warriormom Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Do you have any ideas on a simple garden I can put together with my K ds? I have a brown thumb :) ! I would love to do a vegetable or herb garden. Any ideas on a beginners garden? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I highly recommend Square Foot Gardening and Bountiful Container. Even if you have a lot of space, these are indispensable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmoe Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I second Bountiful Container--one of my favorite gardening boooks of all times. i would suggest starting with a tomato plant. Buy one at your local nursery and follow the directions on the tag to plant. If it's warm where you live, tomatoes are pretty easy. Radishes are fun to plant from seed because they grow in about a month. But I have yet to meet a kid that likes to eat radishes! Pumpkins might be fun,also, and are pretty easy. It also might be fun to do a Three Sisters' Garden. http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html Most importantly, have fun! Your 5 year-old isn't going to judge your brown thumb. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) I'm no big expert, but some things that have worked well for us (kids have enjoyed and not been too much work for me!): any herbs - all that we have tried grow easily, never have pest/disease problems, smell nice and are fun to harvest and cook with. rosemary, sage, basil (after all danger of frost is past), parsley, thyme, oregano and chives are our staples. I get seedlings at Home Depot rather than seeds b/c we don't have tons of room and one of each is plenty. last year my lemon thyme cross-pollinated so all my thyme was lemon! educational! flowers are fun. even for boys! try some that are to attract butterflies! we've had a blast with inexpensive seed packets of mixed cutting flowers. Sunflowers too and morning glories, if you've the right light and location for them. veggies - radishes are fast, easy and early. so is lettuce. sugar snap peas and snow peas are sweet and easy to harvest. green beans are nice too - we do the ones which are ripe a little at a time, not all at once. We always do tomatoes and kids love to harvest the cherry/grape ones. Cantaloupe and cucumbers have been my kids absolute favorites, though some bugs ate the cuke plants/vines last year before they could even flower. Trying carrots this year?! Find a good local garden center or nursery (not Home Depot where they know nothing!) and ask questions. Don't go on a Saturday if you can help it! Best thing is to read some then just jump in and learn as you go, together! Have fun! :D Edited March 22, 2011 by ScoutTN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 If you have lots of sun (and no milk issues), you could do a pizza garden--tomatoes, basil, oregano, etc. It would be so fun to make a pizza with the products of your very own garden! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Buy plants. Look for ones that are thicker, leafier...not super tall. Check the leaves. Make sure there aren't any brown spots and no curling. Some things like beans are easy to grow from seeds, but many things are really fragile and its hard to grow them from seeds. Buy a small bag of some kind of slow release fertilizer. Put some in every hole you put a plant in (but don't put the plant right on top of it...put a light coating of dirt over the fertilizer first). Find a spot with full sun. When you pick out a spot check it in the morning, around lunch and in the afternoon. It should have sun most of the time. Think about how you are going to water consistently. Is there something else you do outside that you can bundle it in with? Drip hose? Pot with bottom reservoir? Homemade terrarium? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 My DD's and I created a 4x4 raised bed garden last fall. And I have a brown thumb too. But it did well! Here's our blog post all about it....from what we used, how we put it together, etc: BLOG POST Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebeccabillington Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 pumpkins are fun to grow too. Cherry tomatoes are always a big hit here. Last year a favorite was peas! they grow quickly and produce lots. Not many made it into meals though, they all ended up being straight from the garden candy. Peas are great to grow with little ones, the seeds are big, they sprout quickly, the plants are fun to watch grow and measure. And they produce quickly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Peas are great to grow with little ones, the seeds are big, they sprout quickly, the plants are fun to watch grow and measure. And they produce quickly Good point about something producing quickly. Greens are also very easy to grow, don't need a lot of sun, and produce quickly as well. You'd have lettuce by early June, I think (depending on your location). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 The only issues we had with peas was that they grew very large and overpowered the garden since we only had a 4x4 area. They shaded some of our lettuce, beans, and broccolli and some of them didn't grow quite as well. Next time we wont be planting peas. What did awesome was the lettuce! And the kids just loved going out there with me, cutting off some lettuce (we did the black seeded simpson that grew in a stalk so we didn't have to wait for an entire head to grow), and putting it in a bowl for dinner right away. They loved that part! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 The only issues we had with peas was that they grew very large and overpowered the garden since we only had a 4x4 area. They shaded some of our lettuce, beans, and broccolli and some of them didn't grow quite as well. Next time we wont be planting peas. What did awesome was the lettuce! And the kids just loved going out there with me, cutting off some lettuce (we did the black seeded simpson that grew in a stalk so we didn't have to wait for an entire head to grow), and putting it in a bowl for dinner right away. They loved that part! It helps to train them up string, bamboo posts (I use the thin cheap ones), or even sunflower and corn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photo Ninja Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 What you grow depends on how much space you have and how much time you want to devote. You can do a lot with some large pots and a small bit of sunny yard space. My dc loved our garden. It is easiest to plant seedlings instead of seeds, but we had good success with corn seeds (we planted a few rows of popcorn, lots of fun), but that takes a lot of space and is probably not what you want. Peas and beans are easy to grow from seeds, and my dc munched on them while outside playing. We never actually ate peas for meals because they made such a yummy, fun pick-your-own snack. Plant at least one pumpkin plant. There are lots of varieties, but the giant pumpkins are fun because they get so large. Plant pie pumpkins, that stay small, if you want to cook with them. Both are fun to watch grow. My dc loved growing carrots. Our ground is not good for them, but I bought some cheap styrofoam ice chests, poked large drain holes in the bottom, filled them with potting soil and planted the carrot seeds in those. It worked perfectly and the carrots grew straight and sweet. It looked funny in the garden, but was a perfect solution for us. I did the same with potatoes. We grew purple potatoes and red potatoes that way. Those are very easy to grow, and fun. Strawberries are easy to grow, as are zucchini and tomatoes. My dc loved watching how fast the zucchini grew and how big they could get if we forgot to pick one. Tomatoes grow well in large pots if you don't have ground space for them. Get several plants and be sure you buy some varieties that ripen early in the season, others mid-season and another that ripens late in the season. This spreads your tomatoes out instead of having them all ripen at the same time. One fun thing we did was make bean teepees. We used 4 long, thick dowels and tied them at the top and firmly stuck them in the ground like a teepee shape. We put support string around the poles, leaving an opening on one side. We planted climbing beans in a square around the bottom perimeter of the poles. As the beans grew we had them climb on the string and poles. Eventually they covered the sides of the teepee, except for the opening, and my dc could go inside. Plus we got to eat the green beans. It was fun. I suggest you plant some sunflowers, too. They grow easily from seeds and look pretty when they bloom. You can leave the flowers on and the seeds will dry and birds will love picking the seeds off the flowers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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