Little Green Fingers

Whether you have a large garden or just a few pots on the patio, growing vegetables and fruit with your children is a fun and healthy activity for the family. Grow food that you know your children already like or food you have a good chance of persuading them to eat.  Vegetables and fruit that you can eat straight from the plant, such as strawberries, tomatoes and peas are always a hit with kids!

So here we are in the middle of our growing season. You may be enjoying produce from your garden or even only thinking about planting or sowing. Well here are some tips to help you along the way on what you can sow and plant now and some things you could be eating.

What to sow from June to August.

Beans, Carrots, Spinach, Lettuce, Peas, Radish, Strawberry, Beetroot

What to harvest at the moment

Beans, Carrots, Cucumber from June, Pea, Early Potatoes, Radish, Lettuce, onions, salads.

Harvesting and sowing all depends on the weather and if plants have been under cover or not.  Experiment with your sowings as at this time of year as you won’t have to worry about frosts (we hope).

• Try to sow every 2-3 weeks in small batches so you don’t end up with loads at the one time. In July and August sow seeds for next year like spring cabbage, salad onions and maybe some cos lettuce. Cover your bed with a plastic tunnel and you could harvest veg for months to come.
• Keep on watering when the weather is dry, don’t water in scorching sun and try and water at the base of your plant.
• Keep weeds down by hoeing and earth up your potatoes or mulch around them.
• Make nettle soup for your plants-they love this natural organic fertilizer.--- Gather some nettles with thick gloves on or get an adult to do it. Put into an old bucket with a lid and cover with water-leave for a few weeks until it really stinks and is darker in colour then dilute one part smelly nettle soup with 10 parts water and mix well and use this around the base of your plants. They will thank you.

PESTS:

• Put strong smelling plants like onions near your carrots as this will mask the smell and help keep the root fly at bay. 
• Get some bird netting over your fruit plants and cabbage, broccoli to keep butterflies and birds off.
• Slugs are the gardener’s enemy. Leave a flat piece of wood about 100mm wide on the soil and after a week or two lift it and gather the slugs from their hiding place! DO NOT use salt as this will kill your plants also.

Gardening Jokes!

Q: Why did the banana go to the doctor?
A: Because it wasn’t peeling well

Q: Why was the baby strawberry sad?

A: Because his Mom & Dad were in a jam.

Q: What do you call two rows of vegetables?
A: A dual cabbage way

Q: What’s the fastest vegetable?
A: A runner bean

Advice and tips (& jokes!) from Sean Gallagher of www.patchworkveg.com who makes and supplies raised vegetable beds for homes, schools and businesses. Check out his great blog for children patchworkjunior.blogspot.com and facebook page (Patchwork Junior) with loads of tips and videos to help you in the garden this summer.