually do well in pots. I would suggest a cherry tomato or grape tomato type plant. They produce tons of tomatoes and they are small little tomatoes that are fun for the kids to eat.
I've also seen clear pot type items so the kids can watch the roots of plants grow. Carrots would be fun to do like this. They could watch the carrot get bigger and bigger.
We've started seeds in egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, egg shells, peat pots, newspaper, etc. You could put seeds in several different types of items and see which material is best for the seeds to grow.
We've examined lots of different types of seeds and categorized them. Which is biggest, smallest, color, shape, etc. etc.
Maybe this isn't what you were looking for... :: Pinterest has lots of great ideas for gardening with kids too.
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Cherry tomatoes and beans work well in small spaces .
This year I have beans , cucumbers , strawberries , watermelon , lg tomatoes and 3 colors of cherry tomatoes .
The dck kids love to help me water ( drown :: ) them .
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Use buckets! Drill a few drain holds in some 5 gallon buckets and plant your stuff in them! Each kid can have a bucket. They work amazingly wellComment
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Cucumbers are usually easy to grow along with zucchini.
Or you could grow a few pumpkins in this area, carve them and bake the seeds in the Fall.
If you plant something like tomatoes you can always plant onions around the border of it. They don't take up much room.
Good luck!!! Have fun!!! We just planted ours this week!!!Comment
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My licencer says tomato plant leaves are poisonous....Comment
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I am going to do a bean pole tee pee for the kids this year! I am so excited!Comment
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I plant 2-3 grape tomato plants, 3-4 of the smaller sweet peppers, spinach, and some herbs in my patio garden space which is similar in size to what you are saying. You could do beans up the back oh and I usually have a couple of sunflowers in there.
Here are some photos for ideas
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I bought 6 of those 5 gallon pails to plant in. What else could I put in them besides cherry tomato plants(which was what I was planning on doing) but I'd like some variety. Are there any cucumber plants that would do well in a pail? Plus we're also going to plan green beans and make a teepee out of it.Comment
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Lots of fun ideas butterfly!!!
I'm going to buy pots and planters also, and do flowers. I don't know what kind yet but I want(NEED) to pretty up the back yard.
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You could stake the cucumbers in the bucket! I've never staked them myself but I saw a few articles on how to do it last year. Might look it up and try it...our garden is a decent size but between the squash, zuccinni and cucumbers, that's a lot of vines and space they will take up! Peppers could do well in a pail, I would think
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All of the following can be grown in buckets:
1 gallon buckets:
Lettuce- 1 plant per pot
Chard- 1 plant per pot
Radish- 6 to 8 seeds per pot
Green Onion- 6 to 8 seeds per pot
Spinach- 3 plants per pot
Chives
Parsley
Dill
5 gallon buckets:
Tomato- 1 plant
Peppers- 1 plant
Zucchini- 1 plant
Lettuce- 3 to 4 plants per pot
Cabbage- 1 olant
Broccoli- 1 plant
Carrots - 15 small carrots per pot
Beets- 15 beets per pot
Onion- 6 per pot
Garlic- 6 per pot
Leeks- 6 per pot
Mustard greens- 6 per pot
We've done peppers, bell and hot, and tomatoes in buckets and they've all done well. This year we're expanding to see what else we can successfully do! I got this list from a Facebook page called "organic gardening"Comment
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I agree with the buckets, I use them a lot because I have a very tiny garden space also.Comment
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They contain a chemical that IF consumed in LARGE quantities can be poisonous but the likelihood of eating enough leaves to be poisoned is pretty slim to none.
It's the same family of "poisons" that is found in the homeopathic teething tablets (belladonna)
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