Hopelessly baffled new member

Hello gardeners.

I have joined for totally selfish reasons knowing nothing about anything and faced with a really big challenge. I need your help.

I have become responsible for a gardening project in a home for seven children aged 5-11. We have made some progress in the mindless physical toil and drudgery department. We have dicovered, fenced off and nearly finished digging + weeding a derelict garden area. It is about 50' by 30' and divided into eight plots by a rather nice brick path (photo to follow).

The fence went up last year and we dug most of the plots then too. But ran into the following problems;-

- The fence wasn't quite rabbit proof (carrots went).
- We cooked the beans, pumpkins and cucumbers in their seed trays (conservatory too hot).
- We buried the peas (never saw them again).
- The weeds kept coming back (we couldn't pull some of them in case they were plants (sigh!))
- We only grew one leek and it was about the size of a small crayon. (we shared it).

There were some success stories too. One of our sunflowers was more than nine feet tall. Some of the sweetcorn did well and a few bulbs came up (can't tell you what they were called though). The wild flowers were also nice but flowered so late the child had forgotten planting them.

Inspite of the above, the kids want to try again so this time I'd like to provide more successes.

Most of the children have unusually short attention spans and low frustration tolerance levels (last year plants that were not doing too well were often brutally killed), so something easy + robust for them. Two are more methodical and dedicated gardeners and I'd like to help them grow something impressive.... but I don't know how.

Suggestions and directions please. What to plant, when and how. Treat me as an imbecile as well as a beginner and we shouldn't go too far wrong. I don't know what mulch is, why loam is good (if it's good), how to pinch something out, how to spot a young weed or how you are supposed to feed plants.

Each child has a plot for display and a share in the vegetable plot.

I'm not the obvious choice for this task but nobody else will agree to do it so please help.

 

Goodness, timow, that's a lots of words for late in the evening!

I shall not make any particular comments at the moment except to welcome you to GC and hope you get the response you require.

 

I'll get my head together and answer in the morning, Timow - too tired tonight, sorry! Maybe someone else will pop in before then, but goodnight just now!

 

Ok - big task to get it better this year. For me the most important task will be to rabbit proof your fence before you do anything - chicken wire is good, but it needs to buryed at least 6" below ground to stop them burrowing underneath.

You have eight plots right, and 7 kids. Can you pair the kids and give them a plot each to grow what they want?

For me - I would leave the plots for the moment, invest in a good wildflower/plant book - and get your kids to identify what grows in the plots in the next week or so- make it into a competition - then using the books they can get rid of the deep rooted ones and then you all can prepare the plots.

dig them over and add compost if you can- you and the kids to prepare them for seed. Get a book on vegatbles for them to browse and select Take em to the garden centre to select the seeds they want to grow. Suggestions = runner beans, lettuce, carrots, brassicas, chard, beetroot, broad beans, chillis - things that will crop from seed. You grow in your plots the things that you want that they don't chose.

Sow the seeds directly in the ground in rows in mid March onwards (much better chance than the conservatory) - planting in rows makes it far easier to identify the weeds. Thin them out after germination to give the plants room to grow, and then keep them watered when necassary.

Lots of people can give you tips on individual veggies - but growing from seed will give the kids much better feedback, and a little competition between them, will keep their interest.

Hope that helps a little.

If you want a successful first year - keep it simple. The more ownership your kids have of their plots, the more enthusiastic they will be at eating what they have grown themselves

 

hi timow and welcome to the forum


I dind't quite get what you want to achieve with your project, could you maybe explain it in more details?
Have you been commissioned to create these plots no matter what...? Do you want to have them as orchards and eat what you produce or is the idea only to show to the children how to grow plants from seed...?
Will you have to assist the children in maintainig the plots once they are ready?(Because that would make aaaall the difference...)

Your main complaints at the moments are related not to the plot itself, but to the plants that didn't come out as expected.
I would certainly suggest you to start with something like three pots for each child (placed safely away from them) where you will plant something which grows quickly and it looks nice to them and then transplant them "in situ" when the plant is big enough so that the little darlings will not step on it.
For example a sunflower as you said, a bean, a pumpkin...In the long run: cherry tomatoes , peppers, cucumbers...

I look forward to giving you some more advice

 

Welcome to gc Timow and I know that you will get all the help you need for your project as there as so many folk here who know what they are talking about and will be only too glad to get you going. Unfortunately, I am no help in this department but I wish you lots of luck and enjoyment.

 

Thanks all.

As far as the rabbits go I think we've got them licked. We've dug in wire and erected a small sign. The kids have decided to leave some carrots out to make sure.

For my sins I work in the children's home and thus will be helping (or hindering) regularly. In spite of its many failures last year the garden provided a source of fun and a focus for attention. Some of the kids were proud of their efforts. All of them laughed at mine... I caught some telling rabbits where my carrots were planted (like they needed telling).

When they were'nt laughing or complaining they learned things...E.g. in Autumn a ten-year-old came screaming into the house to say someone had killed her plants...(what do they teach in school these days!?). They each made an investment in their plots (i.e. time, care and hard work) which was rewarded in some cases. This year I'm after bigger rewards (and edible ones too).

I have a plan. This time I intend to prepare a map of each child's plot before they buy or bury anything. I would like to offer them a limited choice of decent display seeds (a whole book would be too much choice) which are easy to grow + maintain. Then we will start buying and sowing...Firstly, will this work and secondly what plants do you recommend?

Thanks again for remarks so far.

 

Hi timow and welcome.
Nasturtiums are easy plants to begin with, they are available in lots of different colours with nice round seeds and guaranteed to germinate and grow. The flowers and leaves are edible if a little bitter.
Squashes and gourds are also fun to grow.
All can be germinated in individual 3 inch pots around April time and planted into the beds when a decent size.
Good luck - it sounds like a fine project.

 

Hello timow welcome to GC .You have been dropped in it then and are a little scared perhaps?
DONT WORRY-Your in the right place.
This is a good spot lots of friendly people and good advice .Use the search at the top of the page and you will be lost for hours getting ideas and advice.Don't be scared to ask questions no matter how daft you think they are - we all started somewhere and everyone here is here to help.
All the best and good luck.