2015 Gardening with the Kids
It is a beautiful and very wet April here in Georgia and we feeling a bit behind when it comes to gardening. One of the things that took us a while was finding the right spot to put in the new garden. Last year we did a few raised bed square foot gardens with the children and it was so much fun and we all learned so much! One of the things we learned was that our free range chickens love our gardens too! This year we had to take the time to place the garden in a good spot and fence it in!
Working in a 25′ x 40′ Garden Space
We fenced in a 25′ x 40′ garden area to work in this year. That gives us 1,000 square feet to work with. We are not turning the whole thing into the garden though as we planned most of it to be raised beds and a sitting spot for the hot summer days. By the end of summer I will be hugely pregnant and being on my feet to water it all might be hard so sitting in the middle to water sounds like bliss and of course the kids are eager to help! Unlike last year we have chosen to try and plant some things right in the ground. The photo above on the left is a long row with sunflower seeds and morning glories. The morning glories are a climbing vine that should go right for the fence in front of it. I have loved these flowers since I was a little girl and I think the kids will to. They are my “just because” additions to this years garden. The sunflowers are obvious I think, wonderful to munch on for us and even more so for our chickens.
Fabric Raised Garden Beds
The top right photo is a fabric raised garden bed from Smart Pots!
http://smartpots.publishpath.com
The company was amazing enough to send me a few of their Smart Pots to try this year. I need to buy more. I will be posting more about them soon after the plants get bigger and more impressive! For now though I can say we are impressed! I love that while I have square raised beds now I have a large round one too. My children helped put a lavender plant in the middle of that one, along with many cumber plants (some may have to be culled) and some marigolds. The kids totally take credit for everything in the garden. One of the best things about the smart pot so far is that there are no weeds in it! It protects from the bottom and sides and weeds will not grow up through the bottom of it. That happens sometimes with normal raised beds, but not this kind. The price is better than wooden raised beds and it is reusable! Perfect for patios if you don’t have a yard. As we have the space we just put this one in our garden area protected from the chickens and hopefully wild rabbits and deer as well!
Will update soon!
Kids love seeds!
Our little wildlings love planting and learning about growing things. They specially love starting plants from seeds. We have been helping them plant things in the garden and then let them take left over seeds into the little forest we have in the side yard and plant their seeds their to grow or not. It is a bit of an experiment for them and we look forward to seeing what happens!
Will post another update soon as things are growing fast. Remember there is always time to start a garden, no matter the season!
