Greenhouse Growing Projects Your Grandchildren Will Love This Summer

By Hartley Botanic
Photographs courtesy of Hartley Botanic

Hartley Botanic shares its greenhouse inspiration for growing with children:

Growing with children in a Hartley Botanic Highgrow Greenhouse in Lancashire, UK

You may be sharing the load when it comes to looking after young grandchildren this summer, and with at least three weeks left to fill, Hartley Botanic has shared some Greenhouse growing ideas and inspiration to both keep them entertained and instill a love of gardening that could last a lifetime.

There’s been a lot of science over the past few years claiming to show how houseplants benefit health and well-being. Caring for a plant can lead, among other pluses, to a reduction in stress and improved cognitive awareness. Nurturing another living thing also boosts a sense of self-esteem, especially in children, and is a way to connect with nature where other opportunities are in short supply.

A child and her dog in front of a Hartley Botanic Victorian Classic Greenhouse in Cheshire, UK

Tips for gardening with children

• The key to gardening with children is to show them how to do it, then let them do it. Keep your explanations as simple as possible.
• The grown-up gardener is there for information and guidance, but when that first tomato appears on the family dinner table, the child should be able to brag that they grew it. And you grew a new gardener!
• Involve everyone in the planning stages—and listen to what children want.
• Make some areas active and devote some places to quiet.
• Give children simple projects, such as planting large seeds; encourage children to check on their growth.
• Share space in your Greenhouse for children’s creativity — it’s not always about garden work. It’s also about fun.
• Starting a little area of their own within your Greenhouse can feel very special for children. And as they come back and care for their plants, they will have a goal to work towards and learn about what plants need.

What to do now …

Choosing what to grow outside a Hartley Botanic Highgrow Greenhouse

Allow them to help you harvest!

If your greenhouse is overflowing with an abundance of edibles during the summer months, invite your grandchildren to help you harvest. Peppers, aubergines, tomato and chilli plants may all be heavy with fruit and lovely for children to pick and then eat – learning first-hand where their food comes from. If you have been growing cherry tomatoes, they will be able to eat them straight from the plant.
Make it an experience by keeping the door of your greenhouse shut overnight so the Greenhouse is filled with the sweet smell of tomatoes when your grandchildren arrive. And here are some ideas to help bring the harvest alive for children…

• Ask them to weigh or measure the vegetables that have grown
• How many cucumbers measure up to the same height as them?
• What differences do they notice when they cut a pepper open compared to a tomato?
• Why not use the harvest to inspire a drawing that they could use for the village show in September?

Teach them about water

With watering being on the to do list both at the start and end of your day, now is a good opportunity to involve your grandchildren and talk about its value. With water in short supply, ‘Grey water’ recycled from baths and washbasins can be used if you only use a small amount of detergent but not on edible crops. Talk about any hosepipe bans that might be in place in your area so children learn that water is a finite resource rather than something which just flows automatically from the tap.
What to grow now…
The plants you choose to grow is worth thinking about in advance. Some crops bring results more quickly than others, which can help satiate children’s natural impatience (although patience is an excellent life lesson imparted by the growing process too.) Growing fruit and vegetables are also a clever way to educate children that food doesn’t start its life in the supermarket, and it can help encourage healthy eating.
Here are some ideas…

Try growing from seed

Often the most rewarding Greenhouse will be one you’ve filled with plants you’ve grown from seed. It’s that personal connection, you’ve known them at each stage, rather like your own children. And when gardening in the Greenhouse with your grandchildren, growing plants from seeds in the fruit they have eaten will provide them with a tremendous appreciation for nature. Growing from seed is also one of the most satisfying and cost-effective ways grow plants. The best first plants for children are things they can eat. Choose vegetables that will sprout and grow from seed right where the child plants them, and that don’t have to go through a flowering-and-fruiting process. Choose edible roots, such as radishes or carrots, or leaves, such as lettuce or spinach.

Growing with children in a Hartley Botanic Highgrow Greenhouse

Fun ideas in the garden

• Plan a scavenger hunt around the garden: Create an engaging scavenger hunt around the garden with tasks for your grandchildren to accomplish. Some examples of things they can search for include a flower bud, leaves longer than their fingers, a plant the colour of their shirts and more. Snap photos along the way and add them to their garden journal to extend the learning once you’re back inside.
• Create a garden journal: Let your grandchildren pick out a notebook to record what they do in the garden each time they visit. Encourage them to draw pictures of the plants as they are growing in order to track their growth.

Customer Stories

Since helping his grandfather Sydney in his Greenhouse, Nigel Metcalfe, 66 from Whitstable in Kent, had always dreamt that one day he would be able to buy his own. In 2018, when he retired, Nigel and his wife Alison bought a Hartley Botanic Victorian Grand Lodge, with an intricate and ornate Canopy & Pergola addition. As well as filling their table with delicious fresh vegetables and fueling their own gardening pleasure, the Greenhouse has also meant quality time with their grandchildren;

“I have two grandchildren and they love growing with me in the Greenhouse and are particularly interested in fast-growing edibles like beans. They also really enjoy picking tomatoes and cutting cucumbers with me. It is tremendous to pass on the joy of growing to them, especially as that is what my grandfather did for me.”

Greenhouse memories to last a lifetime

There is something magical about growing under the cover of a beautiful Greenhouse filled with all manner of plants and accessories. For children, a Greenhouse can be a treasure trove of new things to learn about, look at and explore. Whether that’s different kinds of plants at various growing stages neatly and orderly arranged on levels of staging, what you’re doing on the potting shoe, or the sound of the radio and the pattering rain overhead – it can be a powerful way to build unique and lasting memories.

And you never know, your grandchildren may very well inherit your Hartley Botanic. In a throwaway age Hartley Botanic makes Greenhouses and Glasshouses which truly stand the test of time and, as such, often become heirlooms for generations of families. Hartley Botanic are regularly contacted by customers who have decades-old Greenhouses which are still providing excellent service – including those that have been dismantled and reinstalled. The company offers a 30-year lifetime guarantee covering both the structure and installation of its Greenhouses and Glasshouses (subject to terms and conditions: Our Lifetime guarantee – Hartley Botanic (hartley-botanic.com).)

1950s Semi-Dodecagon Greenhouse � RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, UK

To read more about this story, go here. Customers interested in purchasing a Hartley Botanic Glasshouse visit: www.hartley-botanic.com or call 781 933 1993 for more information.

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