Gardening with kids and a Mr Fothergill’s giveaway!

February 5, 2013 by Stacey 55 Comments

Update: This competition is now over. Congratulations to Fourlildarlins, Sarah White and Jodi Mollard!

I received one of each of the Mr Fothergill’s Little Gardeners range.

I’m really hoping both my children enjoy being in the garden, planting, watering and watching things grow. As a novice I don’t always get things right, but I learn each time I make a mistake and it makes for a better crop the next time around. I want to get my kids involved early so it becomes completely second nature to them.

At the moment neither of them get excited about a cucumber, but I’m thinking the bright colours and fun activities that go with the Mr Fothergill’s Little Gardeners range for kids will hold their attention at this age. Abby is not yet two and while she loves playing in and around the garden, it’s not really geared for her age group. I had her help me set up the brightly-coloured Mr Fothergill pots, and talked to her about what we were going to grow while she put 47 stickers on one pot and tried to eat the soil mix. She didn’t like that very much.

While I think it’s important children learn to garden without gimmicks, I also think it doesn’t hurt to give something solely to them to play with and learn from in the very early stages. These pots come in the coolest ranges and are super-simple for tiny hands to plant. And I have no shame in admitting I was curious about the Tickling Mimosa, a plant that will move when you touch its leaves. I can’t wait for it to get bigger so I can test it out!

For starters though, we planted a tomato and a sunflower. You just add water to the potting mix disc, plant the seeds and water. The smaller Windowsill pots have the lid put back on like a mini greenhouse, and the bigger Grow and Create ones come with stickers to decorate and activity sheets to accompany. I got my colour on big time. They also come with recipes so the kids can learn what to do with the produce they grow, and introduce them to healthy eating.

They are all available at Bunnings, KMart and independent garden retailers, or online at mrfothergills.com.au. Or, you can win one of three packs right here if you so desire!

You will get eight items in each pack – all of the Windowsill range (Lemonade Plant (lemon balm), Lolly Plant (stevia), Mini Strawberry and Mini Tomato), and all of the Grow and Create range (Flower Power (edible flowers), Mini Tomato, Mini Sunflower, and Tickling Mimosa).

A little bit fun, no?! Just leave a comment answering the question: What’s your favourite thing to grow (or wish you could grow) and why?

Mine’s tomatoes. They’re just so easy and so delicious and so prolific.

Entries will close February 12, 2013 at 5pm Queensland time. Please make sure you’re contactable. Entries will be judged on merit and three winners chosen (woohoo!) Unfortunately due to quarantine restrictions, entrants must be Australian and the Grow and Create Tickling Mimosas cannot be sent to WA and Tasmania… they will be replaced with another product. Any questions, fire away!

Good luck… and if you win, let me know what you think of the Tickling Mimosa!

Filed Under: Gardening, kid stuff

Judith Maunders

My favourite thing to grow would be some kind of food that Miss Six would actually eat. She’s tentatively tasted home grown strawberries and tomatoes, but nothing more than a small bite. I’d love to be able to grow something that had her raring to head out back and gobble up the fruits (or vegetables) of our labour!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Sharon-Fawcett/100001788489222 Sharon Fawcett

My favourite thing to grow at the moment is herbs on the window sill as our new house has only just been completed and we don’t have a garden yet, but before this I loved growing irises ans had a fantastic collection.
Kate

Strawberries! So juicy (hopefully) and tasty and colourful..great to eat and watch grow and photograph!
Natalie Stewart

We did this at Christmas with my 3 and 9 year old. The strawberries from my 3 yo, just didn’t make it. My 9 yo’s basil is still going great guns and will be repotted very soon, fingers crossed it goes smoothly, he is really hanging for a magerheta pizza!
Jo

Im a bit (a lot) of a novice myself but with the help of my 2 and a half year old (who appears to be blessed with the green thumb) we have been planting and growing a few things. His favourite is his little strawberry plant which is now laden with little green strawberries. And my favourite thing to grow is shallots (spring onions). They are super easy (we grew ours straight from the bulbs cut off a store bought bunch), that little adventure is on my blog if you want a read http://manyamuse.wordpress.com/ Good luck in your own gardening adventures, and I agree it is so important for children to have this skill! Jo x
- Jo
  
  Was just reading back over some of the other replies, and reminded of another favourite thing to grow. Irises! I just love them! They are so hardy, they are beautiful and they multiply each year!
http://www.petitarmoir.com.au/ Miriam@PetitArmoir

My favorite thing to grow is Silverbeet and Rhubarb. They are forgotten vegetables and all you need to do is take what you need and they just keep growing.
Polly

How fun, for me there is nothing more delicious than a home grown tomato.
Alimacmac

I do love my tomatoes too!! I’ve just picked I don’t know how many this morning for yet more relish this afty, BUT my favourites are our sunflowers out the front,I get so many comments from friends who drive past our house, to strangers on their morning walks.. I’m trying to get my littlies more involved in my veg patch, but rekon these kits would do the trick!!!
Serene

