Just over a week ago I had a grade three class come to the Ladner Community Garden for the first time. The teachers want to teach the children about the 100 mile diet. Okay, its September already so what could we plant? I quickly got out my West Coast Seeds Fall and Winter planting guide to see what we could plant. Inside the guide is a wonderful chart showing you all the planting times. I love it! And guess what, its free!
I was lucky to have a huge seed stash and found five vegetables that the children could plant now. It had to be planted as soon as possible for us to have a chance of getting these plants off and growing and perhaps a bit of a harvest before the ground freezes in November.
I had Kale seeds from our Ladner Seedy Saturday event and I knew children liked kale. Kale is so easy to grow and I can’t think of another vegetable that you can eat from the garden all year round. We will be able to make kale chips or serve it raw for the children. You can’t imagine how ecstatic I was to see the kale seeds had already germinated in last than a week. Yep, doesn’t take much more that to make me happy. The children won’t see them until Monday. Hopefully they spot them in their observation time in the garden.
The arugula is also up in the children’s garden. The arugula may be a bit peppery for them but hidden in a salad, maybe not. Children are funny. If they grow it, they will eat it. Parents never believe us when we tell them their child eats veggies right out of the garden. We also planted lettuce, spinach and corn salad but I havent seen them germinate yet. Our sunny weather has really helped lengthen the garden season here in BC. As a west coaster who doesn’t like gray skies I won’t complain. It can stay like this for another month. Having a late harvest will be so much fun.
