Gardening with your Kids

The weather’s set to be lovely this weekend, and I’ve been working on getting my veg patch ready for planting. I think it could be a nice opportunity to get the kids involved. It is sometimes a battle to get Lucy to eat her greens, so I’m hoping that having a hand in growing them will make her keener to eat them.

I love my little garden, and last weekend I let Lucy pick out some pretty flowers from the local garden centre, which we planted. I hope that this is something we can bond over, and the garden will become a fun project we can work on together.

I also hope to get Jack out for some of the afternoon in the sunshine – he’s always stuck playing the play station inside!

You can see an extensive list of what’s good to plant for June here on the Channel 4 website, and the Botanico website is useful for more detailed information on how to plant your veggies. Here is my brief description of how I’m going to plant the following below:

Carrots 

These will take around 16 weeks. You need to sow the seeds thinly in shallow drills, and then cover them over. They need to be kept well watered, but apart from that little extra attention is necessary while they grow.

Sweetcorn

Sweetcorn grows best in moist soil. Use a dibber to make 2.5cm holes in the soil, and sow two seeds every 35cm, with 60cm between rows. Cover and water, then when they get to about 2cm tall remove the weakest of each seedling pair.

Spring onions

This a quick growing crop, which is useful to keep Lucy interested. You need to plant them in a sunny area with good drainage. Rake the soil to make it fine and crumbly, and make drills 12 0 20mm deep. They need to be spaced around 10cm apart, then sprinkle the seeds in and cover with soil.

Other plants for June include kale, chicory and squash, but Lucy is less likely to enjoy these I think!

If you are currently growing leeks, celeriac, celery and brussel sprouts indoors, it’s warm enough to move them outside. We have leeks in our green house that are now ready to get in the sun.

Are you planting vegetables in your garden? Is this something your children enjoy getting involved in? Let me  know your thoughts!