Liz Mansfield, B. A. in Fine Arts, Director of Operations
Spring has sprung and that makes this gardener very happy! This time every year, my green thumb wakes up right along with the early blooming crocuses and forsythia. As Artisan’s resident gardener, I thought I would provide some easy and fun ways to get your household on the “grow your own food” bandwagon!
From an early childhood education perspective, teaching children about the life cycle of plants, what they need to thrive and the various parts of the plant is an obvious science lesson-in-the-making. What is more challenging is teaching young children concepts like respect for the environment and sustainability. Look no further, gardening to the rescue! While those are big words, they are easy concepts for children to understand, especially if kids are included in things like growing and harvesting their own foods.
Kitchen Scrap Gardening
This is a great way to turn trash into treasure! Did that last clove of garlic get lost in the produce drawer and start sprouting? Plant it! Did grandma give you a package of dried bean soup you will never use? Crack open the package and plant those beans! Have your carrots gone soft before you could use them? Cut the tops off and plant those too! Since most food scraps initially are grown in water before being transplanted into soil, this is a quick (and clean) way to involve children. It could also save you a few dollars on your future grocery runs. For the real over-achievers out there, you could take daily photos of your plants and make a flip book, or have your child observe and chart growth progress daily or weekly.
Kidsgardening.org is a wonderful organization helping to bring gardens into the lives of children. They have plenty of resources to get started, including this handy guide for Kitchen Scrap Gardening!
Sprout Houses
Think of a sprout house as a homemade Chia Pet. Although most commonly used for grass seeds, edible microgreens like Chia or wheatberries can also be grown on a sprout house. Here is a Simple Sprout House Blueprint for you to get started.
Plastic Bag Seed Starter
You may remember this from your own days at preschool or elementary school! This soil-less planting option is another great mess-free gardening activity for children. A zip top bag, a wet paper towel, a sunny window and the seeds of your choice are all you need to get started. Carefully wrap seeds in the wet paper towel, pop them in the bag, zip shut and tape the bag to a sunny window. In as little as a couple of days, your seeds should sprout and continue to grow! Once they reach about 6 inches tall, you can transplant them to small cups or planters with soil until it is warm enough to move them outside to the garden.
Planting Suggestions for Small Gardens
A garden does not have to be very big to yield a hefty quantity of veggies. Even a window box can support many salad’s-worth of produce. Some other smaller garden options are elevated garden carts or raised beds. Building your own raised bed is relatively simple but does require a bit of elbow grease and some tools. Premade raised beds are also available for purchase, fully assembled.
Gardener's Supply Company is a great resource for these types of systems, along with thousands of other garden-related products.
For smaller gardens, I recommend staying away from veggies like cucumbers, melons and squash. Not only do they require quite a bit of water to reach maturity, but they are vines that like to sprawl and climb. Unless you have a trellis system for your raised bed, one or two of these beasts could easily take over all your growing space. Tomatoes are a popular choice for new gardeners; probably because they’re SO much better than store-bought. Sadly, most tomato plants are also vines, so have a tendency to become spindly and require propping up/tomato cages. If tomatoes are on your must-have list for your smaller garden, seek out “determinate” or bush varieties. This will limit the size of the plant overall and leave room for your other plantings.
Herbs, green beans, corn, peppers, onions, broccoli and lettuce are all good choices for a smaller garden. Lettuce and many other greens like spinach and kale can continue to yield all summer long if harvested properly and not up-rooted. A word of warning from this gardener, cauliflower and sweet potatoes seem to require a higher level of knowledge and skill. If you are a first timer, I would shy away from these options regardless of the cauliflower rice and sweet potato French fry craze.
Lastly, if you’re planning to start a garden this spring, seek out your seeds and starts (baby plants that you transplant into your garden rather than starting from seeds) early. Gardening during the pandemic seems to be a popular trend and many suppliers are running low on stock. Since last spring’s seed potatoes were backordered and then “lost in the mail,” I bought my seed potatoes in February to ensure I had them in time for planting this year!
While I’m certainly not an expert, I’m happy to answer questions to help get your family gardening! Happy planting! 😊