How to get kids involved with growing juicy tomatoes and their favourite Italian flavourings
Well you can’t literally grow your own pizza, but you can grow the juicy tomatoes, plump peppers and fresh herbs, which help make up a tasty topping for this favourite Italian treat. Most kids love pizzas – and they’ll love growing and picking their own ingredients to help make them. There are loads of herbs and vegetables that can be easily grown in British gardens – what you choose to grow depends on what your kids will eat!
Ingredients
- Tomorite Giant Planter with Seaweed
- Tomorite Liquid Concentrate
- Gro Your Own Vegetable & Fruit Concentrated Liquid Plant Food
- BugClear Gun! for Fruit & Veg
- Baby tomato plants
Other useful items
Scissors, gardening gloves, trowel, watering can or hose.
1. April – June: Pick up a Tomorite Giant Planter with Seaweed, which is perfect for growing big, juicy tomatoes. Cut out the marked panels on the bag, plant in your tomato plants (3 per planter), then insert canes to support them as they grow.
2. When the first fruits begin to form, feed with Tomorite Liquid Concentrate every two weeks to ensure a plentiful supply. At this stage, standard tall varieties will also produce side-shoots in between the main stem and the leaf stems. These should be removed by pinching them out with the fingers as if allowed to grow they will produce a mass of foliage but few tomatoes. It isn’t necessary to remove these side shoots on bush and trailing varieties.
3. Why not grow the rest of your pizza toppings? Peppers, chilli and aubergine plants, are available in most garden centres. Just plant in another Tomorite Giant Planter with Seaweed following the same instructions as planting the tomatoes. Feed with Gro Your Own Vegetable & Fruit Concentrated Liquid Plant Food every two weeks. Water each giant planter whenever the compost feels dry.
4. Pests will no doubt find your crop as delicious as you, so treat with BugClear Gun! for Fruit & Veg as instructed on the label.
August – October: It’s time to harvest your crops and enjoy the fruits of your labours.
