Growing Seeds with Kids

Carrots can be tricky to grow especially straight.
Potatoes, beans, peas, herbs, courgettes/pumpkins are all good.
salads grow quickly too but would be better in raised off the ground baskets etc or get eaten.
sends wise, anything from lidl amazon without fancy packets is good.A bit late this year apart from salad.

Cress & wet cotton wool would be the quickest whilst you are waiting for all the other seeds to grow.

You should look at planting times for each thing you want to grow outdoors. Each type of seeds that end up going outside needs to be done within a time band else they will fail or not do so well.

Pumpkins, Sunflowers , Peas/Beans and onions from sets

A lot will depend on which part of the country you're in. It's a good idea to look around you and see that other people are growing and also having problems with. For e.g. I've given up on tomatoes because we always get blight. The no.1 rule is that the best things to grow are the things you want to eat.

Having said that I'd recommend starting with the easiest things to grow first such as :-

- Radishes
- Climbing beans (french or runner)
- Courgettes
- Beetroot
- Chard (if you like spinach)

Look for RHS award of garden merit (AGM) varieties that have been given a seal of approval. If you want to save and reuse the seeds don't get F1 varieties.

One of the best companies is Kings Seeds imho. Fast delivery and seeds that all germinate. Another good one is Real Seeds. The other big companies all increased their prices dramatically since the 'lock-down' period. I'll never forget that.

Shame about the carrots as they are extremely easier to grow as long as you don't have disturbance or stony soil. If the long types are proving difficult then try the small stumpy ones. If squirrels are a problem then they'll probably impact almost everything. Our biggest problem is squirrels (taking gages, pears, apricots) and foxes (constantly digging, jumping on and urinating & defecating over veg). You can use plastic trellis over the surface of the soil (people throw this away in skips) to deter squirrels, but not much deters foxes other than a complete strong metal barrier, such as metal walk-in style cages).

Fruit trees take a long time to get going but will be easy low-maintenance thereafter. Choose dwarf stock unless you have a big garden. Apple, pear and plum are good. Also, with our climate changing now fig is a great choice, but contain it's roots as it's a beast. I don't bother with soft fruit as I gather wild brambles and freeze them.

Also, don't forget the herbs. I'd go for the Mediterranean ones like rosemary and thyme because they are extremely low maintenance and versatile in recipes. You don't need to buy these either. I just took a cutting from outside the local library and grew it from that.

I'd just start with seeds from your local garden center/discount shop. You can go for more niche stuff from an online specialist once you've done it for a couple of years and sorted yourself out.

Peas are a safe choice. They're generally reliable and nice to eat directly. You do have to spend a bit of time building a frame for them unless you have a wall to grow them against. They also stagger well so if you keep planting them you can have fresh peas for several months.

I usually have a lot of baby sweetcorn They're not that reliable at germinating so I usually grow them in trays then plant them out. Once they've sprouted there's only the occasional runt that does badly, and even that usually fruits at least once. They're a big, dramatic plant that doesn't need much care and produces stuff you can eat directly.

For a lot of the ground based plants like carrots, turnips and radishes the result will vary in size quite a bit so harvesting is often the tricky part, it's easy to just keep waiting and end up with something that hasn't gotten any bigger and isn't as nice. Onions too if you're going to harvest them early as spring onions.

Potatoes are reliable but unexciting, ditto beans.

Brassicas generally tend to attract a lot of butterflies and other pests. The big ones like sprouts and swedes tolerate it better and can struggle through, the small ones like kohl rabi just get decimated and don't produce anything. Turnips often go under the radar but if you're going to go for any of the others then be prepared for caterpillars. For children that may be a win-win though.


Most fruit is from more permanent plants, or it's creeping invasive stuff that sends out runners like raspberries, blackberries and strawberries that will need keeping in check as long as it's there. There's plenty of choice, but it's more of a commitment then most vegetables.


I don't know what your garden is like but generally you want to grow stuff in the ground, pots will require more attention to get good results unless you have terrible soil. Also, if you've got the space then don't be afraid to plant lots of vegetables. A couple of square meters for the bigger stuff or a couple of linear meters for the smaller stuff are often perfectly reasonable summer snacking amounts of any food you enjoy.

Some good advice there didn't see anybody mention strawberries ?
in a hanging basket is great so they don't get eaten
grow purple sprouting here so have something for the spring although
lost most to the frost this year

lots of different climbing beans so you don't get bored of runners
these are great stringless purple beans
rhsplants.co.uk/pla…46/
have grown zebra beans as well
these as well this year
riverford.co.uk/a-t…ans

last years corn
ruralsprout.com/gla…rn/

this year hopefully
premierseedsdirect.com/pro…ry/

Stumbled onto this one the other day, may be of interest, Relax Garden.