Gardening books for kids

[LDSMom]

Hello,

I've been reading a lot on the forums about self propelled learning, and I'd like to see if I can find a great book on vegetable gardens that my son (5) can read to help come up with a plan for our garden this year. I'd like to make him a big part of it. He will be pulling weeds and watering it, so it would be great if he could also help design it and really understand it.  I'm looking for something maybe 2nd grade level with larger font, not too many words on a page, lots of pictures and diagrams so that he can learn and the put the knowledge to use. Des anyone have any ideas or recommendations for books? 

Thanks!!

[Ilala]

I just wondered if you thought about both of you making a scrapbook
together.
Keeping it simple I mean.
Maybe a PDF of your /his own plan and progress.
Or even photos and his comments for family as you progress on Facebook .

You described it so well.

I have seen gardening forums that involve children too.

[sonya_post]

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Step---Step-First-Gardening/dp/0754819655/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362428149&sr=1-2&keywords=gardening+kids

If you have a decent library I'd get books from there.

We have raised beds in our garden. I made 4 4'x2.5' beds for the kids. They are long enough and 2 feet wide is about right so the kids can get to the center of the box without having to get into it. I let them pick what to put in them. We use a layered gardening technique with lots of compost and then we pack our beds pretty tight. Keeps watering and weeds down. I don't worry about companion planting we just put it in. We give eggplant, tomatoes extra room, everything else is 4 inches. Vining plants just meander through the beds and come out the other side. Or you can grow them up or train them out the box from the beginning. If you are tomato eaters, make sure you have a sweet tasting cherry where they can just pick and eat right there.

[Mandabplus3]

Or if your neighbours children are tomato eaters! I always plant an extra 3 plants just for the 2 year old next door! 
We plant like you Sonya, squish it all in and mix it all up. I got a few gardening for kids type books but my kids seem to prefer flipping through my books and any seed catalogs use we get.
One of my girls really loves potato so we plant potato that grows purple and makes dark purple mash potato! Very exciting apparently    we also plant lots of different coloured veggies. At the moment wee have beans growing in purple, green, dark greens yellow.  Peas never make it into the house no matter how many I plant!

[akalori]

LDSMom.

What an excellent idea.  What stuff are you reading on self propelled learning?  it sounds interesting. 

Lori

[sonya_post]

Manda, I was suspicious of the squash-it-in method. Last year, we had a major drought. I have 5 4'x10 beds. 4 rounds barrels, a 15'x15' berry patch, and 4 4x4 beds and the 4 smaller beds. I did an experiment with 1/2 the beds way I used to plant and 1/2 the squash-in method. I had almost no weeds, very little watering and few pests and only a little bit of time invested and 3x and much produce. The other boxes were pest ridden, I had to water them all the time, and I was forever pulling weeds. Production was also low.All my beds will be the squash-it-in method this year.  My tomatoes that were planted nicely in rows the birds got into and pecked holes in almost 1/2 of them to get water. The squash-it-in beds with the tomatoes rambling way more tomatoes, no holes and no bottom end rot.

[Frukc]

My girl (now 5) has her own garden project since she was nearly 2. She has her own sunflowers. Last summer, her sunflowers were 3.3 meters high

Every spring, she is helping me also with sowing seeds in the pots. Her help becomes more and more advanced with every year.

I like to spend my free time in my flower bed. To keep my kids with me, I have some entertainment here. Some stones where to sit, some edible plants, some flowers with interesting blossoms. She is fascinated by Antirrhinum and Helichrysum.

In my vegetable garden, she wants to do everything I do. She is crying if I replant something without her help

Well, in garden we prefer "learning by doing"     I am garden-addicted so everything goes this way :D

[Mandabplus3]

Lori grab a cup of tea the self propelled learning thread is LONG but wondderful. Here is the link
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-older-child/swann-family-10-children-with-ma-at-age-16!-book-review-and-discussion-thread/150/

Only once in my gardening life did I try the traditional rows for planting. What a disaster! I lost all the tomatoes to fruit fly and all the broccoli and cabbage to cabbage moth. Everything got eaten by grasshoppers! It was so disappointing. So I switched back to my standard, here is a gap fill it style of gardening and we now have too many zucchini ( yummy yellow ones!) silverbeet every day, broccoli most of the year, lettuce all year round ( its too hot to grow lettuce in full sun here in summer but it grows well UNDER everything else) beautiful tiger striped tomatoes, lovely beans, snow peas, strong potato plants....we always have something everyday to pick. I share a little with the grasshoppers still but not the cabbage moth or fruit fly. 
Our gardens sound similar in size, yours might be a little bigger but not much. I can't get into mine this week as its flooded. Thank god for raised beds, even though I have to swim to get into it, the plants are still safe!

[teachingmykids]

Manda, I was suspicious of the squash-it-in method. Last year, we had a major drought. I have 5 4'x10 beds. 4 rounds barrels, a 15'x15' berry patch, and 4 4x4 beds and the 4 smaller beds. I did an experiment with 1/2 the beds way I used to plant and 1/2 the squash-in method. I had almost no weeds, very little watering and few pests and only a little bit of time invested and 3x and much produce. The other boxes were pest ridden, I had to water them all the time, and I was forever pulling weeds. Production was also low.All my beds will be the squash-it-in method this year.  My tomatoes that were planted nicely in rows the birds got into and pecked holes in almost 1/2 of them to get water. The squash-it-in beds with the tomatoes rambling way more tomatoes, no holes and no bottom end rot.

We always done traditional rows. I will be doing the squash it in method from now on. I have been reading that beds that you cn reach across and then putting as many plants as you can in is the most efficient use of space and you will have better production. Just how much do you squash it in. Do you do it on the lower end of what it recommends and then don't do rows? I am planning on doing sheet mulching beds. I seen people have good results with them but this is my first time doing the squash it in method and sheet mulching and I am a little nervous.

Sorry this is off topic. I don't know any good books. I was planning on giving my kids there own beds they are in charge of but they don't help with the planning.

[Mandabplus3]

I picture the fully grown plant and give it half the space it needs. The trick to getting in all working is to continue planting. We plant something every week. If you do this you will always have something to eat and never have too many spaces. To be honest since my kids help so much The plants often don't get the half grown size space at all. I doesn't seem to matter. If the plant doesn't have the room it needs it just slows down its growth until you harvest whatever plant is in the way and then it grows to full the gap. Plants don't need anywhere near the amount of room it says on the packet. I certainly don't measure anything. After a year of doing this you will instinctively know where to put what.
The only thing we still plant in a group is corn. Corn is best planted in blocks ( not rows but multiple rows) of at least a metre square with 20cm per plant in most directions. Group planting helps pollination and nice full fat curnals. Sometimes when I want LOTS of potatoes I will plant them together and raise the soil level of the whole group as it grows. Although one year I did this I got so many baby spuds it wasn't worth it and another year it all flooded and rotted. Mostly it works though 

[LDSMom]

Thanks for the suggestions! I love the idea of a raised garden! Isn't this forum the best??? I get so many wonderful ideas and advice here. You just can't put a price on how valuable you all are!

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