AN EDIBLE OUTDOOR GARDEN ROOM JUST FOR CHILDREN!
Create an outdoor room just for kids made of edible plants and edible flowers and best of all this one will attract birds and butterflies into your yard! A super fun ongoing project that will keep your child busy while providing delicious snacks at the same time.
What you will need:
- An outdoor space about 10 feet by 8 feet. This can vary depending on how much outdoor space you have and want to dedicate to this project.
- Seeds; Sunflowers, Chinese peas, yard-long beans, sweet corn or for even more fun opt for colorful Indian corn seeds!
- Live Plants; Marigolds, lavender, sage, pansies, and thyme (because it has the prettiest little leaves and edible flowers when they bloom), plus 2 papaya trees.
- Organic fertilizer
- Digging tools.
Directions:
- Measure and mark the circumference of your outdoor room. About 8 by 10 feet.
- Dig about a 1 foot wide space along the circumference of the room…leaving about 2 feet of grass where the room entrance will be. The soil where you have tilled will be where you plant your edible wall plant seeds. So make sure you remove the grass and weeds from this space. And fertilize the soil as necessary. I like to use organic fertilizers because it supports Eco-friendly companies. And I have personally found that when I’ve grown food in healthy organic soil that I can actually taste the difference.
- Plant the corn, sunflower seeds, Chinese peas and yard long bean seeds where you want your living wall to be and cover with soil according to directions provided on seed package and gently water so that soil is just moist.
- Plant the live edible flower plants, and herbs closest to the entrance of the room. This will encourage wild nectar drinking birds to pay your child a visit. It will also add a welcoming charm to the room. For added whimsy plant a strawberry papaya tree on each side of the entrance. You can even choose to plant some papaya trees as part of the living walls. The papaya trees will take about a year to be fully matured but they make for a beautiful plant in the meantime.
- After about 2 weeks your going to need to add a trellis for the beans and peas to climb on. You can buy this readily made at your garden center or construct it with scavenged bamboo sticks.
It should take around 60 days to get the full effect of the room. But the results will be well worth it! A beautiful outdoor space bursting with fresh peas and beans that will help reduce your food costs and the edible flowers will look beautiful in salads plus attract beautiful wild birds and butterflies.
NOTE – To keep the outdoor room going. every 4 weeks sow new seeds around the circumference of the outdoor room. This will keep the walls lush!
BONUS! If you live in Hawaii you can easily have a long term outdoor room because the growing season is year round. Feel free to change the plants as time goes on! Have fun with this and make it your own.
Gabrielle Sunheart is the author of “Feed Your Family On $25 A Week!” & “Family Style Saving$!” Available atwww.GabySunheart.com
