A Childs Garden

A Childs (Reeds') Garden - This is an easy way for your children to have their "own" gardens and really take ownership of the growing world around.  These particular plots belong to my 12 year old son who has been gardening for years but only on his "own" for about three.  We used non treated wood that was left from a dock building project from years ago.  2x6" pieces and these are 6 feet long.  This make a great sized space since it doesnt have to be walked in very often at all, to pick the produce or to keep up with weeding.  The idea for this came from the book "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholemew.  My son has perused the book at length and while I wont swear he has read it, he has gleaned a lot from it and I have as well.  This system does produce more goods than the row by row gardening method by far.  Reed has had much better success especially with carrots, radishes and beets using this method than I have using row by row methods. 

We used 3" screws to hold our wood pieces together, and we did dig out the original dirt and replace it with good garden soil.  As we are in the Millers Reach Burn area we have been left with heavy clay and sand in layers instead of soil so our remediation is necessary.  If you are starting with good soil it would not be necessary except to have a clean slate and fairly weed free to start, which I highly reccommend for childrens plots.

Reed also chooses his own seed (great winter time activity together), and I help him with the ordering.  We have tried some great things like Daikon Radish (success) and eggplant (fail) but it has really given him a good start towards knowing what we can and cant grow and how far we might be able to test the limits of our growing area (solid zone 2).

For one of his garden plots he also chose raspberries and strawberries from a local grower (so we know they are hardy) and he has had such success with those that next season we will have to separate the strawberries out - both types have outgrown the plot.

In the background of the top photo you can also see what looks like two sticks in a hole - that is actually Reeds apple tree - a Minnesota 1747 in its second year here at Wicked Raven.  Reed was really excited to have an apple tree of his own and we are excited to see how it will do with apples on it (maybe next year). 

There are so many opportunities to grow with your kids and it really is very simple.  Just begin!

Blessed Be!

 We decided this year to add two more of the raised beds (seen above) in Reed's garden area.  They have done so well that we are considering letting the big garden (seen in the background below) go back to meadow and just using the raised beds and the huglekulture areas.  Nothing grows quite as well out there as in the raised beds that Reed makes.  These new ones will be all ready for planting next season!

Above you can see the boys working hard (Reed and his friend) to get the turf out of the areas where the raised beds will live.  In the already established beds you can see two types of cabbage and kohlrabi in the one on the left and raspberries in the one on the right.  Those raspberries will be moved to a huglekulture bed as soon as it is ready and will make room for Reed to plant more carrots, celery, parsley and other yummy veggies.  We have already moved the strawberries out into  a Hugelkulture bed - they simply outgrew the space.

The turf comes out of the raised bed area and goes right over to the Huglekulture bed area to go onto a new huglekulture bed for the raspberries.  We left enough room between the raised beds to mow with the riding mower so that makes it much easier to take care of and keeps the pests away too.  Raised bed building is a great way to get the kids involved and outdoors as well as teaching them how to grow great things - including themselves!