Gardening with a 3 year old

[snickersnack]

DD is super keen on gardening and growing things. We?ve grown cress and she?s helped granny plant lettuce but she wants to grow stuff at home. We?re about to get our garden cleared and some new beds and lawn put down and the guy doing it mentioned that if she liked growing things he could create a special bed for her.

Now I know nothing about gardening at all. Absolutely nothing. Should it be a raised bed? Would that make a difference? Can you grow one sort of veg in there, then dig it up and plant other stuff? Does anything grow at this time of year? What? Is there a book about gardening with children you can recommend? Please help, or I?ll have to throw myself on my mother?s mercy, which will almost certainly end in tears.

Wish I could help, sounds like a great project. There must be books about this in your library - there is deffo one by Kim Wilde that I've seen in ours. Good luck.

Rotation is brilliant when growing crops as the veg will absirb different minerals out of the soil, by rotating your crop and using a good manure then you can ensure you have a healthy crop.
If your dd wants to get involved you could do container planting and grow runner beans up cains giving her responsibility of watering them or you could allow her to have her own bed. I would say its best not to have it raised as if it is more on her level then she can get in and pull weeds out and feel really involved. Potatoes are very easy to grow. strawberries are another good one for little ones but if you get squirrles in your garden you will have to protect the fruit from them because they have a sweet tooth. As for a book RHS ones are always good. this one looks like it might be useful or this one It might be a good idea to get a book that has bright descriptive images so that your dd can look through it with you.

it probably matters less what you grow than that it's stuff where something happens fast (so she can see results before she gets bored).
so vegwise - lettuce and salads are quick: radishes are about the fastest growing things. perhaps cherry tomatoes if she likes them? i wouldnt just stick to veg tho - i would go for flowers that are v easy to grow from seed and virtually unkillable, preferably with big seeds that are easy for little fingers. nasturtiums are good (especially if the soil is a bit ropey, in very good soil they are all leaf and no flower) and you can eat the flowers. or sunflowers are very satisfying as they get so weirdly tall. sweetpeas trained up a wigwam (just three bamboo sticks stuckin the ground tied together at the top to make like a teepee, two sweetpea seeds per cane) are also easy and grow quick and flower for ages. herbs are quite good for sniffing and cooking with. maybe a bluberry bush if she likes them (needs acid soil so often best in a big pot)
all these are to plant in spring. at this time of the year not a lot grows but you could plant some bulbs for spring (maybe daffs, or early things like snowdrops that will come up sooner) as long as you explain they're going to happen later.
i would also leaev a bit of the bed spare for messing about in. ds is younger and more prone to garden vandalism but he really likes digging big holes with a trowel.....you can get special children's garden tools that are small and easy to handle. watering is extremely popular.

on title of this thread

MY GOD WOMAN, use a spade not a child

on title of this thread

MY GOD WOMAN, use a spade not a child

oh and raised beds - the advantage might be that you can defend them better from slugs and snails (if you are growing a lot of salad potentially and your dd is likely to be upset by it all getting eaten...)

My son was 3 when we really got into gardening this year. I let him just dig holes in his patch (which he is very protective about) I had packets and packets of seeds that I never had time to plant in the last three years. He just threw the whole lot in, he loved it. It was about late spring so they popped up quickly. Beans and sweet peas were very good. Mad pumpkins and courgettes then took over the show. Dh hated it as they looked very untidy but myself and DS had a great time. We've planted bulbs all over the place now, even his patch which he wasn't happy about and had a hissy fit over. never mind I'm the adult and He'll love them come spring. iris can be grown in a dark, cool place for indoors now as well.
Must start another thread about squirrels!!!