I love to cook with my own vegetables and fruit. In addition, I also think it is important that our children see and feel how this works now. So this year we will again plant a vegetable garden with the children. I just probably do that a little differently than most other people .
We have a fairly large garden, even though we are not large landowners, but the garden is actually completely occupied by children playing and a dog tearing around 😉 . All well and good, but the terrace is mine!!! At least, that's what I'm trying to enforce. It never works naturally, because chalk in the grass doesn't seem to really work and that football somehow doesn't want to listen very well either.
Update:August 2020
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Children who only go to the supermarket have no idea what it takes before you have that head of lettuce on your plate. If you want to give them a little insight into how it all works and what it involves, planting a vegetable garden with your child is a good idea. It is not only soothing for them to sit with their fingers in the earth, they also get more respect for nature.
In addition, they are away from that mobile phone for a while and you really have quality time in which you can chat together.
If you don't have a garden, then this is a good idea to be able to plant a vegetable garden. In our previous garden, large tiles were laid in the cement on the terrace. Planting a vegetable garden here with the children was not easy. But I came up with the idea to make two large vegetable garden boxes from scaffolding wood. Vegetable garden boxes on wheels! Looks really nice and is handy too. To drive away if they are in the way (at a birthday party or something).
Planting a vegetable garden with your children becomes an option for almost everyone, right? Even if you have a relatively small garden, you can still put such a container in it. In addition, you have no snails in your vegetables and no caterpillars, simply because my vegetable garden is not in the open ground, but about 10 centimeters above it!
If you do have a vegetable garden in the ground, you can read here about coffee grounds can do in your vegetable garden against snails. As you can see, we have to get back to work with the vegetable garden quickly, because at the moment only 'forgotten vegetables' live in the containers.
Anyway, that vegetable garden seems so simple, but when you maintain a vegetable garden yourself you suddenly get so much respect for food! How frustrated can you get with all those 'failed apples', all the snails and other 'little visitors' who also like a snack from the vegetable garden. You can already read a solution for this above, but if you have a vegetable garden in the ground, you have to approach it differently.
If you are going to plant a vegetable garden with your children, you will have to deal with:too little sun, too long no rain, too cold, etcetera. Don't let this stop you. As you go along, you learn how to best approach all of this. It is certainly a good plan to take a look with your children every day to see what the vegetable garden looks like. It keeps them engaged.
To keep your kids involved, it's best to follow the tips below.
If you are going to plant a vegetable garden with your kids, start with easy vegetables. You want to keep your kids motivated and you want to see quick results from your vegetable garden. Vegetables that are easy to grow and give quick results are:
In addition to starting with seeds, you can also pick up a few small plants. This way, your children do not have to wait for the complete germination process, but they can also see the progress of the vegetable garden with small plants.
The bigger the vegetable garden, the faster your children are distracted when planting and maintaining it. A large vegetable garden also automatically means more work. You could therefore start with a square meter container or a breeding container on legs.
Here you will find many cultivation boxes and vegetable garden boxes
The big advantage of a square meter box is, for example, that you are not bothered by weeds and vermin. In addition, you can put quite a few different vegetables in it. You can sow another fruit or vegetable in each square.
A good vegetable garden is in the sun for part of the day and in the shade for part of the day. It is preferable to ensure that - during the hottest part of the day - your vegetables have some shelter so that they do not burn.
Of course your children love to help plant your vegetable garden. But it is even more fun if they have their own vegetable garden. Do you have the space? Then give them their own square meter box where they can work themselves. Naturally, they also receive their own set of accessories that they can use in their vegetable garden. Gardena has a nice set for that that you see above.
You can find the Gardena garden accessory set here
To give your children some more information, there are beautiful books in circulation about creating and maintaining a vegetable garden. The book on the left is specifically written for children and the right-hand version is specifically for the square meter box. Both handy!
You can find the books at Bol.com
In addition to the vegetable garden for children, I regularly come up with games related to food to let her discover. Very nice! We also like the following game
It might also be nice to show a YouTube video about the germination of a seed.
Also nice for the vegetable garden (or to sprinkle on the roadside!):making seed bombs! Do you immediately have a fun activity for when the weather is really too bad to work in the vegetable garden.
This week I received a press release from Samsam. About vegetable gardens worldwide and the importance of being able to provide everyone with food in the end. In 2050 we will probably live with 10 billion people on the earth (!). Another important reason to start your own vegetable garden. Even if it's just a little one!
Children worldwide are (fortunately) already being introduced to the possibilities of having their own vegetable garden and taking care of it. From growing vegetables and fruit in home-made greenhouses in Israel to brewing your own medicines in Suriname at a boarding school that is partly self-sufficient in the field of vegetables, fruit and therefore medicines.
In the Netherlands there are still a lot of children who have no idea how, for example, a cauliflower grows. We now know! And that they turn black if they are under the veranda during your holiday while the weather is very nice, we now also know that 😉 .
At Samsam they also have some nice youtube videos on the website with a lot of interesting information. I now know that we have a real seaweed farm in Zeeland. Nice right? The magazine itself appears in two editions:one for group 5/6 and one for group 7/8. Before, Samsam only went through primary school, I can remember, but nowadays you can just take out a subscription yourself. For only € 15.00 per year, your child will have a fantastic educational sheet in the bus.
It was one of the AH's best moves in the past. A tin full of motivational resources for those who want to plant a vegetable garden with the children. Save for seeds. You start very small, with the seeds in a plastic tree and a little bit of potting soil, and then repot them as the plants start to grow. Super fun to do with your children and also very educational!
From cucumber to thyme and from fennel to green beans, there is everything in between to plant a beautiful vegetable garden and to let your children make and taste plenty of their own cultivation. I say go for it! So let your children help, because there is nothing better than sitting in the dirt with your hands.
Hint: actively involve your children in planting the vegetable garden. It not only saves you time, also in maintaining it, but they also learn to take responsibility and, last but not least, to know for sure that they will like your food. After all, they 'made it' themselves!
