Growing veg with kids — Katy in the garden

By far the easiest way to capture Arty’s attention in the garden is by growing food. Something about the way his efforts come full circle to a tangible harvest has him entranced. To him, the whole process is one of magical alchemy, transforming sun, rain and ‘chocolate cake’ (compost) into vegetables he knows and loves. Growing food with him has brought the garden into the rhythm of our family life, making gardening a central part of our summer existence. Last year he would wander around the garden picking cherry tomatoes and head out each evening before dinner to dig for his potatoes before helping to wash them in the sink.

Growing veg is also a great way of helping children to trust foods and encouraging them to try new flavours. All children go through phases of ‘neophobia’, a natural aversion to new foods, built into their systems to protect them from wandering off and eating poisonous plants. It’s an instinct that protects them, but one that I find myself endlessly wrestling with. Arty’s a good eater and pretty good with broccoli, peas and tomatoes, but growing veg definitely helped him feel in control and familiar with the vegetables he ate. Last year he discovered picking runner beans and couldn’t get enough of them where he wouldn’t have eaten them previously. Plus, in a world where our food is increasingly packaged and disguised, it’s a great opportunity to teach children about how our food grows and where it comes from.

Below, I’ve tried to choose veg that are both easy to grow, productive, and generally a hit with children. Sweet corn is massively popular with most kids, but can be a bit tricky as it needs space (it’s wind pollinated so you need to grow them in a grid with quite a few plants to get any crop). I haven’t written about them here because we have limited space and I’ve never grown them, but if you have a big garden and an open sunny spot then they are definitely worth growing.

So, without further ado, here are my suggestions for the veg we have most enjoyed growing. I’ve mainly talked about why we grow them and the varieties we love. There’s so much information on how to grow things that 5 minutes of research online should answer all your questions but if you have any then do ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!

Potatoes

These are Arty’s absolute favourite vegetable to grow and he loves nothing more than being elbow deep in the garden hunting for them. We have already planted our first earlies but it’s not too late to plant second earlies and maincrop. This year, as well as growing them in the ground I’ve planted lots in plastic pots and they are doing brilliantly. Plant 3 to a very large pot, or 1 to a smaller one (say, 10 litres). I won’t write more about them here because I mentioned them in my last post on growing with kids, but all the same advice still applies. Do some searching for tatties that you can plant out in May. Great in the ground or in big pots. Muddy and immersive. A staple even for the fussiest of toddlers. Easy as chips.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are fairly universally a hit with kids, particularly tiny cherry varieties. Early on we discovered Arty would turn his nose up at the budget cherry tomatoes which were under ripe and a bit tart but would devour expensive ‘Taste the Difference’ varieties. Luckily, when you grow your own cherry tomatoes you can choose varieties with incredible sweetness and pick them when they’ve fully ripened in the sun, making them a surefire hit… and saving you a lot of money on endless boxes of posh toms from the supermarkets. We have had a real problem with Arty stripping all the lower trusses of tomatoes before they were fully ripe (especially if you grow a mix of yellow and red varieties). But if you’re growing them for a child to enjoy then that is all part of the process.

I would always suggest growing cherry tomatoes with children for two reasons. First, they appeal to little ones and can be picked straight tof the plant and popped in the mouth before they even reach the kitchen (very few of ours ever did). Second, they are much easier to grow. Being small fruit, they require less sun to ripen fully (we grow ours in part shade which is traditionally a big NO for tomato growing) and, in my experience, are less prone to problems of splitting or rotting with over/underwatering. They grow perfectly well in pots or grow bags, just keep them watered and give them a weekly tomato feed when they set their first flowers as the nutrients in compost can get exhausted.

There are lots of great varieties to try, but our absolute favourite is ‘Sungold’ which has small yellow tomatoes with incredible flavour. Plus these get kids to understand that tomatoes (and foods generally) can come in all sorts of different colours. If you’re low on space, try growing trailing varieties like ‘Tumbling Tom’ in a hanging basket or pots. To be honest I might do this this year anyway just to maximise how we use our space.

Now is the perfect time to sow seeds and you can sow a small number into little pots and keep them in a bright windowsill. Within a few weeks they can be potted on into small pots and by late May they will be ready to be planted out.

