How to create a botanical garden at home

An easy way to introduce children to the important subject of respect for the environment.

How to create a botanical garden at home

The main objective of a home garden is to make children aware of their responsibility towards the environment, but also to make them aware of the vegetables we eat every day at the table. By cultivating the garden, young people learn about the cycle of life, the rhythm of the seasons, the importance of waiting and slow growth and the harvesting phase. Ideally, you should have 4 square metres of land in the sun at your disposal. Alternatively, you can use small pots to grow aromatic herbs at home and create a botanical garden on your balcony or terrace if you have the possibility.

Let’s now take a look at how to make a home vegetable garden, which plants to start with and much more.

Why grow a vegetable garden?

Growing a vegetable garden is a truly educational activity for children, suitable for all age groups and within everyone’s reach. Cultivating means taking care of something with perseverance and thoughtfulness, but also learning the art of patience and steering clear of impulsiveness.

Love of nature is not a one-way love, in the sense that nature reciprocates the care received by children with great small satisfactions. You don’t need to have a piece of land to grow a vegetable garden, you can use the balcony of your house and if you don’t have a balcony, don’t worry, you can use a corner or staircase inside the house. As for what you need, you need very little: pots, suitable soil, peat and clay.

You can decide to take the seedlings from the nursery or to start from the seeds; this second option will give more satisfaction to the young farmers and allows you to teach children about the life cycle of a plant and much more.

Which plants to grow with children

If you opt for vegetables, there is a special vegetable calendarso each season has its own vegetables and each vegetable has a precise time to be put in the ground and a precise time to be harvested. If space is limited and the vegetable garden is indoors, it is better to grow crops that take up little space such as basil, strawberries, chilli peppers and cherry tomatoes.

The easiest plants to growfor a home vegetable garden are:

  1. rosemary
  2. sage
  3. basil
  4. parsley
  5. thyme
  6. mint
  7. marjoram
  8. carrots
  9. raspberry
  10. cut salad
  11. redcurrant

If you have space on your balcony or terrace, you can also opt for tomatoes that grow tall, such as datterini or cherry tomatoes.

Don’t forget to indulge your child’s tastes and therefore let your child choose what he or she likes to grow by giving him or her several options to choose from. It is just as important to involve children fully in looking after the vegetable garden at home, from choosing the plants to grow to looking after the seedlings, through to decanting and harvesting. This is why it is advisable to equip the young farmers with a small watering can, a small shovel and an apron.

Remember that your children should be free to play and get dirty, so it is better to dress them in ‘old clothes’ that can get dirty, spoil and so on. If you want to make them happy, you can also sew or buy them a real farmer’s uniform with velvet dungarees, a checked shirt and a cowboy hat.

It is also advisable to use labels for the plants so that your child can remember each individual plant and also explain its life cycle and uses in the kitchen.

With the botanical garden at home, children will have to take care of it every day, as they will have to remove weeds and water constantly to encourage growth. We wish you lots of fun and a good harvest.

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