Vegetable Gardening
Posted in Uncategorized by: adminThis is my all time favorite thing to do with my grandchildren. Your garden can be as small as one tomato plant or a few herbs or a full blown garden if you have the space. The important thing is to include your grandchildren from the beginning. Let them help you pick the plants or have each one choose what they want to grow climate and room permitting. It was years of trial and error for us. We learned quickly that five zucchini plants are too many and that pumpkins and watermelons need their own space. A 15 by 15 foot garden has worked out perfectly for us. We grow several types of tomatoes, peppers, arugula, beans, peas, watermelons, herbs and our very favorite potatoes. As soon as the frost is out of the ground, we rototill the garden. This can be done with a spade or an electric or gas rototiller. Add sand to the soil and work it into to the dirt. Because we like to keep our garden organic, we do not use fertilizer or pesticides. We do work coffee grounds and egg shells into the soil. You can plant lettuces, peas and potatoes in early spring. These vegetables do not mind the cold. We place chores such as watering, weeding etc. into a jar and every week the kids choose a job. When the potato plants are ready, everyone gets excited because this is our very favorite thing to plant. The kids pair off in teams and each team is assigned a plant to dig up and find the potatoes. They love digging in the dirt and are so excited when they find so many potatoes. Then we take out enough potatoes for each family to enjoy. Now the fun begins. Assign each child a job. Someone washes the potatoes, someone sets the table with paper plates and a saltshaker, some peel the potatoes and Grammy slices and fries them. Then we have our French fry party! This has become an annual event.