Lack of yard work is one of the benefits to RV life. No mowing, weeding, raking or shoveling. But many people really enjoy getting their hands a little dirty and watching something grow. Gardening can be a pleasurable experience, especially if you don’t have to do a lot of weeding.
That’s where container gardening comes in. You can grow just what you want and there aren’t any weeds. You can grow your favorite types of flowers or vegetables.
Before traveling, we had a greenhouse and several different gardens. We were always trying to grow something and it was something the kids really enjoyed. We finally missed gardening enough to do something about it.
We went to the store and bought some pots and soil and some seeds. We ended up with 4 medium sized pots. We planted cilantro, tomatoes and radishes.
Some plants are better for container gardening than others. Squash and pumpkins grow too big. Potatoes and carrots need lots of space underground. Tomatoes grow wonderfully in pots. Radishes aren’t the greatest thing to grow in a container, but they grow fast.
Three year olds don’t like to wait and radishes are among the fastest growing vegetables. Plant the seeds and in just 22 days you’ll have radishes to eat.
When container gardening with children be sure to have a pot with drainage holes in the bottom. Kids love to water plants and they’ll usually give them much more water than they can handle.
Then comes the waiting. As hard as patience is for some children, they will have to practice it with gardening. When buying seeds, most seed packets will tell you how many days until the seeds sprout and how long until they are ready to harvest. Read this information when deciding what to grow.
Another project that is fun for kids is watching seeds sprout. Take a couple dried beans and put them in a wet paper towel and place it in an unsealed sandwich bag. Make sure the paper towel doesn’t dry out, but don’t keep it so wet that there is standing water. Wait a couple days and look at the beans. They will have sprouted. Kids love to see things grow so they are usually excited to see beans turn into growing plants.
Growing sprouts for eating is also fun and quick. Within a few days you will have tasty sprouts to eat. Many health food stores will sell alfalfa or clover seeds for sprouting. You will need a jar and either a sprouting lid or cheese cloth. Put 1-2 tablespoons of seeds in the jar and cover with a few inches of water. Let it sit for 8-10 hours. Drain the water and rinse. Continue to rinse them twice a day and remove any excess water. Continue rinsing them for a couple days until the are a desired size to eat. This may take up to a week. Also keep in mind that different sprouts have different flavors, so try a few and see what you like. Just be sure to use clean sprouting seeds, not regular gardening seeds.
Gardening is an enjoyable pastime and a great activity for children. It doesn’t cost much and doesn’t need to be very time consuming. It is very rewarding for children when they are able to reap what they have sown.
I love this. But were do you keep them when you travel? I imagine we would have to travel with ours in the bathtub on an old towel. Would love to see a picture of your traveling set up. The logistics of the travel part of container gardens is what has stopped me from doing this with the kids up to this point. Thanks for the article.