Planting flowers/herbs/food with kids - where to start?!

[Snowstorming]

Hi Mumsnetters,

You guys are great at giving advice so I was hoping you could help out here. I want to get my DC (all under 6 years old) involved in planting some things - ideally in February/March.

Where on Earth do we start? I’ve never planted anything as we’ve never had the space. We now have a small garden that I want to put to use and get the kids involved in something that doesn’t involve a screen!

Which flowers, herbs, fruit or veg do you recommend planting?
Is there anywhere specific to buy seeds or are they all just the same?
What kind of pots/soil/fertiliser/food do the plants need?

I will ideally spend some time googling all this as well but I wanted some ‘tried and tested’ advice from the wise Mumsnetters.

I’d love some fresh herbs, colourful flowers for the kids, maybe a tomato plant or something realistic?

Looking forward to your tips!!

Thank you

I got some strawberry plants from Thompson and Morgan. The delivery took a while and they weren’t the cheapest but the plants were really good quality, they’re in their third year now and have put out loads of runners (baby plants) so I’m up to about 40 plants from the original 15.

I've had a few hit & miss things, but that the fun of it to see what grows & what doesn't !

Strawberries - yes
Cucumber - some grew, some failed
Peas - yes
Pumpkin - loads of huge leaves !
Tomatoes - yes & no
Herbs - yes
Radish - yes easy
Spring onion - snails ate
Onions - plaited & hung up to dry
Lettuce - interesting when goes to seed & flower
Carrots - funny shapes
Potatoes - yes & no

All tasted better than shop bought

Love trying to grow flowers too

This looks a fab thread. I got something delivery on a pallet was going to try and turn it into a veg patch

Salad leaves are good - sow a few each week to get a mixture of leaves. Also rainbow chard is really pretty if you get a mixed packet. Mine grew rocket at that age (it is basically a weed) they didn't like it in salad but we used to make a sort of pesto with it and they liked that.

Yellow cherry tomatoes were always a hit.

Grow nasturtiums. Soon you'll be growing caterpillars that the kids will like :)

I think Tom Thumb is a good cherry tomato. Pick seeds that are "blight resistant"

Photos 2020

I will go through everyone’s suggestions in more detail but I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! Some really really helpful and detailed tips here that I’m itching to try out!

I can’t believe I thought it was as easy as buying a few seeds from Asda and plonking them in a pot though, hahah. There seems to be a real skill to gardening and I definitely appreciate people’s efforts a lot more now!