Developing Little Green Fingers

It is so important to not only get children in the kitchen, involved with cooking, but also teach them about where their food comes from, accompanied with the skills to be able to grow their own food. These are life skills.

In addition to this, nothing is more rewarding than eating a freshly picked tomato which simply explodes in your mouth with warm sunshine.

Yesterday I enquired to the property manager if I was able to use this small piece of land to grow flowers, herbs and vegetables for the community, to my delight he replied yes.

Remember you don't need a lot of space and house plants are wonderful.

This space granted to me may be small, and an almighty big challenge now that I have discovered the endless amounts of roots the ground entails, but I am tremendously excited by this new adventure.

Here are a couple of pictures, so you can see what I am facing.

I am sharing this with you, because of course once the land is ready, I'm going to need little seedlings to put in there. The process to create seedlings is an exciting one and one your child can learn so much from.

Before planting seeds in the ground, it is best to first germinate the seeds and grow in little pots. These can be pots of any sort, such as yoghurt pots, they just need to have little holes made in the bottom for drainage.

This is a herb kit which I have purchased. I chose this one because Loako uses biodegradable bamboo fiber pots. Although I didn't want to soley rely on kits. I wanted to provide you with an activity that you most likely already had all the items in your home/garden.

I started growing Ginger a few weeks ago and have had fantastic success, it is now growing an incredible amount daily. The other item that I wanted to share how to grow with you is tomatoes.

Of course don't forget that growing vegetables, herbs and flowers, offers great opportunities to talk about photosynthesis and what plants need to grow.

Ginger

When you look closelely to ginger, you will notice that it has all these little buds or 'eyes'. This is where your plant will sprout from.

Growing ginger could not be easier. Simply find a low shallow pot, fill with 2/3 potting mixture.

Place ginger (rhizome) in the pot and cover it an inch or two with more potting mix.

Keep the soil moist.

The pot should remain out of direct sunlight, but somewhere that is warm and brightly lit.

It may take a few weeks to show any sign of life, but keep making sure the soil is kept moist and it will not dissappint. Once the shoot starts to show, your child will be amazed at how quickly it grows.

Mine will soon be ready to plant in a bigger pot, or in the community garden.

Next up: Tomatoes

I love this one.

Simply slice up a tomato.

Fill a pot that has good drainage with potting mix.

Place sliced tomatoes in the pot and cover with 1-2 inches of more potting mixture.

Dampen soil and leave in a bright warm place but out of direct sunslight.

Keep soil damp but not soaked.

All those little seeds inside the tomatoe will start to sprout new plants.

Creating a science experiment

Use the same directions as above, but place different slices in different pots. Ask the child to place the pots in various locations around the house. Help your child to write predictions on which plant they think will grow best and why.

Keep track and see if their predictions were right.

Remember there's many seeds that can be purchased at supermarkets, so take a look around and let your child decide what they want to try!

Lets get those little fingers muddy!

Happy Planting!