Making your own herb garden.
There is something about building and growing your own produce that you can’t get with anything else. The sense of satisfaction to experience the process from seedlings to fruit for you to eat. It tastes different.
I really wanted to set up this experience for my daughters - but also felt it important that they not only sowed the seeds but also had the responsibility of looking after the emerging plants.
We used a mixture of seedlings and small plants to start them off. - This made things a little more interesting for them because they were dying to start caring.
I made them individual “houses” for them to take ownership from a couple of pallets that I quickly painted to smarten them up. The structure was already there - with the pots wedged into the open slats when the pallet is resting on the side.
They were also labelled using chalk paint and chalk to state what they were and decorate the whole thing - they love drawing!
They loved this activity and have spent hours planting, watering, feeding and picking the produce. It has introduced them to new tastes, flavours and smells - especially the herbs that were surprisingly easy to keep alive. If you don’t have space for this you can grow some on your windowsill. Suitable herbs to grow indoors on the windowsill include Chives, Parsley, Basil, Coriander, Marjoram, Dill and Mint.
We have now progressed to collecting pips and seeds from the fruit and veg we eat and planting those - to see what happens! Oranges are particularly easy and so are tomatoes. You don’t even have to dry them out. Citrus fruit pips can be simply soaked and placed in potting soil – making sure they are watered regularly. Pumpkin are also really easy – if you have the space. We now are the proud owners of passion fruit – not only is it a great fruit but as a climber it takes up no space.
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