Want to introduce your kids to the natural world? Want to show them where food comes from, teach them a little about growing plants?
Why not get out in the garden with them, get your hands dirty and plant some quick growing, great looking, tasty treats. Things they can pick and eat straight away. What a way to get kids to eat their vegies! It’s true, if they grow and harvest vegies themselves, they’re more likely to eat them.
They’ll learn to distinguish what can and can’t be eaten in the garden and they’ll begin to discover the amazing life cycle of plants: starting with the seed, then plant growth, flowering, fruiting and seeding all over again.
Radishes are great for children’s gardens...the tiny leaves pop up in no time and what better way to keep the kids keen than paving the way to instant success? Lettuce comes in many varieties of size, shape and colour and are really quick growing, while Russian garlic is a bit of fun, with it’s huge, tall flower heads.
Peas and beans are fantastic ‘cause they can be picked and eaten from the trellis. One of my favourites is the climbing bean ‘Purple King’. It’s quick to climb up the trellis (or thin, dead branches formed into a teepee, as I’ve done in my patch), carries gorgeous flowers of purple, mauve and white, while young lime leaves develop a hint of purple as they mature. The beans themselves appear early and are dark purple. They lose their colour in the cooking process, but mine have never reached the pot...they’re so good to eat as soon as you pick them and add a lovely element to a simple green and purple salad of mixed lettuce, red onion and of course, the beans. A squeeze of lemon, a dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of pepper....divine!
You can’t go past strawberries....who doesn’t love them? Strawberry plants multiply with ease and it’s so exciting to watch one (or a patch) flower and develop the little green fruit which swell and colour to bright red...irresistible to kids of all ages!
Any children’s kitchen garden, vegie patch or snack track has to include herbs: rosemary, mint, basil, thyme and lemon verbena to get you started. Crush the leaves to stimulate the senses.
Allowing kids to grow and harvest their own food gives them an appreciation for how food gets to their table. The next logical step is to get them involved in the preparation of meals. Many schools are getting into it with their kitchen garden programs, where students grow and cook some of their own food. Why not get it happening at home too?
With the cost of fruit and vegies on the rise, what have we got to lose? Getting back to the basics of growing our own food is good for our health and good for the environment. We get to appreciate fresh, seasonal produce... and what’s better than that?
