What veg can I plant next week with under 4s please?

[AvadaKedavra]

Doing a healthy eating topic with the children I childmind and would like to plant some kind of vegetables to grow next week, any suggestions? I have no idea of what should be planted, I barely know one end of a trowel from another Something that can just go in and be left rather than needing replanting or thinning out is it called?

A really simple and fast growing thing would be cress seeds.

oh yes, I meant actually out in the garden, proper stuff but thank you, had forgotten cress was so easy so may do that too.

bump

Carrots would be good. This calendar might help:

www.gardeningdata.co.uk/vegetables/vegetables_sowing.php

That's very helpful thank you MaryBS will bookmark that and take a proper look tonight.

Thanks for that, was just what I was looking for as well.

Garlic, large easy to handle. Make a holes with a dibber (stick, wooden spoon handle) 10 cms apart (maths angle) and drop in point up so top just level with surface, push soil back towards clove and voila.

My 4 yr old DS (has CP/SN) can do this with me and really enjoys it.

No thinning, but takes a while to germinat - eventual produce will not be ready until march.

Spinach is much quicker, but may need thinning.

Garlic is something I would never have thought of!

There are cabbages, and cawliflower seedlings at garden centers atthe mo. it depends if you want to start from scratch (ie seed) or if you want to see what it ends up as more. Plus starting from seedling give you edible bits quicker.

I was in the garden center yesterday and there was one rather sorry looking pumpkin plant, looking that way as it was in a tiny pot. It had loads of flowers on though and am sure that if it was planted it would be fine and go onto produce pumpkins which would start growing fairly quickly. They have male flowers which are just on a stalk and female flowers which have a mini pumpkin behind them.

They do take a fair bit of space though but you can plant them, put a stick in to mark where you've planted it (for watering) then you can train it round in a circle by pegging it down. Like all squash they do grow really quickly. My friend was round here 4 or 5 weeks ago complaining that her pumpkin plant was producing male only flowers and no sign of a pumpkin. Went round last week and was amazed to see a huge orange pumpkin, would be fab to do this now if you could find a plant and possibly get a pumpkin for halloween.

Really liking the pumpkins idea as it'll mean another activity taken care of for mindees later in year

Am off to the garden centre now, thank you!

Runner beans are easy too- nice big pretty seeds to drop in a hole.

Far too late now for pumpkins and runner beans, personally I think you're also pushing it a bit for carrots (and they have tiny seeds, so hard for little ones).

Boringly, if you specifically want seeds, I would probably go for radishes - they come quickly, and they have fairly chunky seeds. The garlic is a good idea, although it can take literally months to come through, perhaps overwintering japanese onion sets would be a better idea as they come through quicker. But I think with that age you're probably much better off with cress on paper towel.

To be honest, vegetables aren't really a 'plant and forget' thing, unless you have a functioning vegetable patch the chances are that whatever you put in will just get eaten by slugs.

Personally, I'm not wildly impressed by that sowing calendar, it doesn't cover vast tracts of what you could be sowing. If you want stuff to sow now, have a look here and here (apologies, this is a link to our site, but its easier to link rather than type loads).

Leeks? You can still get little packs of tiny leeks at the garden centre ready for planting out.

Broad beans can be planted now too (from seed). They'll grow a little bit before the cold weather sets in then take off properly in the spring.

Oh flipping heck, now you've gone and done it Takver, I'm going to have to go back and buy that sodding pumpkin plant if it is still there ! It was a decent size (over a metre with lots of flowers on) and I reckon if I get it now and give it TLC it will reward me with a pumpkin at Halloween. I have this failing in me that if someone tells me I can't grow something I have to try, really must get control of that one before I bankrupt myself

bit different though if you're up for a gardening challenge, rather than wanting something foolproof for toddlers . . .