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To get kids hooked on gardening, the key is to pick plants that are easy to grow and care for. Photo / Filip Urban, Unsplash
Starting a garden can be a little overwhelming – everyone wants to grow something delicious, juicy and fast. Claire Mummery picks the plants that’ll deliver in the first year.
My advice is to start small,
My top pick is a bush cherry tomato, which is available in all colours and shapes – pear-shaped, egg-shaped and the traditional round-shaped. The beauty of buying this type of tomato is they can grow without the hassle of staking, in a pot or a grow bag, take up minimal room, and they produce all summer long.
Cherry tomatoes are perfect for the kids and add brightness to the plate. They can be plucked and eaten straight off the vine and are usually prolific producers. Even better, bush cherry tomatoes require minimal care. Simply water three times a week, remove yellow leaves and feed monthly. If you are growing them in a garden among other plants, they will appreciate having a marigold or two planted near them and they particularly like growing with basil. Delicious!
My second pick is a Lebanese cucumber, as these plants produce vast amounts of small cucumbers containing hardly any seeds. Their skins are soft and easy to peel if required, and can be eaten whole off the plant – a sweet, refreshing and hydrating vegetable for summer.
Cucumbers generally like to be planted in twos or threes, as it makes pollination easier when there are more flowers available at once. Cucumbers can be grown in pots and planter bags, as well as in the garden. They can be grown along the ground, up a string or a support, or hanging over a wall or rockery. Choose a spot in your garden with early morning sun and afternoon shade.
Cucumbers love to be planted with corn, zucchini, beans and sunflowers. It’s worth noting that cucumbers can be prone to bacterial diseases, which is why I recommend a quick-producing variety. Growing them up a string is also preferable to avoid disease and, if you have oregano or chamomile in your garden, you can cut this up and place around your plant as mulch to deter fungal outbreaks.
When planting your Lebanese cucumber, cut up three or four banana skins and put these into the soil under the plant – it will be most grateful, as the banana skins will provide potassium and phosphorous for healthy growth.
Water your cucumber at the base of the plant three times a week and feed it once a month with worm juice, diluted bokashi juice, plus a low-nitrogen fertiliser only when flowering starts. If the plant has many cucumbers on it at one time, increase the feeding to fortnightly.
My third and final pick of the crop to grow for success this summer is bush beans. Beans are succulent and juicy when eaten small and raw, straight off the plant, and remain a firm favourite of mine. They are easy to grow from seed or plant, and they come in different colours – from green and purple (which turn green when cooked) to yellow – so take your pick, or plant all three.
Beans are nitrogen-fixers, so they don’t need any special requirements from the soil and are best situated next to a plant that needs higher nitrogen, like corn.
If sowing from seed, be sure to soak overnight in water to encourage germination, and only water once when you plant the seed, and then not again until the first leaves appear.
Plant your beans down to their first two leaves, as this will make the plant sturdier during windy conditions. Place them about 10-15cm apart and harvest often to encourage the plant to keep producing. Leaving lots of beans on the plant at any one time can create stress, as it really wants to get on with producing more flowers for your next crop.
Remove old leaves once a month to continually create airflow, helping to prevent disease. These plants love to be in the sun and prefer to be planted when the evenings have warmed up. Plant with cucumbers, corn, pumpkins and marigolds.
I wish you every success with growing your summer fruit and vegetables – happy gardening!
• For more gardening advice, visit growinspired.co.nz and discover Claire Mummery’s online gardening course at www.growinspiredacademy.com
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