Getting your kids involved in gardening from a young age

Children love insects, they love getting dirty and they love growing things - especially to eat.

With just a small space in your garden or even just a grow bag you can have great fun with your children growing things that they love to eat. Tomatoes and cucumber plants need insects to pollinate them so this is a great way to get children involved and understand why we need these amazing little creatures to help create the food they are going to eat.

Pizza and salad grow bag

In a small part of your boarder or in a grow bag in a sunny place you could plant tomato, cucumber and strawberry plants. You can sow small lines of lettuce and rocket seeds.

All these things are easy to grow and children would love to harvest them - they are all bite size fruit and would make a fun pizza topping and salad.

Next month, when the weather is warmer we will plant one out for you.

But till then go on line and have a look at the choice of plants to either grow from seed or buy to plant out.

Suggestions

Any sweet 'cherry' tomato plant

Mini munch or mini cucumbers are sweeter and quicker to grow than the larger varietys of cucumber

lettuce - you do not have to grow large plants - you can plant a row of seeds and harvest the leaves as they grow for your salads. Try buying a mixed lettuce packet of seeds. This will give you green and red lettuce leaves

If children enjoy pizza toppings you could also grow some herbs in your Pizza'n'salad bag such as oregano, basil and thyme.

From seed to plate

The great fun with this is they will literally grow their own produce from start to then making the pizza and making the salad and sharing their produce proudly with the family for a special summer evening meal in the summer holidays - enjoy and send us photos of your pizza'n'salad plot/grow bag to share on our website and blogs.... have fun!

#family #gardening