Food for Fairies
Posted by Gaynor Wood on
I firmly believe that children should learn and enjoy gardening. It's great as well for them to have a go at growing their own food. As this week is 'National Gardening Week' I thought it was a good time to show you how another part of my garden is coming on.
As well as flowers did you know fairies love a bit of home grown produce. They are quite willing to share, so I have decided to try and grow some produce ideal for salads and to add flavour to other dishes.
Chard is quite easy to grow, it is a leafy veg that can be used in salads or cooked as a veg.
It does not need a lot of soil, so a grow bag is ideal to sow your seeds in. Divide your grow bag into rows approx 40cm apart. Sprinkle the seed thinly along each row, water in and cover over.
Once you see where the seeds are growing, one tip would be to add some little sharp stones to keep off those pesky slugs, and our little fairy bluebell spends a lot of time watching over our little seedlings.
Mine are beginning to grow and when they are a little larger I will thin them out. The beauty about these that when they are ready to harvest about late June, you just need to pick a few leaves and they will regrow.
Spring Onions are another easy plant to grow without a large vegetable patch and they are delicious in salads. You will need a deep plant pot for these, so I have used an old patio flower tub. Sew quite thinly 1.5 deep. It is a good idea to sow some extra seeds every 2 - 3 weeks for a continues supply.
Mine are starting to show a few whispey shoots. Our fairy lemondrop loves salad and she just cant wait.
Peppers and Chillies are very versatile great to add flavour to many and varied dishes. These may need a bit more care, they can be grown outdoors but protect from frosts. If possible if you have a sunny window sill this would be ideal to give them a good start.
As I didn't have any seed trays, I have converted some old plastic food boxes, which I seem to have accumulated and lost the tops to. I have just made a couple of holes in bottom for drainage.
It took a little while but I was quite excited to at last see some seedlings appear, and our gnome Dragonbreath, is waiting patiently as he loves some heat in this food.
Once the seedling are large enough to handle you will need to transfer them to separate plant pots, You can then put them in a protected part of your garden, but ideally you could keep them on your window sill.
I will keep you updated on how my veg garden grows. I'd love to hear from you if you're growing your own produce or any fairy garden. Send me your pictures, blogs or video and I'll share them with the community.