Allotment family fun from Carrots and Kids
The marvellous Mrs B from Carrots and Kids shares her tips for blissful child-friendly gardening:
One of the reasons I’m passionate about gardening is due to the ease it can be slotted into family life. And, importantly, the children can have a go too. Backyard gardening is perfect for this; you potter, they play and join in sometimes.
Get an allotment (if you’re lucky) and you double not only the workload (let’s be realistic) but the fun too. Here are a few tips I’ve gleaned from seven years’ allotment experience and five children:
1. Give them a patch of their own, but be prepared to do the weeding. Often. Let them pick a plug plant or two at the garden centre. I try to let them have as free reign as possible over what they grow. It’s their patch.
2. Always have child-size tools. Mini watering cans (one each) are essential. A brightly coloured plastic dump truck has also been a big hit.
3. If you can, find space for a digging pit. They’ll dig anyway and this way you avoid them dispersing your freshly sown seeds. If your soil is heavy clay you could always fill it with sharp sand and thus help the drainage on your plot.
4. Lower your expectations, then lower them a bit more. Sometimes they won’t want to sow, dig or weed, preferring to set up a worm hospital or go on an insect hunt. You may find one of your offspring more enthusiastic than others. That’s ok too. As long as there’s no whining (or at least not in the first hour).
5. Be prepared. If it’s chilly warm sweatshirts and hot chocolate, sun hats and sun cream when it’s hot. Sweets also go down well (and help connect going to the allotment with Fun Things). Don’t forget to pack plasters and sting relief cream (someone is bound to fall in the nettles/get stung/bitten by a red ant).
6. Make sure you visit your allotment without children regularly. This is when you’ll get the bulk of the work done and it will mean you’re not stressing too much about the list of jobs you need to get through when you’ve got little “helpers” with you. Plus, it’s the cheapest, most wholesome tonic you will ever find.
7. Don’t inundate them with Don’ts. Your children will come to hate the allotment if they can’t do much without being told to mind this, that or the other. We have two rules – no walking on other people’s plots and no running on ours. The paving slab paths aren’t even and sticks are pointy.
8. Grow food they like, it adds to the magic. Radishes don’t get much of a look-in at our allotment; mine wouldn’t care if they had grown them with their own hands, they’re not passing their lips.
9. Don’t forget flowers. Children love them as do bees and insects. Sunflowers are obvious, sweet peas will reward children with a lovely scent and even more flowers. Dahlias and daffodils and a wildflower mix are all hits too.
10. Don’t forget to have a chair at your plot. If you’re lucky you might get to sit in it occasionally and survey all your hard work.
Excellent stuff!