From The Gardens

If  you and your child planted some seeds indoors last month, perhaps the weather is now mild enough to put these plants outside.  If you did not start seeds, now is the time to sow them directly in the garden. By mid-April we are usually able to get out side to work in the vegetable garden. Onions, peas, lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli are some of the crops that are hardy enough to withstand cool temperatures.

This is a good time to decide with your child where his or her vegetable garden is going to be, so that the soil may be prepared.  If you already have a vegetable garden, perhaps you could assign a row or corner for your child to call his own.  If a new garden area must be prepared, make sure it is in a very sunny spot, about eight hours of sun a day,  and is away from any tree roots that might compete for water and nutrients. Ideally there would be an outdoor spigot for a source of water for dryspells during the summer.  Vegetables need ample amounts of sun, water and food.

Wait until the soil has dried out a bit before you start digging or rototilling. If  a handful of soil clumps into a wet mass,  wait a few more days before digging.  Preparing a garden bed can be physically taxing because the grass must be removed along with any weeds.  The soil should be rototilled or thoroughly dug and then amended with compost or manure.  I like to spread 6” to 8” on top of the plot and then work  it in as well as possible.  This will proivide good nutrition for the plants, and therefore a successful garden.  Commercial plant food may be added at this time, also.

If a new garden must be made, a good manageable size for a child’s garden would be four square, that is four foot by four foot.  A nice variety of smaller vegetables could be grown in an area this size, for example lettuce, peppers, carrots, onions, cherry tomatoes, and radishes.  Peas or edible podded peas are always favorites because they taste so good right off the vine.   Obviously,  large plants such as sweet corn, sunflowers, pumpkins and even pole beans would be difficult in a space this size.  These plants are fun to grow in a larger garden, either in  rows or a corner of an existing vegetable garden.

Take a trip to the garden center or nursery store to choose the vegetables your child wants to grow, keeping in mind the size of the garden.  Some seed racks have sections especially for children, with brightly colored packages of vegetables that are particularly easy and fun to grow.  Try to get vegetables that your child likes to eat. ( I know, there aren’t many of those.)  Radishes grow fast and are fun to pull, wash and eat right out of the garden.  Plant them in the same row simultaneously with carrots.  Carrots take a long time to germinate, and the radishes will  have germinated, grown and been harvested  by the time the carrots are up and growing.  Another space saving combination is lettuce and cabbage plants planted one foot apart.  The lettuce will be harvested early, giving the cabbage all the room it will need to form big heads.

If space permits, your child might like to grow a pole bean tee-pee.  The weather in April is too cold to plant beans, but the framework for the tee-pee can be installed now.  Six or eight poles, six feet long and some strong twine to tie them together with at the top are all that’s needed.  Try  growing purple podded beans, or scarlet runner beans, but wait until the soil really warms up in late May before you plant them.

Other gardening projects like this can be found in the book  Let’s Grow by Linda Tilgner.