Good things to grow with 3yo

[JustShhhhh]

Caveat: I'm not in any way green fingered!

I'm currently on mat leave with DS, and as I have more time thought it would be nice to do some gardening/growing over the spring/summer with DD (3). I was thinking strawberries and peppers as she loves both - are these easy to grow? Then maybe a sun flower? Our garden is north facing but we do seem to get a decent amount of sun.

Any tips or suggestions would be massively helpful!

Nasturtiums are really easy and very pretty, and they attract butterflies laying eggs so you might get caterpillars to watch too.

Tomatoes? I would be inclined to buy small plugs from the garden centre now, same with strawberries, so you know you'll get fruit.

Then yes, sunflowers and maybe cosmos?

Nasturtium are nice big seeds to handle and germinate very quickly. Leaves and flowers are edible.
Nigella seeds are easy .When the flowers are finished the seed pods look like Cinderella’s coach. They can dry them and then pop them and you have free seeds for life.
Put some sweet peas in a clear plastic container. Plant them round the edge and they can watch how the roots grow as well as the tops
Create a bug hotel and wildlife area and buy a childs magnifying set for collecting and observing the bugs.

Runner beans are really easy. If you buy some long canes you can make them into a teepee shapeand grow them up that so she can have a den too.

Peas, baby cucumbers and baby tomatoes are our go to with the kids, they’re all delicious and easy to grow.

We planted potatoes this year and to my astonishment, loads of them have germinated. My kids quite like the idea that potatoes grow in the ground, I think they originally thought they grew on trees haha

My kids love growing peas. Big and easy to handle, and they will eat the fresh peas from the garden where they’d never touch a frozen pea. Peppers and tomatoes do need a good bit of sun to do well. Potatoes and carrots have generated a lot of excitement as well and pretty easy, potatoes can be grown in quite small pots etc, carrots need a bit more space.

Thanks all - peas and cucumbers are a good shout. Unfortunately my DD refuses to eat potatoes so probably won't bother with those (she's not a fussy eater by any means, just doesn't like potato).

Thanks for the flower suggestions too. My plan is to take a trip to the garden centre with her on Wednesday to see what they have.

@Rictasmorticiahow would you go about creating a wildlife area?

In your garden look for old bricks, bits of wood leaves and add some cardboard. If you don’t have enough go on a scavenger hunt. Get her look for any broken bricks, large stones, bits of branches . Just pile them up and the insects will come.

if you look up the wildlife trust there are loads of ideas, for things to do with kids. They are easy to make. You tube also have ideas for bee and bug hotels. You can buy a little pot with a magnifying glass as a lid.There are lots of children’s bug collecting kits on Amazon.

If you have an old bow half bury it and fill with water. Put a large stone or a brick in it for birds to stand on. You can buy some oxygenating water plants from the garden centre or buy on line.

Carrots are super easy

Tomatoes and rhubarb - both really easy to look after and you get regular crops .

A bit late to plant this year but my kids loved our raspberry canes when they were little, DD2 would sneak up to the back of the garden where they were to eat them straight off the plant.

To plant this year get some climbing beans, start them in toilet rolls inside then plant them outside as a PP said around a bamboo wigwam to make a den for them. We put bark down inside so they didn't get too muddy. Kids loved that when they were little.

I think there are some seeds packaged as suitable for little kids: Seeds for Little Gardeners