HOW??? to get veg planting up done with two very small children around!

[Eyelet]

Part whine part request for sensible suggestions

I have a greenhouse (finally), staging and I have a huge list of seeds to plant up, but the logistics of trying to get any work done outdoors with a 10 month old and a 3yo who will literally eat compost (it looks like chocolate).

They don't even nap at the same time and its spooky in the evenings alone in my veg patch

My 14 month old twins are often bacl around the mouth from eating soil. I figure they've got to learn some time.

Current favourite distractions - plastic flower pots, stones (to go into and out of the pots), sticks (although I am somewhere concerned about losing an eye so trying to keep them out of the way), grass cuttings or results of weeding to scrunch/throw around, small dustpan and brush to brush up random stuff. Can you give your 3yo a corner to be his garden maybe?

I've given up and postponed veg growing till next year when I'm hoping they'll be old enough to not kill themselves or destroy anything while I'm digging.

I get DS (nearly 2) to "help" me plant until he gets bored and wanders off to throw a ball around, play with stones and empty plant-pots or poke things with a stick when I can really get on with it and make actual progress. Once I've finished I then go and pick all the stones back off the lawn again.

He gave up on eating soil after being hauled indoors every time he tried.

Last year he crawled around on the grass whilst I gardened.

After experimenting he also has a rinsed-out washing up bottle to "water" with because even with vigorous effort he can't get the water out fast enough to wash the seedlings away.

I used to wait until ds was sleeping then do it in the evening. If you dont fancy that what about giving them some plant pots, old wooden spoons or other utensils or even sticks then asking them to go find ingredients for making a potion like the story "Room on the Broom" or mudpies? collect a few stones to make a pretend stove and cook em up stiring with spoon or sticks? Collect sticks to turn into stick men with garden twine, use sticks to put into the grass to pretend to be traffic lights then they can play with their toy cars, horses etc?

Well i have opted to sweet talk my boss into letting me work from home today - the sun is shining and I spent a few hours working last night to give me a nice long lunch hour (or two) in the garden. The longer evenings and a new battery in the camping lantern have also meant I have an hour most evenings.

I'll try getting the older one to 'help' me a bit - trouble is we are still very much at the getting the garden safe so I do have to keep a close eye on her. She also eats EVERYTHING and I don't really want her getting sick. We have something of a cat problem.

They will have their own gardening space (aka mudbath) as and when I can get around to it.

when ds was younger we caught him tasting a dead mouse, cat poop and drinking water out the sheeps water butt with the sheep, not all in 1 day though. He survived

Older dd has a pretty shite medical history so we try to keep her relatively germ free - she almost 4 and I caught her licking the fence, eating bird seed, putting stones in her mouth, chewing the washing line. Not to mention the damage she can do by 'helping'

Could you put your little one in a travel cot nearby?

Smallest isn't too much of an issue - she'll sit in the big buggy and sing to me for a bit - I think I need to scale back operations and just accept that next year (when oldest is hopefully more reliable and youngest is upright and can 'help') I will be better placed to garden - plus DH and I need to continue to make the garden safer and fence off the big vegetable area, shingle the exposed paths, put in a mud kitchen & childs veg patch etc

Your plans sound wonderful Eyelet maybe its just not the right time to do the big jobs, could you plant up some pots or hanging baskets instead?

Does she like drawing? I give my DDs (5 and 3) a box of chalks and let them loose on the patio. I will have My Little Ponies on my front path until it rains.

Just remembered something DD1 (2.7) loves. Bucket of water and a paintbrush. Then let them 'paint' the path/patio

Wanted to come back and update. Its the Easter break so have had both at home this week and the weather typically has been perfect for being outside. I have told both children that like trees mum needs time outdoors every day, we walk down and open the greenhouses in the morning after breakfast, fill up the bird feeders, empty the slug traps and then when baby naps mid morning I get some digging done.

I raided Wilkos for a very large plastic bowl, that and a paintbrush as well as a majic paintbook kept oldest amused for an hour, two days running! long enough for me to cut and paint up the wood for the fruit beds.

I haven't scaled back vegetable.operations just yet, but I have accepted that jobs will have to be done in 5-10 minute bursts. So I painted the raised beds in stages and come to an agreement with DH that the children are in bed at 7, I feed baby and I'm back outside by quarter past, he gets them settled and I get 1.5h on the garden. This week I've built and dug the fruit bed, weeded the herb bed, sown even more seeds and redecorated the lobby, cloakroom and utility room. All in the evenings!

let them eat dirt - its good for them

a big plastic tray full of water and a bucket of dirt - mud pies
is there a small area they can use for the next few years to dig holes?

and yyy to paint brushes and water or the big egg chalks to draw on the paths - wash off with a hose

Big sandpit with a cover to keep clean, with lots of toys in it.
My two got years and years of play out of our sandpit. Not just buckets and spades but anything plastic.

Currently in the process of buying a slide and a sandpit for the area next to the veg patch.

Also building dd1 a mud kitchen, a water wall and her own vege bed.