A good book for the gardening family is ‘Kids in the Garden: Growing plants for food and fun’.
Amazon say:
“Kids in the Garden is an easy and fun guide for children to use on their own or with adults, and encourages children to learn about gardening, healthy eating and caring for the environment. With easy to follow step-by-step instructions, with bright photography and fun illustrations. The book is aimed at children aged five upwards with adult supervision, then for older children up to 11 to complete on their own. The book features more than 50 projects, with full instructions on the materials needed, companion plants, saving resources, harvesting seasons, seeds, the water cycle and indoor gardens. There is also a section on wildlife, showing how to encourage animals into your garden, as well as how to make a mini pond, birdhouses, pest patrol, building a wormery, rescuing bees and ladybirds, and much more. The plants and vegetables featured include potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers, herbs, strawberries, blueberries, sunflowers and many more. The recipes included are simple to make with the fresh produce and include; one pot jam, minty fizz and easy pizza sauce. ”
This book is a great present & deserves a place on every gardening family’s bookshelf.
Comments Off
Research published in May 2010 has shown that when children are involved with vegetables in their play, they eat more vegetables. If they help grow, prepare and cook vegetables they are more interested in eating them.
plantkids
Professor Chutima Sirikulchayanonta, who led the research at Mahidol University in Bangkok, said: “We got the children planting vegetable seeds, taking part in fruit and vegetable tasting parties, cooking vegetable soup, and watching Popeye cartoons.”
The more we involve children in our vegetable gardening, the more vegetables they will eat and the healthier they will be!
Comments Off
Radish can be harvest right through the summer, if the radish seed is sown every 2 or 3 weeks.
bunch-vienna-radish
This year we have grown:
1. Vienna F1 hybrids
- large, golf ball sized roots if left – we harvest a bit smaller
- pure white flesh
- firm, crisp texture
- juicy
- spicy flavour
vienna-F1-radish
2. French Breakfast
- long,tapering radish
- bright red skin with a white tip
- crisp, crunchy flesh
- delicate, mild taste
- quick growing
french-breakfast-radish
Children love to grow and harvest radish as thye are such quick growers.
The UK potatoes for schools project teaches primary aged children about potatoes.
Children learn:
- how potatoes grow
- how potatoes fit in to a healthy balanced diet
The potatoes for schools project is linked to the UK curricular.
All you have to do is register your school to:
- receive a FREE potato growing kit
- use the supporting lesson plans and worksheets
- have a chance to win fabulous prizes for your school
- enter the competition once you have harvested
Click this link to take part in the potato growing project for schools.
Comments Off
The oriental salad mix is growing well and providing a continuous crop of winter salad.
oriental-mix-Dec12th
The oriental salad seeds were sown directly into the soil in the greenhouse in September.
The leaves are big enough to be harvested with scissors after about 8-10 weeks. After cutting, more leaves grow, providing a constant supply of winter salad leaves.
oriental-salad-mix
The mix includes leaf Mustards, Golden Streaked and Red, Komatsuna, Mizuna and Sky Rocket. The different shapes, colours and textures of the leaves makes an interesting salad. Some of the leaves have a peppery taste adding a sharp tang.
Click this link to buy a packet of oriental salad mix. It is surprising how much winter salad this oriental mix has produced and it is still growing well in mid December.
Comments Off
The words in the Nursery Rhyme ‘Here We Go Gathering Nuts In May’ are troubling. Where are the nuts in May? Cold and frosty mornings are not too common in May, but as vegetable gardeners we are well aware that there is a risk of frost in May.
May 1st was an important day in the Irish farming calendar. The end of winter was celebrated with the gathering of flowers, dancing around bonfires or May poles, and one very special activity usually performed by Irish children – the making of a May bush. This activity ensured a plentiful harvest in the coming months.
The children collected the ‘nuts’ and used them to build the May Bush. The ‘nuts’ were actually bunches of flowers collected from the hedgerows. The word was originally knots, and referred to knots or bunches of flowers.
As far as the frost mentioned in the rhyme is concerned, there are plenty of recordings of frost in Ireland during May. So perhaps this nursery rhyme ‘Here we come gathering nuts in May’ originated in Ireland?
.
Here we go gathering nuts in May,
Nuts in May, nuts in May.
Here we go gathering nuts in May,
On a cold and frosty morning.
Comments Off
Gardening Imps is a website offering products specially for children.
Children are becoming more involved in gardening. Allowing them to
have a go develops a growing interest!
It is important for young ones to have tools that they find easy to use. Struggling with an oversized, uncomfortable fork will soon dampen their enthusiasm.
http://http://www.gardening-imps.co.uk has high quality products specially selected to encourage children to develop a passion for the garden environment and a love of growing. There are lots of fun items and it is worth a look.
Comments Off
This rhyme was one of the anthems sung in the Dig For Victory Campaign.
It may help present day vegetable gardeners as they find muscles they did not know they had!
*Dig! Dig! Dig! And your muscles will grow big *
* Keep on pushing the spade*
*Don’t mind the worms *
*Just ignore their squirms *
*And when your back aches *
*laugh with glee *
*And keep on diggin’ *
*Till we give our foes a Wiggin’ *
*Dig! Dig! Dig! to Victory”*
Comments Off
Five Fat Peas
Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest.
They grew and grew
And did not stop,
Until one day
The pod went POP!
Rub-A-Dub-Dub
Rub-a-dub-dub
Three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker,
The candlestick maker,
They all jumped out of a rotten potato!
Turn ‘em out knaves all three.
Comments Off
One potato, two potato,
Three potato, four,
Five potato, six potato,
Seven potato, more!
Five red apples
Hanging on a tree five fingers held up
The juiciest apples you ever did see!
The wind came past
And gave an angry frown shake head and look angry
And one little apple came tumbling down.
Four red apples, etc
Comments Off
