Kids Fun Vegetables to Grow – Plants for Children’s Gardening That Are Easy to Grow
Kids fun vegetables to grow in the garden are a joy and life-long activity and hobby that encourages kids’ and big kids’ out into the garden and the great outdoors. The added benefit for child gardeners is that growing fruit and vegetables encourages kids to eat healthy food that they might otherwise not even try. I always find that my kids are inclined to eat food more if they are involved in cooking and baking it. The same goes for garden fruit and vegetables.
A Kids Gardening Tip to Get New Vegetables on The Children’s Menu
Choose kids plants that are easy to grow and you stand a good chance of them eating their own produce as they engage with the mucky side of gardening which results in the joy and excitement of kids’ gardening.
Kids Fun Gardening with Vegetables Boosts Exercise, Fitness and Good Mental Health
Gardening is also a great source of exercise and has a happy and calming effect on willing participants!
Kids Fun Vegetables to Grow in the Garden
Borage – Funny Vegetable Buds & Flowers
- Borage is fun to watch and easy and quick to grow from hairy buds to droopy, star-shaped pale blue flowers that attract bees into your garden.
- Borage’s leaves are cucumber flavour and produces seeds which ensure it will come again next year.
- Borage likes any type of soil, but well-drained soil with full or partial sun is best.
- Water until established, then water it along with the other garden plants
- Borage is a good companion plant, which means it grows well with strawberries and tomatoes.
Calendula
The seeds look like something from the age of dinosaurs – which is great for kids. The petals of calendula are colourful and add a special flavour to salads. They also repel aphids, greenfly and blackfly.
Carrots
Kids can then pull them right out of the ground and crunch on the sweet orange beauties, once washed! Carrots are great in deep, loose soil with sand sometimes and sun, but they will grow in part shaded areas with regular watering.
Chillies – Kids Fun Vegetables to Grow
Chillies are my pet subject. I was a fun, chart-topping chilli grower with hundreds of colourful varieties from mild to ultra-HOT!
- Chillies like well-drained soil or compost, they will grow hydroponically – very well!
- They like it warm and sunny. Water them regularly and feed them once or twice a week.
- Check the best conditions for your particular chosen variety.
- The earlier you can propagate them after Christmas the better.
- Keep them warm until the frosts have gone. Some will grow happily outdoors.
- I have kept chilli plants going indoors on a warm windowsill for years all year round!
Cucumbers
Cucumbers just keep coming and coming. They like compost and well-drained soil. Grow bags and big buckets are good for kids’ cucumbers. Feed them with an off-the-shelf feed and water them every day.
Kale
- Kale is a tough sell – even to adults! You might stand a chance if the kids grow it themselves.
- Kale can be grown in front of the sunflowers in the north end of the bed, this will also provide shade during the hot summer days.
- Kale can also be grown when it gets cooler and can be planted as late as August.
- Kale likes good well-drained soil and plenty of water.
Lettuces
Kids love lettuce. Lettuce is quick to grow anytime other than winter and will grow in shallow, loose soil anywhere. Lettuce hates the heat and likes regular light watering – don’t over-water them.
Mint
The smell of mint is distinct and great with lamb! Be careful to plant it in pots, unless you want it to run rampant throughout your borders. Once established in the ground mint is difficult to completely remove. Mint likes well-drained soil and regular watering.
Physalis
A beautiful Chinese lantern plant with sticky fruit inside the lanterns.
Grow in well-drained soil in full or partial sun, water and feed regularly.
They may be best in a pot and are tricky to manage in a border and can be invasive.
Pineapple Sage
The big red flowers on pineapple sage captivates kid and butterflies alike with a beautiful pineapple aroma. The leaves are great for salads and can be used to make tea-like drinks.
Pineapple sage likes well-drained soil and feed requiring early watering and then general watering alongside the rest of your garden plants.
Pumpkins & Squash – Kids Fun Vegetables to Grow
Kids love growing squash and pumpkins and carving into lanterns.- They rocket away and need a bit of room for the sprawling vines and huge leaves.
- They like rich soil, full sun or partial shade. Water a lot, they are big!
- Pumpkins are ready to harvest between 90 and 120 days after planting.
- Watch the leaves for mildew and avoid them rotting off from the base in damp conditions by insulating them from the ground.
Kids love growing squash and pumpkins and carving into lanterns.Radishes
Kids love growing radishes, sometimes less so when it comes to eating them! They take less than a month to grow and like well fertilised ground, sun and regular watering.
Sorrel
This green shrub has an unusual tangy and sharp taste – something different for the kids to try in the garden.
Strawberries
You have to be careful with kids and berries. So, what better way to teach children which berries they can eat than by telling them they ONLY eat the berries that you or they specifically grow in the garden.
Kids strawberry picking is fun fun fun! Looking for bursting red ripe strawberries under the green leaves or dangling over containers or in hanging baskets.
Alpine Strawberries
These are a hardier smaller version of the strawberry with a very perfumed flavour.
Strawberries like most soils – they will grow anywhere, but in the sun is best with regular watering.
Sunflowers – Kids Fun Vegetables to Grow
Sunflowers provide kids with a GIANT plant to grow like a rocket! They add a great splash of colour and contain lots of seeds that can be dried. Some can be eaten, others used for next year and shared with their friends. Kids’ sunflower seeds can have stripes, or be black or white.
Children’s sunflowers will grow best in the north end of flower beds. Sunflowers like well-drained soil and lots of water.
ALWAYS CHECK – some sunflower seeds are edible, some require shelling.
Sweetcorn
- Sweetcorn grows fairly high and thick and can make a nice natural fence.
- Sow the seeds indoor early or outdoor in late spring.
- Plant around 45cm or 18 inches apart.
- Sweetcorn prefers sunny, fertile soil, out of the wind, with fertiliser or feed.
- Birds, mice, slugs and snails are the enemy.
Tomatoes – Kids Fun Vegetables to Grow
Tomatoes and chillies are from the same family: Solanaceae.
- There are many colourful varieties.
- They grow the same in well-drained soil, well fed and watered in the sun.
- Start them early indoors.
- Plant them all over the place: pots, borders, growbags and hanging baskets.
- If they are not cascading out of pots then you will need to support them with string or canes.
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This is The Easy Method for Kids Fun Vegetables to Grow
This is a simple method for kids fun vegetables to grow.
Kids Fun Vegetables to Grow FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
Who is RK Alker Children’s Author?
R.K. Alker Best-Selling Children’s Author was born in the UK, but he was MADE IN LANCASHIRE!
He is famous as the TV & Radio ChilliMan aficionado and a champion of local producers or “Food Evangelist!”
R.K. Alker has a career spanning more than 3 decades of university lecturing, content writing, UK 999 emergency ambulances, media and entertainment as the colourful TV ChilliMan which contributed to this hilarious children’s adventure book written for his kids.
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