Non gardener - easy way to get kids involved

[FreshStartNow]

I am completely useless when it comes to keeping any kind of flower or plant alive. However, I think my children would love to be more involved in some kind of gardening this year so am hoping to get some suggestions that would fit with our circumstances:

• must be easy (I honestly kill everything )
  
• we do have a small garden with small patch of grass but rest is paved or stones as we have loads of neighbourhood cats who used our soil as their toilet so we removed all soil patches
  
• would raises beds be best then give above? Or planters that attach to fences as we have them around while garden and would like to brighten those up anyway.
  
• what type of flower and maybe vegetable or herbs would be good as they are enjoying helping to cook so would link with that. I am however really really worried about the cats peeing on anything so not sure I’d want them to eat anything
  
• what time of year do we need to start in various things.
  

They are only 2 and 5 so something easy but sees results quick(ish) would be great.

TIA

[Pootles34]

I would recommend this book, lots of amazing things - not all gardening, but all fabulous. Some are things like stencilling with flour of the grass, make a birds nest, etc etc. We've really enjoyed using it.

I wouldn't build raised beds if you're not a gardener. You could grow courgettes in a really big planter if you like them? They grow quickly and big seeds, so good for little fingers. Only grow one or two!

Otherwise sunflowers are normally good, but you'd need a bit of soil!

With regards to the cats - I'm sure crops growing in the fields get peed on and pooed on - so long as you wash them they'll be fine!

In terms of plants -

[FLOrenze]

Big seeds that flower quickly in any soil are
Nigella ; my kids call them Cinderella Coaches because after the flower they make amazing seed heads.
Nasturtiums, Calendula sow straight into the ground early May.
Get some pea sticks and thread the label through them so that they can see what is coming up.

Things you can do now are get an ice cream tub 2-5 litres. Save toilet roll holders or similar . Fill the toilet rolls with soil place in the tub and water gently. Get some sweet pea seeds and put 2 or 3 in each loo toll. Keep slightly damp in a cool place and you will see shoots in 2 to 3 weeks.

I would also get them a bug book and children’s bug microscope so that they can see what is going on. They can start making a bug hotel. Loads of ideas on the net at how to do it. They can move the bits and pieces around and watch the insects Mine love the wood lice best.

[Pootles34]

Oh sorry ignore my random last line there...

[Pootles34]

Oh yes nasturtiums! We grow these because my eldest loves looking at bugs, and they're always covered in caterpillars.

[FLOrenze]

To stop the cats get lots of small sticks and poke them in the ground. The parks are full of broken bramble bushes at the moment. Wear thick cloves and collect them up and lay them across the soil. You can but pots relatively cheaply or look on freecycle, easier than a raised bed.

The children can paint them too.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Cats love to use raised beds as toilets. Much drier and more comfortable than ground level beds.

If you're going to a garden centre, as well as buying what you want to, allow the children to choose a plant each which will then be "their plant" (even though you may do the bulk of the maintenance).

When I was small, I had my own tiny plot, which on the whole I neglected, a bowl of mixed cacti on my windowsill, which translate by the time I was about 9 to my own plants in my mother's greenhouse, and entering the "junior" sections in the local cactus and succulent show, and from about 8 onwards I really enjoyed the feeling of competence that came from learning skills such as pruning roses. So I'm thinking, once they are of school age, anything you can do with them that makes them feel they are learning a skill?

[FLOrenze]

You could also get a small grow bag and grow some salad. Lettuce or little tomatoes. It is best to buy the ones that are already started rather than the seeds. It is a good way for children to learn where their food comes from,

[MereDintofPandiculation]

When they were younger, they enjoyed making a "jungle" from carrot and parsnip tops in a shallow dish of water, with added plastic dinosaurs.

However, neither really caught the gardening bug, although now one has his own house he has designed a nice pseudo-japanese garden and is managing it without a enormous amount of help from me. This is a man who previously managed to kill a peace lily!

[FreshStartNow]

Oh the book looks great. I do love the idea Of gardening and outdoor life but don’t seem to have quite managed it so sadly we spend a lot more time indoors than we should. So I need a change of mindset.

Thanks for the tips. So I’m best just get get big pots and grown some flowers in those? And the veg recommended? Strawberries? Sunflowers are good call I think they’d love measuring those if we can grown them (again would they be ok in a oot - maybe a long rectangle planter with 3/4 sunflowers?)

