Get Back Into The Garden
How to start gardening again
It's time to get back in the garden! Dust off your tools, get your kids into their wellies and get some fresh air! Now is a good time to start the children off in the world of gardening. Spring will soon be on us so why not get the children involved in a spot of gardening? You don't need a large amount of space, in fact you don't even need a garden! Raised beds are really cheap at this time of year, so it's now a good time to buy!
What is a raised bed?
Raised beds are simply areas of soil at a higher level then the surrounding soil. The easiest way to do this is to erect wooden or plastic edges to keep the soil contained at the higher level. You can either buy a pre-made plastic raised bed or make your own out of scrap wood, (buying one is probably easier though and will last longer than wood)!
Why?
There are many advantages to raised bed gardening, the key ones are listed below. It doesn't matter where you live. A raised bed can go virtually anywhere, you can even allocate just a small area of existing tarmac playground. Raised beds are totally child friendly, it can be as big as you want with little or no ongoing maintenance.
Cheap and easy for children to maintain:
You have full control over whats in the bed. No bits of hidden glass when your children start digging down.
Child Proof:
You are able to water more accurately and with greater effect. But because the soil is in a raised bed it will not become water-logged, so any over enthusiastic watering from the children won't actually matter. This combination of a moisture retaining and free draining soil gives the ideal conditions for many vegetables to grow. The easiest of crops to grow so almost everybody can grow something.
No knowledge needed:
Buy a bag of seeds from the garden centre and away you go. Most plants will thrive on a fortnightly feed of general purpose liquid fertiliser diluted as recommended on the packaging, but some plants such as tomatoes and strawberries will do a little better when fed with liquid tomato fertiliser. The use of raised beds will ensure that the feed, seeds and watering is contained within a specific area, so you are almost certain to get something to grow!
Read the full article on our Shedforce Blog.