Contents
Before starting
Get the right tools. You must have a spade fork, pruner, pruner, rake, watering can, small wheelbarrow, shovel and gardening gloves. Choose small tools, sturdy and easy to use, specially adapted for children (see our Shopping). And of course, be careful when your children have them in their hands. Always under your watch! After use, store them out of the reach of children.
Choose a surface that is easy to maintain. Don’t be too ambitious, a small strip of land will do just fine. If it is on your balcony, planters or sufficiently large pots (with a bottom imperatively holed) are very suitable. Everything grows, in a planter!
Prepare the ground. Before planting, you must enrich the soil, that is to say, add a good layer of potting soil or complete fertilizer, which is buried using the fork-spade. We must also rid the soil of weeds, which risk choking what we are going to plant. We weed by hand or with a serfouette.
Some easy-to-succeed crops
Favor simple and robust varieties, whether flowers, fruits or vegetables, and fast growing, as you know, children’s patience has limits! The youngest will of course have a weakness for small red fruits that you can taste together (raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants). In the garden center, you will find ready-made plants, in pots, which you will only have to replant (unless you have planned, at the end of winter, to prepare your seedlings).
In March: sow “short-cycle annual flowers” : campanulas, nasturtiums, wallflowers… Their rapid growth will allow children to pick them from June. They are tough and grow smoothly. Poppies, sweet peas and marigolds can be bought directly in pots: replant them in the ground or in a container, and instruct your child to water them regularly. These already flowering varieties are very popular with children and help them to wait to wait for other blooms.
In March-April: radishes. Children love to plant them because they grow fast. In the open ground, you can sow some varieties from March. There are several kinds: the long ones (red and white), and the round ones (all red). Harvest 4-6 weeks later. Radishes also grow very well in pots. Lightly dig the earth with the serfouette, following a very straight line. Sow round radishes on the surface along this line. For long radishes, cover about 2 cm of potting soil. Have your child water them every day, otherwise they will be stinging.
In April-May: strawberries. There are different varieties. Plant several, the children will enjoy tasting them, and the harvest will be more staggered. Soak the plants for 10 minutes. Dig holes in the earth with a shovel. Pour in a shovelful of potting soil, mix well. Spread out the roots, then install the strawberry plant. Recap and lightly tamp the soil around the plant. Water abundantly. And wait until the harvest in late May early June, bringing water regularly.
Online shopping
www.natureetdecouvertes.com: for the purchase of “special children’s” tools.
www.plantesetjardins.com: to buy plants and get advice.
www.jardinons-alecole.org/: a wealth of information and advice for gardening with children.