Take out never tasted so good. Grow your favorite pizza!
Children love to discover that some of the foods that come home from the grocery store can be grown at home.
Getting Started
Your pizza garden can be as large as a four to six foot diameter circle or as simple as a few containers on the deck. It’s the ingredients that create the flavor for this project. It’s a bit late in May to start everything from seed, so we’re going to do a combination of seeds and seedlings. It’s fun to mark your garden in at least four wedges outlining them with sticks (that dogs and little people may not touch) so they look like pizza slices.
Preparation can include examining a real pizza with an explanation that we can’t grow cheese in our garden, but we can grow some toppings. Little ones can draw and color pictures of pizzas, and older children can learn to spell the words with Scrabble tiles or word jumble games.
While you’re planning, prepare the soil for a successful garden. I use compost and bone meal for nourishment and sometimes a little peat mixed in to hold moisture. Read your garden book or check on line for how to judge the sunlight and soil quality in your yard. Everyone needs a pail and shovel. Watch for kid friendly tools. Some can have sharp edges or splintering handles.
Plant Your Pizza
Start with one or two tomato plants from your favorite greenhouse store. Choose varieties of cherry tomatoes or small dense tomatoes like Roma. In a few weeks you will have to add a tomato cage to support the plants.
The next wedges can each have an herb: oregano, parsley, and basil, which is a favorite that comes in many varieties of green and purple. Herbs can be planted now by seed in the garden. Mark the seed locations with tongue depressors this is a good time to look for bugs and worms.
Peppers grow with enthusiasm so plant only two or three in the same section or pot. Children can be impatient, so I start with a purchased seedling and add a few packet seeds to germinate in the same area. Try peppers both green and red.
If you have an empty wedge add a few seeds of green beans which grow quickly and are fun to gather. I’ve never had green beans on a pizza, but why not? Lettuce is a good addition to round out a meal.
Finally, I always add marigolds. They grow quickly, and some gardeners say that their presence discourages hungry bugs and birds. The strong scent can prevent tomato hornworms from dining on your pizza garden. Like your pizza toppings, marigolds like to grow in the full sun.
Water, Wait and Salivate
Once the planting is done, it’s time to water and wait. Children can help as they learn how to touch and test the soil for too dry or too wet.
Within a just a few short weeks you should be in great shape to have a mini-pizza-picking-party!
Next week we’ll look at how plants eat and drink as we check out the science of our gardens.
In Nani’s Corner we shop local small businesses, so check in at your favorite garden store for plants and supplies:
- Beaver Valley Farm & Country Store (Pelham)
- Delahunty Garden & Landscape Center (Windham)
- Lake Street Garden Center (Salem)
- Springlook Farm Garden Center Nursery (Derry)
FULL LIST OF ALL GARDEN RESOURCES HERE
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