I remember as a child heading off with my Grandpa, down the back of the garden to the vegie patch, here I learnt many little gardening skills, including planting, how to water plants, how to use my special little shovel, but most importantly how to know when to pick the garden goodies. We would load up our buckets with all manner of vegies and head back to the house were Grandma would be waiting and then she would teach me how to prepare the vegies we had just bought into the house. My most favourite vegetable was a purple bean, now I didnt like beans, but for some reason, the purple ones were ok, now I dont know whether it was beacause they didnt really look like a traditional bean or whether it was beacuse I had helped to grow them. But they sure tasted the best! So it got me thinking about getting children started in the vegie patch. Not only will they learn lifelong skills, but it may also encourage the more picky eaters to try some vegies.
With a young child, a good starting point is to involve them in your family garden, give them a small watering can and get them to help with the watering, let them pop the seeds (non chemical coated/treated is best) into the soil and let them pull the odd weed out, and most importantly let them help pick the vegies. It is a gentle learning introduction, then as they get a little older, give them their own piece of patch to plant out with their favourite vegetables.
If your child is a picky eater or your would just like to make the vegie gardening process a little more interesting, investigate some heirloom varieties of vegies, there are some fairly unusual and can I say funky vegies out there.
Here are just a few ideas (note: you may need to purchase these varieties as seeds, rather than seedlings);
- Beans – Purple King, Rattlesnake (purple and green), Dragons Tongue Bush Bean ( purple and white)
- Capsicum – Sweet Chocolate
- Carrots – Dragon (purple skin)
- Corn – Popcorn or Anasazi (multicolour kernels-red, white & blue)
- Beetroot – Candy stripe (red & white flesh), Golden (yellow fesh) or white (white flesh)
- Pumpkin – Guatemalan Blue Banana or Turkish Turban
- Radish – Black round spanish
- Tomato’s – So many to choose from, but black russian, green zebra or the large mortgage lifter may be fun, along with yellow and red cherry tomatoes.
- Watermelon – Moon & stars
- Zucchini – Tromboncino.
- Strawberries – White Alpine, yes they are White! ( and available as seedlings)
These are just a few fun, yet traditional heirloom varieties that may just spike some interest in Vegetables and gardening, plus they can also make a great “show and tell” subject at school.
Look what I grew!
The crop of my wonderful winter vegies is almost done, only a few random brussel sprouts left to harvest, a cauliflower that is still a little undersized and a couple of womboks. This year was the first time I had managed to grow cauliflower, I had tried a few times in the past but they never really flourished, but with the new garden bed that was built at the end of last summer and loads of compost & blood and bone mixed in, plus a regular feed of potash, I feel that this certainly made a huge difference.
