Everyone I know struggles to get their kids to eat healthily, and battles constant demands for sugary roll-ups and potato chips.I've said it before, and I'll say it again, a great trick for keeping kids active and eating healthy is to encourage them to plant their own food.
So this month, I'll give you some tips on how to plant tomatoes and lettuce. Both are easy to grow, can be eaten straight from the garden and are great for bulking up kids' sandwiches and introducing them to salads.
Some kids' will balk at the idea of eating tomatoes. So one way I convinced my previously tomato-averse daughter to give the fruit a try was to decorate tomato stakes with Christmas tinsel and pink ribbons.
Introducing them to the idea that tomatoes are a fruit, not a vegetable, could be another way.
So let's get started. Grab some of Awapuni Nurseries' Traditional Value tomato and lettuce seedlings when you're at your local supermarket, Warehouse or Bunnings store. Alternatively, head to our online store and get the seedlings delivered directly to your school's door. Plus, if you order six or more items to a non-rural address we'll deliver your plants for free, or for just $4 to a rural address.
Once you've got your seedlings, you need to find the perfect spot to plant. Both plants must be positioned in a sunny area that is sheltered from strong winds. If you've grown tomatoes before you'll need to plant them in a different area to where you planted them last. This will decrease the chances of your tomatoes developing nasty diseases such as blight.
If it has been a wet winter where you are, add a bit of lime to your soil as tomatoes and lettuce thrive in soil with a moderate pH and large amounts of rain tend to lower your soil's acidity level. Dig in compost to improve soil conditions.
Dig a hole, approximately 3cms deep and space alternate lettuce and tomato seedlings roughly one foot apart. Fill in the holes with soil.
Once planted, spray your tomatoes with liquid copper to prevent fungal diseases, and apply slug bait to the lettuce. If you're still having trouble getting the kids interested in gardening - then worry no more. Our 'beer slug bait' (we hold no responsibility for advocating alcohol at school!) will get the most non-participating students interested in gardens. Click here for more details on how to stop slugs in their slime - the organic way!
Add a general fertiliser, such as nitrophoska blue, to the soil surrounding the tomatoes to encourage large, juicy fruit.
Neither plants favour overhead watering because it can leave them more susceptible to diseases like downy mildew and rust. So, layer newspaper around your plants, and then cover the newspaper with peastraw. This 'wordy' mulch will prevent your plants drying out during the day and in between watering sessions.
If the weather hasn't warmed up where you live, try cutting the base off two litre plastic milk bottles (recycle the base) and place the remaining parts of the bottles over the seedlings. These mini greenhouses will protect your plants from frosts and cold winds.
Once your anti-oxidant rich tomato seedlings grow a bit taller they will need staking to help stabilise and protect them from strong winds. I prefer to do this in the form of a teepee. Take three stakes and place them in the ground with the tomato plant in the middle and tie the stakes together at the top with rope or string. This is where the kids can get creative by painting the stakes and tying bright coloured ribbon or tinsel to the top. It makes for a pretty 'creative' looking vege garden... and scares away the birds!
Your lettuces should be ready for salads and sandwiches in around six to eight weeks - depending on the temperature where you live. Pick leaves off the lettuce as you need it, but make sure they don't mature for too long or else the leaves can taste bitter.
Tomatoes take a little bit longer to mature. But should be ready for harvesting in around 12 weeks. If you kids' patience doesn't extend that long, try planting the cherry tomato variety as they ripen faster.
Most importantly, get the kids involved in harvesting all of their hard work. If that doesn't entice them into eating tomatoes and lettuce I don't know what will.
