Family

Seedlets: Gardening Time Together

What gorgeous weather we have had so far over the bank holiday weekend.  We took advantage of this and took to the garden all day yesterday.  The girls had been sent (the above) gardening tools to try out and a pack of seeds from the Seedlets range by Chris Collins – The resident gardener at Blue Peter.

The range has three levels of ability - beginner, intermediate and expert. We were sent items from the first two age ranges.  We had also bought some herbs and salads that needed planting, as well as some more seeds, so we were really ready to put the Seedlets range through its paces!

Miss A who is 3 (nearly 4 – she insisted I wrote that !) loved the gardening gloves (2.99), and hand tools (3.99) from the beginner range (ages 3-5) she found them very easy to use.  They are well made, and the perfect size for little hands I think. She took to sowing carrots, rocket and watercress, very easily. As they are also some of her favourites to eat, I thought this would be a great place to start with her, and increase her knowledge about where food comes from.  I spent a long time explaining the growing process, and she really drank it all in and enjoyed learning. We have also been given a farm to review recently, so I think this has helped too as she has hit the…”but why?” stage now.

The tools are well packaged, with helpful hints on the labels.  The beginner range is also multicoloured, so easy to spot.  It makes complete sense to have different tools for your children, as adult size do tend to be too heavy, and can be dangerous.

Miss N is 10, decided she wanted to pot up all of the herbs.  We try to use as many fresh herbs as we can, in cooking, and Miss N is getting to the age where she really wants to help much more in the kitchen, so this seemed perfect.  From the intermediate range (Ages 5-10) she was sent the watering can (8.99) and a mini tool set (5.99). I think for Miss N, the look and feel of the intermediate range tool set was a little too young. I would say it would be better placed at an upper limit of 8.  However, it didn’t hamper at all her enjoyment of planting the plants.

Miss N declared she would love to plant more things this summer, we do usually grow a small selection including tomatoes and courgettes but unfortunately didn’t last year.  So I’ve promised that she can choose a few more thing to grow, that we can then cook together afterwards.

It was such a lovely way to spend time together. Miss N is actually in her science class, observing and recording the growth of a runner bean in a glass jar. So this was a great activity to do to complement what she is being taught at school.  We all enjoyed the activity and I really felt I was supporting their knowledge of where food comes from, which is so important.

The final job of the day was to water, always a favourite! The tin watering can was great, so much so we have decided to change our current plastic adult one to a tin watering can. It had a fine watering rose perfect for directing a fine spray of water to the base of the plants.

Overall we couldn’t recommend the Seedlets range highly enough.  It is a great idea to encourage you children to get involved in growing things, and now we have the tools to do it, we will be definitely be encouraging the girls even more, to get into the garden and SOW IT, GROW IT & EAT IT.

Thank you for reading

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