Sorry basic questions.

ps somehow the field crops being Peed and pooed on doesn’t bother me. I just always was veg and fruit. Yet the thought of a cat coming and peeing on homegrown things makes me retch. I think because the soil we did have under our windows and around our garden was basically one massive toilet for these cats and reeked. It took ages to remove it all and I had to leave dh to it. I actually get really freaked out every time u see a cat approaching my garden now at the thought of it. Sorry!

[FreshStartNow]

Grow bags for tomatoes and things then... are they just left on the ground?

I think my older child especially would love to be responsible for a plants themselves. Maybe lettuce as they won’t eat that so could encourage them to try grown themselves.

[Aridane]

Sort of wrong time of year - giant sunflowers are the classic

[Aridane]

Quick growing and dramatic

[Aridane]

Nasturtiums only any good in poor soil otherwise you will just get lots of leaves

[Aridane]

Do you have any room on a window sill to kickstart the gardening bug?

So some cress seeds on a bit of damp kitchen towel - they’ll sprout overnight and be read to harvest in a few days.

Then there is the year round ‘everlasting lettuce’ designed to grown On a window sill and which continues to grow as you pluck out leaves for eating

[iamafriendlyladybird]

You can grow tomatoes in a grow bag, the grow bag just lies on the ground and you cut a hole in the top and put the plant in - best to buy these as small plants once chance of frost has passed (April/may). Need to be watered little & often to stop them drying out and if you give them a feed occasionally they will produce more. Sunflowers can be grown in a pot as can lettuce & strawberries. If your worried about cats digging the top of the soil, but some big stones on the top of the pot

[Pipanchew2]

Hi OP,
We have a small (cat toilet) garden which I’ve managed to make kiddy friendly. I put Jeyes fluid round the perimeter and use sonic cat scarrer and that keeps the cats out and the garden poop free all summer.
I bought some shallow trugs and put sand in one and water int the other: kids love mixing and digging in them. We’ve also got a large bucket of water with a goldfish and some aquatic plants in it: they love feeding the fish/ checking on the fish/ skimming out leaves with a sieve etc.
We buy cheap packets of seeds and compost and plant up pots: doesn’t really matter if anything grows it’s the planting that’s fun. Nasturtiums worked well: grew quickly and the flowers and leaves are edible (not very tasty IMO)

I also lay down some old cardboard and left it for ages and then the kids peel it back to look for bugs: they love this and spend ages making ‘woodlice’ Homes in my Tupperware.

Also drawing on the paving with chalks is fun

[FreshStartNow]

Ohh thank you so much - good inspiration there.

Our kitchen windowsill is wide so ideal for dress though doesn’t to get much sunlight. I’ll give it a good as kid would love I’m sure.

[HearMeSnore]

DD grew some peas last year in a big trough. Dead easy, they just need water, sun and something to climb up. (And they come in nature's own wrapper so no worry about cat pee.) She didn't get a big crop. Just enough for two portions really, but she really enjoyed it and was delighted about eating something she'd grown herself.

Potatoes are easy to grow in a container, too, as long as it's deep enough. You can get potato bags that you sort of unroll and keep filling with more compost as the plants grow.

[StrongTea]

Morrisons supermarket sell their empty plastic flower buckets, think 8 for 99p. Just nned to drill holes into the base of them and fill with compost.

[Aridane]

The other thing your children would love is a succulent called Mother od Thousands .

It is called that because it’s leaves have hundreds of wee little baby plants along the edges which fall off and produce more plants! I had one as a small child and thought it amazing to have a plant with babies.

They can even pot up the babies and give them away to friends.

Being a succulent, it will need to be kept indoors on a window Sill and watered on,y infrequently,

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Maybe lettuce as they won’t eat that so could encourage them to try grown themselves. There's some pretty lettuces, with crimped leaves or leaves splashed with red. If you can buy a packet of mixed varieties, you have the fun of seeing what comes up. There's lettuces which you leave to heart up, and there's others where you pick a few leaves and let them continue growing. But beware of slugs.

[FLOrenze]

My son would not eat lettuce but he would eat fairy skirts.. If only every fib worked so well.