For a farmer there is nothing more precious than children help to plant, carry water and ask those endless quesitons- all beginning with way.

How to Grow Spinach

There are millions of spinach leaves being eaten each year by guinea pigs- imagine if you could learn how to grow spinach for your guinea pigs and for your family.  Let’s learn how to grow spinach….

When To Plant

You can start planting in early Spring and continue until about 50 days before the winter frosts start.

Where To Plant

If you live in really hot weather then make sure you plant in semi-shade.  If you live in a cool climate then you can plant in the full sun.  The main thing to consider when growing spinach is making sure you don’t plant in a place where it is too hot.

Harvesting

Generally you will be able to start picking them for your guinea pig or your own table salad after about 40 days.   Make sure you cut them from the outside of the plant, this will allow the inner leaves to keep growing and they will produce a new cop for you to pick later on.

Seeds

It is quite easy to plant with seeds they can take up to two weeks to germinate.  Plants the seeds half an inch deep and two inch apart in wide rows.

Seedlings – Young Plants

Some people prefer planting spinach from seeds but when you go shopping you will see small spinach plants are also available.  You can buy these and transplant them into your garden. 

Send us a picture of your Spinach Garden ( or your guinea pig) to: 
farmersmarket@bristoltn.org
 

How to Grow Pumpkins

One way to try and entice young ones to eat vegetables is to start by introducing them to grow their own Halloween pumpkin.  This is a vegetable they are more than familiar with in some cases it is probably the only vegetable they have seen cut open to expose the flesh and seeds.

Let’s be honest carving up Halloween pumpkin is one of the most treasured children’s activities, imagine their sheer delight when they can carve a pumpkin they grew themselves.

Learning how to grow pumpkins for Halloween can be such an amazing experience.  It only takes a little bit of planning and some space in your garden.

This is a fantastic way to get the children involved in gardening and for the family to spend time on a project that will take a few months to reach completion.

Pumpkin is grown from garden seed

When you start cleaning out a pumpkin you will see quite a few seeds in the center along with what they call ‘pulp’.  You can save each seed and sue them at a later time when you are ready to plant.

Just plant the seed about on inch under the soil.  Don’t press the soil down too hard on top of the seed as it needs to be able to break through into the sunlight once it sprouts.

Lightly water the area where you planted the seeds-not too much or with too much force as you may dislodge the seed.

Pumpkins are happy to be in the sun all day.

They just love having enough space to sprawl about the garden so make sure you have given them enough room.

If they get in the way of other parts of your garden you can prune them or redirect them by just gently picking up one of the vines and placing it in the direction you want it to grown.

Sometimes people place these pumpkin garden seeds direct into the soil and other times they place them into small growing pots then replant once they get about the size of your hand.

After a while the pumpkin will develop not only large leaves but also what they call ‘tendrils’.  These are the small twisty pieces.

The tendrils can wind around fences, sheds, corn, stakes in the ground and any other items you have nearby.  You can watch them do this or even place objects in their way and watch as they climb all over it as the days and weeks go by.

Eventually you will start to see masses of large yellow flowers.  Make sure you don’t touch or break any of these as they are the very start of a brand new pumpkin.

It can be great fun to watch the flower progress into such a massive pumpkin over time.

Why not take some photos to keep track of the process and teach other how to grow pumpkins.

Send us a picture of your pumpkin garden or your biggest pumpkin to:
farmersmarket@bristoltn.org

Click the Image below to print a picture that you can color.