Easy-to-grow plants

Children can become easily discouraged, so it's important to make their first gardening experiences positive and fruitful. Using plants from the list below should ensure a successful first experience in the garden.

Plants

1. Primrose, Primula vulgaris; a spring wildflower that comes in a variety of colours. Great for planting in pots and containers.
2. Wild strawberry, Fragaria vesca; children will love hunting for the small, sweet, delicious fruit.
3. Bellflower, Campanula medium 'Canterbury Bells'; a blue, white or lavender, summer-flowering plant.
4. Pansy, Viola; the cheery face of the pansy is a popular choice for an abundance of both summer and winter colour. Ensure you deadhead them regularly.
5. Crane's-bill, Geranium; grown for its white, pink, blue or purple saucer-shaped flowers and its dense foliage, which is great for keeping down the weeds. Not to be confused with the summer-bedding plant pelargonium, which is often referred to as geranium.
6. Lamb's ears, Stachys byzantina; grown more for its foliage than its flowers. As its name suggests, its downy leaves resemble the ears of a lamb.
7. Houseleek, Sempervivum; a rosette-forming succulent that produces flowers on long stems. It is a great plant for dry areas of the garden.
8. Lavender, Lavandula; a familiar garden favourite, producing white, pink, blue or purple aromatic flowers during the summer months. Flowers and foliage are often used for making pot-pourri.
9. Lady's mantle, Alchemilla mollis; produces greenish yellow flowers from June to August. Provides good ground cover.
10. Forget-me-not, Myosotis; pretty clusters of small flowers in either blue, white or pink. They love well-drained soil.


Seeds

1. Runner beans, Phaseolus coccineus; water well in dry weather, otherwise the plants will not produce beans.
2. Radish, Raphanus sativus; a great starter vegetable for kids because as well as being easy to grow, the colourful roots are ready for eating within a month of sowing.
3. Sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus; sow seeds outdoors in March or April for blooms in June and July. Pick the flowers regularly to encourage more growth.
4. Marigold; French or African Tagetes; plant out in early summer for beautiful yellow and orange blooms until autumn.
5. Pot marigold, Calendula officinalis; plant a pinch of seeds in March or September and you will be rewarded with a mass of flowers in about 10 weeks. The petals can be eaten in salads!
6. Lettuce, Lactuca sativa varieties; lettuces can be grown all-year-round; simply choose from the many varieties to ensure you have a crop for every season. Seeds, once sown, should begin to sprout within 12 days.
7. Nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus; sow seeds in pots in spring, then make a colourful salad from the beautiful, peppery orange, red or yellow flowers.
8. Cosmos; in mild weather seeds can be sown outdoors in May. Produces ferny foliage and large brightly-coloured flowers. Likes a sunny position.
9. Cornflower, Centaurea cyanus; plant seeds in September or April where you want them to flower. This beautiful flower, surprisingly, used to be a weed!
10. Tobacco plant, Nicotiana x sanderae; plant seeds indoors and plant out when the danger of frost is past. Flowers give off a wonderful scent during the evening, from June to October. Don't worry, you won't be producing any tobacco! :biggrin: