Grow veg with your children there is no excuse

[Keepdlingwhatyourgutsays]

I can not tell you how much fun it is to grow plants with your children and how good it is for your own self. Currently living in what i call my concrete garden (slabs and gravel) but managing to grow veg. Its a must please try it. Even if its water cress

Thank you everyone for sharing what your doing, have tried and the tips. I cant individually reply to them i've tried but whenever i write more comments come up

I've started lots of my veg in egg boxes this year. If you are careful you can then cut off the sections and plant straight into the ground where the cardboard will biodegrade very quickly. I've also been using the inevitable plastic food trays that can't be recycled - just poked a couple of drainage holes in the bottom.

Tartan please stop now. I know you feel strongly but the OP doesn't actually owe you a personal apology.

You can grow potatoes in a bin too 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

cloud tree i did want to start with the cardboard ones but they were more expensive. I should have just spent more or used the egg containers.
Garden geek is a shame because surely they no this yet street trees get cut down. We cant survive with no plants. Planting has helped me a lot. Just the thought of sitting in an allotment rain or shine makes me happy.

I wonder if its cost effective growing plants yourself and not buying them.

I’ve obviously led a sheltered life... I would say 80% of my friends & aquaintences have at least dabbled in growing veg with their kids (even if it was a one off tomato plant!)

I never knew it could be such a dramatic issue & so full of confrontation

This thread is gold though...

I wonder if its cost effective growing plants yourself and not buying them

I'd imagine it's cheaper just to buy fruit and veg to be honest. It's like home baking..once you take into account the cost of ingredients, it's cheaper to buy a cake than make one.

@Tartanscarf not sure if you are genuinely interested but.... you can pick up compost grobags which are pretty lightweight for £2 and a seed packed for about £1 obviously that won't generate much but if you wanted he growing experience that would probably be simplest

What a shame this thread has gone a bit Pete tong. Growing flowers or fruit and veg is a really lovely thing to do with kids. But, obviously there are reasons for not doing it and if a child doesn’t grow cress on the windowsill they are not inevitably going to be drawn to a life of crime. Almost all schools and nurseries will do it as part of early sex and relationships education anyway.

Even talking about where fruit and veg comes from can be nice with kids though if that’s your bag.

It’s a little unfortunate that a poorly worded title is detailing what could be a lovely and useful thread. OP, it genuinely might be worth asking for the title to be aletered so that people can get the benefit

What about those living in a huge block of flats that can't afford to rent a limited allotment space? I’m sure that’s a good reason

Re cost effectiveness - we sued to have an allotment and sadly we found it utterly thankless. Constant expense and gluts of veg which you can buy for pennies anyway.
We now have a greenhouse and have dedicated a small amount of garden to stuff like herbs and radishes. We grow stuff which is particularly lovely to pick fresh or where we can get unusual varieties rather than to feed our family.

Growing food to feed your family is bloody hard work.

My garden is completely decked so we grow stuff in pots. Two years ago I got them done wildflower seeds from the pound shop, some large plastic pots from Tesco and compost. Think it was £10. They had one each and have lived having them and watching their fairy gardens grow. Potatoes can be grown in pots. B&Q had decent sized pots for £1 in the sale. We are going to grow some potatoes from one that is sprouting in the drawer. Tomatoes are in containers too. We have rhubarb and make crumble with it. But the fairy gardens were the best for enjoyment.

I tried it.

She planted one box of grass seeds and declared gardening wasn't for her. So now I'm stuck with an unplanted cherry tree on the patio and a box of rainbow carrot seeds.

Some kids enjoy growing stuff, some don't.

We used to grow cress on a wet paper towel in school. Just a plate and some wet paper towel then a handful of seeds. I think we then made egg and cress sandwiches.

Lidl have packets of seed for 30p. I think on cost effectiveness it depends on what you're growing and whether you already have decent soil. My rhubarb plant was £3 and will last for about ten years. Once its established (you don't take from it the first year) it will produce enough for numerous crumbles every year. A pack of three stems is about £3.50 in the supermarket.

Herbs are very cheap to grow and very expensive in the shops.

A packet of perpetual spinach seeds costing 30p will keep you in spinach for months and months. One bag will cost you about £1.50

Spinach is a good one for growing with children. I sowed mine in egg boxes a week ago and have little plants poking through already.

Rainbow carrot seeds they sound fun

We grow loads of stuff in our garden - we have raised beds a bit like cloud tree. Last year we did potatoes, pumpkins, corn on the cob, leeks broad beans, peas, carrots (which were a failure), chilli plants and lots of herbs. The kids really loved helping to dig them up and pick them, and it encouraged my non-veg eating DS to start eating veg

Carrots are hard and one thing that isn't worth the effort IMO. Unless you have really sandy stone free soil, what you get back won't be worth the months of waiting. DC were excited to pull them up and astonished that so little could be waiting beneath the soil!

tartan the wilkos grow in a can would he ideal for you all you do is peel the lid sprinkle seeds then water every now and again and pop somewhere to grow like a kitchen side or bedside table. Don't need compost or anything its all ready to go and at a £1 each very reasonable.

Ive just read somewherre salad leaves you can buy for 85p packet which could grow 16 bags of salad saving 24 a year.

im definetly trying that