Beans

We’ve always opted for climbing beans as they take up very little ground space and give an enormous harvest. Last summer Arty was fixed on the idea that they were magic climbing beans. He was very into the story of Jack and the Beanstalk at the time and for a while would run into the garden to check on their progress and demand “where are the steps?”. The more I think about it, the more I’m sure that the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk is inspired by the fact that climbing beans really do feel pretty magical. The beans themselves are often weird and wonderful: runner beans are fat and a deep purple with black specks. When you plant them, they shoot up almost overnight, putting on visible growth each day. Surely this is how the story developed.

To my taste (and Arty’s) there is no better garden bean than runner beans. The trick is to pick them young, a hand span long at most, before they become stringy, and then to cook them lightly so they are still bright green. There are lots of wonderful French beans to grow as well, including some in exotic deep purples like ‘Blauhilde’ which then magically turn green when cooked. ‘Borlotti’ types have speckled red cases and are grown for the beans inside rather than the pod. Perhaps less of a sure fire hit, but good for a homemade baked bean alternative, and extremely beautiful.

Beans grow so fast that we won’t start ours until May, planting 2 beans in each 9cm pot and then thinning out the smaller plant. At the same time as sowing beans for the garden you can fill a jam jar with damp kitchen towel and pop a bean down the side (so it’s visible against the glass). Over the coming days, you can watch as roots grow and the shoot emerges, to get a great window into the process happening beneath the soil. Sadly the jam jar bean won’t transplant to the garden so you will eventually have to say goodbye to it and sow the rest in compost.

Many beans you can buy are self-fertile (i.e you only need one plant) but to be sure I would grow 3 or 4. When it’s time to plant them out, make a small tepee of bamboo canes, or a frame of crossing pairs with a central cane to keep them steady, all tied firmly. If you don’t have ground space, they’ll grow in containers but they are thirsty, hungry plants. Use the biggest container you can (ideal 40 litres but 20 litres will do) and water them regularly.

Carrots

Carrots are slightly less of a failsafe vegetable in my experience, but a hit with kids if they go right. I would opt for fast growing types like ‘Early Nantes’ or ‘Amsterdam Forcing’. Sow thinly into a prepared bed if you want to grow them in the ground, but this year I’m also loving growing them in containers. This has the added benefit of protecting the seedling, since carrots are a favourite for slugs and snails who can chomp through an entire row in one night. It also means you can pop them on a table or wall in the garden to raise them up above 50cm to protect them from the infamous carrot fly whose larvae will eat the roots and potentially put kids off eating them in future!

Choose the deepest container you have and pick a variety of carrot that has short roots, such as ‘Nantes’, ‘Chantenay’, ‘Burpees Short N Sweet’, or even little ‘Paris Market’ with round roots a bit like a ping-pong ball. Sow thinly and thin further once the seedlings get going.

Cucumbers, courgettes and squash

I’ve grouped these together because they’re all in the same family of plants. All 3 should be sown with 2 seeds per 9cm pot, and ideally sown on their sides (i.e. not flat). They’ll quickly grow into good sized plants and then be ready to plant out in the garden. All of these are best in the ground but can be grown in really big pots. My dad popped them in huge plastic tubs and they did brilliantly. Just keep them well watered!

Courgettes are easy and usually prolific. Arty won’t touch them on his plate with a barge pole, but little Laurie (8 months old) loves them and so do I. Anyway, the excitement of harvesting them translates even if Arty won’t eat them himself. There are lovely yellow varieties like ‘Sunburst’ as well as green to add to the excitement.

Cucumbers can be a bit more of a fiddle to grow but are fun and much tastier than those in a supermarket. If you’re going to grow them outside, make sure you choose an outdoor variety like ‘La Diva’ or ‘Marketmore’.

Squash come in so many weird and wonderful forms. I love small varieties like ‘Harlequin’ or ‘Sweet Dumpling’ which are a bit easier to grow, small enough for a child to carry and more realistic in a small garden.

Grow what you love, with love

The best advice I can give is to grow what you, the adult, love to eat. If you are enthusiastic about harvests then a child will quickly pick up on your queues. The final thing I would add is that if you’re new to gardening, it’s best to pick one or two things that will be your big project together for the year. Grown ups have limited time on their hands and little children have limited concentration. Far better for a child to get excited because they know they can go out and pick tomatoes, than to have too many pots on the boil and confusion about what needs watering and what’s ready to eat. Keep it simple and focus their efforts. By summer they’ll be proudly picking their own dinner. If you start with one or two favourites this year, you can add another the year after and by the time their 10 they’ll be confidently running a market garden!