Chillies! We love raw chopped chilli ( we’re Chinese) with our meals. My chilli plant is prolific with the hot weather and produces so much that it’ll last us through the colder months. Though what I really wish I could grow is basil. Somehow I just kill them.
flyingdrunkenmonkey

Oh these look awesome! We’re only growing herbs at the moment and probably my favourite is basil. We thought it was going to die with the 40 degree days but after a few days of rain it’s about 3 times as bushy. I love it because I don’t have to do anything to it and I get heaps of amazing pesto
Lily had her own special strawberry plant & I loved the way she would check each day to see how pink the strawberries were. Unfortunately that one did die in the hot weather but we’re definitely replacing it.
Lisa Mckenzie

I love growing strawberrys and Cherry tomatoes,nothing nicer than a fresh warm strawberry straight from the garden,makes me think back to my childhood and the thing I would love to grow is a mango tree but live in the wrong climate:(((
PS Abby is so cute putting those stickers on the pots….Love.
Emily Brocklesby

Would be wrong to say ‘anything’. I once had a chilli plant and killed it. Horrifically. My mother was bewildered pronouncing ‘I gave you a a chilli plant because they can’t be killed’. I want my kids to learn about growing their own food. Truth is, I’d be learning too. And perhaps this little pack might be the best way for us all to get our pristine thumbs just a little greener.
http://www.facebook.com/sharnanigans Sharni Montgomery

My fave thing to grow is… OK, I have to be honest here, I can’t just bs to try and win can I. Honestly – the only thing I have EVER grown are two pretty cute human beings, so that makes me kind’ve a gardener… but my Cowboy and my son — WELL they like gardening and they grow all sorts of delights. Love to win this to foster their talents and also my up and coming bloomer (7 month old Tansy) would love to learn to plant things to – courtesy of her Dad. I grow the people – he develops their gardening abilities! I hope you accept essays as answers.
- http://www.theveggiemama.com Veggie Mama
  
  Yes I do accept ‘em – and sometimes they win! email me at stacey @ theveggiemama.com and we’ll get your little guys sorted!
http://www.facebook.com/staceygibson30 Stacey Gibson

My favourite is a wish as I am yet to start my vegie patch (although I have a nice little plot ready for action!)….Cherry ‘matoes!! (translated from my 2.5 yr old daughter). This would be the first thing I would plant as they are a huge winner at our place. We have a small herb garden from which my daughter nibbles on parsley when we’re in the backyard
http://www.facebook.com/nicole.dugo Nicole Dugo

We love to grow salad leaves here! You can pick and pick and pick and they grow back! It s fabulous having fresh salad anytime you want We also love fresh peas here, sit out on the patio with kids, shell them and eat them fresh the pods its awesome!
http://www.yTravelBlog.com/ yTravelBlog

I absolutely love to grow basil. In my old apartment complex at Mooloolaba we had it bursting out from the gardens. It grew and crept outside my front screen door which was next to my kitchen.

The smell of basil would waft in as I was cooking and I could never resist picking off leaves to put in almost every meal. I loved having a never ending supply of my favourite herb. I cook Thai a lot and found it to be such a cleansing experience bashing the basil in my mortar and pestle to create a delicious Thai curry!
Leah

Hands down its tomatoes! Nothing compares to the taste of homegrown toms! I just wish I could grow the bloody things….
http://twitter.com/katerpilla Kat Roberts

i totally want to grow more herbs. oh and zucchinis!
Daneyl Green

Heirloom carrots are my favourite thing to grow – because I can always grow them (for some reason) but love pulling them up with Mr3 and discovering the hidden colours!!
Christina

Every night, without fail, my 2 1/2 year old daughter eats 3 slices of cucumber before she goes to bed. It’s a little weird. Woe if we get caught without a cucumber in the fridge! So we definitely ought to grow our own
jodi mollard

I would love to grow sunflowers, I think they look just wonderful, and it would be great to collect the sunflower seeds after enjoying their beautiful smiling faces and learn how to dry them out, eat them and replant the seeds to grow more again and again. These would be perfect at our playgroup, where I am encouraging a small ‘community garden’ and have the children water the plants with old pop top drink bottles as an activity, they love it!!
- http://www.theveggiemama.com Veggie Mama
  
  Jodi, please email me! stacey @ theveggiemama.com
Kim m

I love growing capsicums, I used to grow the. When I was a kid, and just used to pick them off the bush and eat them! I desperatley want to “encourage” my kids to do the same!!! These little gardeners pots are such a cool way to get kids into gardening…

galwayst@hotmail.com
Sonia

Sunflowers. After they are spent we watch the bird peck at the seeds for weeks afterwards.
karina w

I wish I could grow orchids. Mine always die!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lara-Daebritz/100002126928468 Lara Daebritz

Only last week Dad reminded me of how he grew peanuts for us as children. I remember the excitement of digging them up and would love my young daughter, Ava, to experience that as well. I’ve started Googling the process and we’re going to give them a go…
http://www.facebook.com/gayle.richardson.771 Gayle Richardson

We have to “staples” in our garden, easy to grow and my daughter will eat them – Cucumbers and Tomatoes!
andreea

