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Muskogee Phoenix

http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/features/local_story_136195823.html?keyword=topstory

Published May 16, 2007 07:58 pm –

‘Gardening with Children’ can be fun

By Molly Day
Muskogee Garden Club

For adults who are just getting started in gardening, or anyone who wants to garden with children, an easy to follow, basic book can be a big help.

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“Gardening With Children,” written for adult readers, contains plenty of how-to information in a 150-page paperback. Topics include: Select easy to grow seeds or plants, lay out a garden, keep track of plantings with a plan, building the garden, preparing soil, planting, tools, weeds, bugs, planting methods such as succession planting and fall gardening.

The author, Beth Richardson, is a working mother who has involved her children in growing food so they could experience the creative process. One of Richardson’s first suggestions is to purchase seeds and plants from local providers so that they will be suited to your weather. Plants grown at our local nurseries are accustomed to our weather and water.

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Richardson suggests putting in tiny vegetables that children will get a kick out of such as cherry tomatoes or 4-inch carrots. …………… Richardson said her children prefer plum tomatoes because they have less goo in the middle and can be eaten right off the vine in the garden without making a big mess.

Richardson describes in detail planting a pizza garden and then gives recipes for using the ingredients grown in the garden. “No other food than pizza could possibly appear first in a book about gardening with children,” Richardson said. The Pizza Garden Plants include: plum tomatoes, parsley, oregano, garlic, peppers, onions and sweet basil. It’s too late to plant garlic and onions, but all the others could be put into a little circle of a garden that has been divided into pizza slice shapes. Other vegetables that could be used include a tower of zucchini in the middle of the round garden.

Many of Richardson’s tips are great for anyone, not just for parents gardening with children. Here are a few more of her ideas:

• Plant a smaller garden than you want to because when the summer heats up no one wants to be out there.

• Select seeds and varieties based on their days to maturity. Seeds planted now with less than 60 days to maturity will be ready to harvest by mid-July at the latest.

• Some good choices of quick growing plants include summer squash which is mature in 48 days, leaf lettuce which is ready to pick in 40 days, green beans are ready to eat in 50 days.

• Raised beds are easier to maintain and move around. Three narrow 2-by 8-foot beds with a path between them is plenty of growing room for a small family. Also, raised beds are 10 degrees warmer than the soil and have better drainage.

• Having two, three or four separate beds allows you to fertilize and water for different plants’ needs. Put plastic mulch between the rows to eliminate weeding.