allotments and babies/toddlers?

RAS

For the toddler get an old bowl and some containers, which can be used for water games. Make a small sandpit out of an old tyre.

The littly can sit and watch or sleep (under the rhubarb is where one of my fellow plot-holders kept their infant the first season).

I started in the vegetable garden before my fourth birthday, but my bro was an infant in a basket on his first trip.

What yoyu do need to think about is

1. Get ground close to a water point - so you can move around and keep an eye on them both.
2. Away from deep water or gates so they are safe.
3. You need shelter from the sun and rain.
4. grow crops that have a reasonable harvest time. You may not get there for a week, so it need to be able to stand. Raspberries and strawberries may be more of an issue than the currants which remain harvestable for several weeks.
5. How are you going to get to and fro? Will you have to transport tools as well as kids.

Lotus-eater

Your brother must compost his chickens muck from the henhouse somewhere!
You need as much manure as you can get, ask them how fresh it is. You want very well matured manure, if its fresh, fine, stack it up and leave it for a year, then go and try to find some well matured stuff now.

The chickens are going to be a nightmare, I don't know how you are going to get away with anything less than a 6 foot barrier tbh.
Maybe individual chicken wire cages over each raised bed. But this is going to be very difficult to deal with.

edit, your brother will know his own chickens, ask him what he thinks. Your problem in that you are not there, so if they get in, they can have a field day before being found out. Ducks btw will go under a fence, chickens over.

lindseykim13

Lotus-eater wrote: »

When were tomatoes ever classed as easy?

First thing i ever grew and had success every year, beginers luck maybe

katskorner

my kids (5, 3 & 5 wks) love the allotment - the older two anyway! can't wait for the summer this year.

ladybirdintheuk

Sounds like a good plan to me. We got our allotment last year a week after we found out I was expecting, so I couldn't do a great deal down there. I'm sure this year I won't get away that easily

If you get a big enough plot, you could set asside an area as grass with a sandpit or something, then the kids can play while you work? And maybe set aside an area for them to "look after" and grown sunflowers or whatever will appeal to them? That's what the caretaker where I live has done. We only have 1/3 of a plot, so we don't have room for that unfortunately, but maybe DD can play with his son in his sandpit when she's a bit bigger if we're all there at the same time!

My dad has a huge veg garden, so we spent our formative years grubbing around in the mud, and I think it's a great learning oportunity for kids - no bad thing to know where your food comes from! And they're probably more likely to be adventurous with food if they helped grow it? Not to mention it's good exercise for you all

Lentilsforteaagain

Allotments and children are perfect partners. We have five children ranging from 14 down to nearly-4 and the youngest three love it. The 13 and 14 year old detest it though, saying it's just "sooooo boooooooring" and earning pocket money by weeding is just far too much like hard work!

The 10 and 8 year olds love it and for my youngest, it's the best thing since sliced bread! The survival kit for kids at the allotment is:

- A big old blanket for sitting on and creating tea parties (even mud tea parties!)
- A big sheet/blanket/tarpaulin and some string (or whatever) and bricks (etc.) for creating shelter in the sun if needed
- A good selection of things for doing pretend cooking (keeps them happy for hours!) including old (or toy) saucepans, forks, spoons, etc. Plastic picnic cutlery is good too. They'll happily add their own leaves/weeds/mud, etc.
- A selection of toy cars, etc. which will live at the allotment so can get as muddy as you like (toy soldiers love building bases in the mud too)
- Hosepipes, watering cans, etc. also work wonderfully. Water and mud, a child's dream

-Also, for the younger ones, accept they will be filthy and often wet by the end of the day and take a complete change of clothes, nappies, etc. with you ready to change into ready for coming home.

Of course, the other thing is that if you have a few children with you at the same time, they all keep eachother occupied. The look of delight of their faces when they see the little seedlings and then the crop is wonderful! Well worth every bit of effort!

Lentilsforteaagain

Oh, I forgot to add, clear and plant a little bit of ground at a time ... if you try to clear the whole lot in one go it'll seem like a mammoth task but if you do a bit at a time and plant it as you go, you can kind of see the point of all the hard work as you go along