Watch Them Grow - Gardening with Kids with QVC

Gardening is one of the nicest hobbies that you can share with your children.  They love spending time outdoors and getting dirty, and through doing something productive can learn so much about nature and develop important life skills such as patience and the rewards of nurturing something.  Watching a seed that you have planted grow can be a magical and emotional experience.  According to research conducted for QVC, 90% of adults have fond memories of spending time in the garden as a child, so it is nice to know that by spending time outdoors with your children, you are contributing to their future happy memories.

To help parents get growing in the garden with their little ones, QVC have two fabulous kits: the Little Grower Flower and Little Grower Vegetable kits.  We received the one to grow flowers and absolutely loved the choice of seeds included.  Children will get to grow flowers that look like striped caterpillars, hedgehogs and Mexican hats, as well as the ever familiar and fun to grow sunflower.

The kit comes with a propagator with lid, a set of assorted cell trays to fit inside, four packs of Unwins Little Growers seeds, a bag of compost and a Watch Them Grow booklet packed with ideas, advice and facts.  

Freddy really enjoys being outside and was keen to investigate his Little Growers kit.  The cell trays come in a variety of sizes for planting seeds in, making them useful for different projects.  We opted for the larger sized pots, making it less fiddly for Freddy when it came to planting up the seeds.

Once filled with compost, Freddy poked the seeds into the pots.  He insisted on wearing his gardening gloves.  He was very interested in the pictures on the front of the seed packets.  The Asclepias Hedgehog seeds looked really interesting with their hairy round seed pods that resemble mini Mrs Tiggywinkles.  The Striped Caterpillars have pale yellow flowers which are followed by deeply marked seed pods which curl up like caterpillars.  Perfect plants to grow for fans of The Very Hungry Caterpillar! The Mexican Hat plants are very low maintenance plants and reward the grower with colourful flowers that resemble a sombrero. Freddy's school have grown sunflowers, which they have planted out in the school gardens, so he was very keen to tell us all about them!  The Sunshine Sunflower seeds are great for kids to plant as they are so quick growing.  Once they have grown, the seed heads can be used as bird feeders.

Freddy knew that seeds need water to grow and fetched his little watering can to water the pots.  With a bit of luck, seedlings will appear in a couple of weeks time and he will be able to see the fruits of his labour. The seedlings will be able to be planted out once they are big enough to create some colourful displays.  

The propagator could sit in a windowsill or be put in the garden during this lovely weather.  Freddy is very interested to see what happens to the seeds.  The propagator keeps all the little pots contained together safe and sound, and makes watering really easy.

While we were out in the garden, Freddy helped his daddy harvest the strawberry crop.  We have had a bumper year.  Ian has kept the slugs at bay using beer traps, which has been really successful in keeping the pests at bay in a safe and natural way.

You can order the Little Growers kits from QVC for the price of £17.50 (introductory price £15.72) + P&P.  The vegetable kit contains seeds to grow sweetcorn, peppers, runner beans and cherry tomatoes.

You can download your own copy of the Watch Them Grow booklet and discover some gardening ideas from QVC at www.qvcuk.com/WatchThemGrow