Strawberries, they just don’t taste like strawberries when you buy them in shops sometimes,there is no flavour
Amanda

Radishes – they seem to be my ‘never fail’ and watching them grow from seed the results a pretty quick. The whole process is really quite amazing!
carolyn king

My whole family loves to grow cherry tomatoes and green beans. They would eat them straight from the bushes. It was an easy way to get them to eat vegies, especially as cooked beans seemed to be a vegie they all hated.
Kerry Downey

I would love to grow cherry tomatoes so my kids can eat them straight off the plant
http://www.facebook.com/rennae.thomas Rennae Thomas

My children currently grow zucchini’s and cherry tomato’s. The zucchini’s arent very established and really not doing much, but we have to fight the dog for the tomato’s, she likes to eat them off the plant.
We would love to try to grow baby carrots and strawberries next, nothing is better then picking a nice big fat juicy strawberry off your very own plant
http://www.facebook.com/sonya.nicole.982 Sonya Nicole

I would love love love to grow Stevia, as I’m a sugar-addicted Type 1 diabetic, and Stevia is a healthy sweetener.
Wendy

peppermint so I can make tea with it and also my daughter can smell the scent in the garden
http://www.facebook.com/jackie.collins.9 Jacqueline Collins

Strawberries!! The kids have tried so many times to grow strawberries but never any luck
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004542990941 Amanda Harris

Parsley – it’s great being to duck out the backdoor & grab sprigs of parsley to add to sandwiches or cooking.
Lee Marsden

I love to grow pumpkin and zucchini, they give a great result quickly so the kids mistakenly think I’m a fantastic gardener! I dread the days I can no longer con them!
Di

Herbs, all of them. Once established they rarely need water, and re-seed themselves to make a re-appearance year after year, keeping my dinners delicious.
DIANA O

Carrots because I love pulling them up when they’re ready.
Ernie

Roses, big, deep red, beautifully scented ones that everyone else grows with ease but every time I try the aphids attack and it’s all over red rover.
Melinda

I love to grow And herb, as they compliment a salad so well. When there is hardly anything in the house you can add some herbs and bingo! You’re done.
http://twitter.com/MBPaperPackages MyBrownPaperPackages

I love to grow edible things, because I love to just wander into the garden and pick something fresh and eat it – nothing better. And I am passing this on to my daughter as she loves to run around the garden and rub the leaves and smell them and she eats the tomatoes straight from the vine as soon as they turn red. But I’d really love to grow flowers. Anything with flowers really. They add colour and fun to the garden. But I’m not really too much of a green thumb, more of a khaki browny greeny tinge if you look quite closely, and flowers just don’t seem to last long in my garden. I under or over love them every time.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=759610395 Stacey Shailer

We love to grow beetroot here! It’s so much tastier than the sad ones you see at the shops, and are delicious pickled (much nicer than the tinned ones!), roasted with potatoes and pumpkin for the Sunday roast, or even as a topping on vegetarian pizza, yum! Plus my little man takes great delight in helping me pull them out – guess it’s the surprise of discovering just how big the beetroot has grown while in the ground
http://www.facebook.com/people/Sarah-White/100002795064362 Sarah White

I enjoy watching my fruit and veg grow – my favourite thing I WISHED I could grow would be a money tree.. When I was 6 or 7 I planted my pocket money $2.00 note in the backyard and watered it daily until I eventually gave up – I never did dig it out… I wonder if it is still there??…..
http://www.facebook.com/justtee09 LadyTiffany OfGlencoe

Love watching all of my fruit trees, vegies and herbs grow but love growing spring onions…the flavour of home grown is amazing
Belinda Mallinson

I like to grow Basil but it always seems to frazzle. My thumb seems to be brown when I wish it would be green. Maybe my children will be better at keeping their plants wetter and the kitchen over flowing with all their garden produce growing.
Karlene

At the moment eggplants. I bought a sad looking eggplant plant (is that the correct grammar?) on the reduced rack at Bunnings on 24/12/12 and planted him that afternoon. Already I have picked 12 mini eggplants! And the plant is so healthy looking.
gr82do

3y/o gardener love to watch the strawberries grow and ripen. He is quite the little harvester. Another edible crop would be fun.
RachyT

You know the term “Green Thumb”? Well I’ve coined a new term for myself – Red Thumb. I can absolutely not grow anything! It wilts and dies the second I look at it – except for Mint. I love mint. It’s un-killable!
fourlildarlins

My favourite thing to grow is my 4 children. I feed and water them, tend and nurture them like any green thumb would. Sometimes though, there are outside influences and little grubs that I need to deal with quickly so they don’t get eaten alive. They are the most beautiful thing to grow in a little garden I like to call my family.
- http://www.theveggiemama.com Veggie Mama
  
  Hello! Please email me – stacey @ theveggiemama.com – I love your entry!
Irena

I love to grow strawberries, because they are yummy!!
http://www.facebook.com/sappheire.graham Sappheire Graham

cherry tomatoes are fresh and delicious, healthy for lunch box snacks, they grow so easily with Little Gardners make it fun and exciting for the little ones.