The best thing about growing your own fruit and vegetables is that it’s a triple win. Why? Well because you get to eat the healthy food, you get to spend time being active outdoors and it’s a great way of educating the children on health and nutrition and the food chain. So with that in mind, read on for some more information about setting up your own kitchen garden.

Setting up a kitchen garden

Often times, when we think of a kitchen garden a vision of a Victorian walled plot, comes to mind. But really you can grow fruits and vegetable in any scrap of land that you have as long as you pick the right one.

To do this, you will need to know what sort of soil you have, acid or alkaline and whether the area has much shade or its direct sunshine. Knowing these at or scan help you determine the rights crops to plant in the right area of your garden.

Also, you can make things a little easier on you and the children by installing raised beds or drawing fruit and vegetables in containers. This can work really well as there is less back breaking bend over to be done, and it also keeps the plant so of the ground making it harder for slugs and snail to get to them and eat them before you are ready to harvest.

Leafy greens

Leafy greens are a great thing to get the kids into the garden.They are full of vitamin B12 and D and can be used in so many different ways. Just remember, when growing leafy greens like radicchio, lettuce or rocket don’t let them dry out, or the plants will bolt, and this affects the taste of the crop.

Fruit

The most favourite of all edible crops to grow in the garden has to be fruit. It’s delicious, sweet, good for you and come in all sorts of vibrant colours. In fact, it’s so popular you probably won’t have any complaints about growing it from the kids. The only trouble you will come across is deciding what to grow.

You can pick a select fruit tree or two to grow plums and apricots. Perfect for eating as a snack, in a salad or to even make into jams and preserves. Or what about some strawberry and raspberry bushes? Although if you actually end up with any of these fruit in the kitchen, you’ll be going well, as most of them get eaten straight off the bush!

Root veg

One of the most popular things to grow in a kitchen garden is root vegetables. These include potatoes, parsnips, and carrots. All of which are delicious and healthy if eaten in the correct amounts.

They are also a great thing to get the children involved in growing because you never quite know what the crop will look like until you pick it, something that will definitely help to keep the child’s interest as they water and tend to the plants.

When growing root veg, always remember to watch out for bugs attacking the plant on top of the soil, and leave them for at least 3 months to mature to get a good crop.