Time for a pizza planting party!

How about a pizza garden?

Saturday, March 30, 2024

A proven way to get the young ones interested in eating their veggies is for them to grow them!  Have them grow the veggies for one of their favorite foods like pizza.  Engage them in choosing their favorite pizza ingredients and grow a garden with those in them. 

It is amazing how many children will swear they don’t like a vegetable until it is in their backyard!  Have them help you plant the seeds, monitor the seedlings, water, and harvest.  You will likely catch them picking green tomatoes to sample because they are so excited about eating what they have helped grow.

You can even throw a few other healthy ingredients in the pizza topping mix as everything tastes better when you grow it yourself, like spinach, sprouting broccoli and peas.

So, what are some ideas for pizza ingredients? 

*Tomatoes-any you can’t eat, you can easily freeze for winter pizzas

 Compact tomatoes for small spaces and pots

*Herbs-basil, oregano, chives, garlic for seasoning

  Start a kitchen herb garden!

*Onions-you can grow Egyptian walking onions in a pot year round and they are perennials to boot

  Egyptian walking onions

*Greens-spinach, kale, arugula, sprouting broccoli and peas for spring and fall pizza toppings (also easy to freeze for later)

  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens  How to grow broccoli and cauliflower  Time to plant peas!

*Green peppers, eggplant, zucchini for summer pizzas (maybe some hot peppers for the adults) 

Peppers are for every taste and garden   Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden 

Growing zucchini and summer squash 

All of these are easy to grow in a small space and the basic ingredients in an Italian garden.  If you want, you can also buy the herbs and veggies as plants.  If you don't have a small space in your flower beds for a garden, you can grow all in pots; just be sure to get dwarf tomato plants or use a whiskey barrel for the tomatoes.  

Grow a Sicilian/Italian kitchen garden in as little as 6' x 6'  Decorative container gardening for edibles

Surprising veggies that can be grown in pots   

For those that are real adventuresome, you can get mushroom kits to grow mushrooms indoors.

If you are just starting your garden adventure, try these tips.  Easy kitchen garden

You can tell them stories of where the heirloom they are planting came from.  Share the history of Victory Gardens in past war efforts.  How we can grow our own food just in yards across the U.S. if we wanted or needed to.

Little ones bring such wonder and joy in the garden.  They will check out every bee and butterfly, every worm and centipede.  And will want to taste everything they helped to plant and water!  It is a wonderful learning experience for the child to see where food comes actually from and helps the adult re-see the world through a child's eyes.