Gardening with Children

Choose the right plant to grow

For new gardeners, choose something that is fairly fast-growing for the excitement factor. In summer, it is easy to choose plants that fit this criteria (sunflowers spring to mind) but for autumn/winter, I would suggest growing new plants from scraps. It is very exciting for children to eat what they grow (and a good lesson, too).

Suggestions: spring onions, celery, lettuce.

Adventurous suggestion: August is still not too late to sow fast-growing plants such as baby carrots and radishes.

Cheat’s suggestion: buy baby plants from nurseries – this is a good time to pick up summer bargains.

REAL gardener’s suggestion: sow poppies indoors and wait for a bumper crop in early spring.

The bare minimum you need

A container and soil.

The most important thing about any container that you use to grow your plants is the drainage. Make holes on the underside and let your imagination loose (milk cartons, old barrels, tins). Fun activity with children is decorating the pots with paints and stickers. The illustrator of this book (Ammu Abhirami) paints and sells plant pots. Her website is www.thandarsgarden.com.

What soil?

The book gives information on the basics, but any general-purpose compost would do. A small bag costs around £3.50, but you can just fill your pot with any old soil (for this purpose).