For me, there is nothing quite as fantastic as seeing my two girls enjoying the fruits of our garden. You can't beat a home grown raspberry. Or a fresh-from-the-plant pod of peas. Or a crisp, fiery radish! From a very early age I have encouraged both Lara and Holly to join me in the garden to help teach them about the wonders of food and plants and it never ceases to surprise me how many educational opportunities gardening seems to provide.
QVC have been performing a bit of research into kids gardening. Unsurprisingly, many of us grown-ups have fond memories of gardening with our parents or grandparents but that doesn't always translate into being able to, or willing to offer the same memory-making opportunities to our kids - 48% of the kids that QVC surveyed didn't even know you could grow a radish in your garden. In fact, you don't even need a garden... my best radishes always grow in small pots which could live on a window ledge.
Today I let the girls loose in the garden with their own gardeners kit sent to us from QVC. They both got to work with a level of serious dedication! Gardening doesn't have to be serious though; I have, on occasion, witnessed the two of them slathering compost on each other from head to toe whilst giggling uncontrollably. Gardening can be messy and great, great fun!
Gardening with kids is an exercise in patience. Today we planted a new wave of runner beans to help see us through to the autumn. It is hard trying to explain to a two year old that just because she has planted and watered her seed doesn't mean that there will be anything to see for the next few days, and certainly nothing to eat for a couple of months.
Gardening helps my girls participate in the activities that they see me do; it fosters a level of ownership and responsibility in our family garden. The girls are definitely in charge of the watering, although I'm not convinced that these struggling chilli and pepper plants needed another watering after last night's storms.
These Little Growers kits (available in both vegetable and flower versions) are available for an introductory price of £15.72 plus postage from QVC UK. Each set includes a propagator which will hold four seed trays, a bag of seed compost, cell trays of three different sizes and four packs of seeds. Our Little Growers kit was for growing vegetables and it contained Unwins seeds for growing runner beans, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn and red bell peppers. Find out more at www.qvcuk.com/WatchThemGrow.
QVC have been performing a bit of research into kids gardening. Unsurprisingly, many of us grown-ups have fond memories of gardening with our parents or grandparents but that doesn't always translate into being able to, or willing to offer the same memory-making opportunities to our kids - 48% of the kids that QVC surveyed didn't even know you could grow a radish in your garden. In fact, you don't even need a garden... my best radishes always grow in small pots which could live on a window ledge.
Today I let the girls loose in the garden with their own gardeners kit sent to us from QVC. They both got to work with a level of serious dedication! Gardening doesn't have to be serious though; I have, on occasion, witnessed the two of them slathering compost on each other from head to toe whilst giggling uncontrollably. Gardening can be messy and great, great fun!
Gardening with kids is an exercise in patience. Today we planted a new wave of runner beans to help see us through to the autumn. It is hard trying to explain to a two year old that just because she has planted and watered her seed doesn't mean that there will be anything to see for the next few days, and certainly nothing to eat for a couple of months.
Gardening helps my girls participate in the activities that they see me do; it fosters a level of ownership and responsibility in our family garden. The girls are definitely in charge of the watering, although I'm not convinced that these struggling chilli and pepper plants needed another watering after last night's storms.
These Little Growers kits (available in both vegetable and flower versions) are available for an introductory price of £15.72 plus postage from QVC UK. Each set includes a propagator which will hold four seed trays, a bag of seed compost, cell trays of three different sizes and four packs of seeds. Our Little Growers kit was for growing vegetables and it contained Unwins seeds for growing runner beans, cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn and red bell peppers. Find out more at www.qvcuk.com/WatchThemGrow.
