Teen friendly garden?!?

[MissLibby]

Hi!!! Soooo... I

would like to create some sort of teen friendly garden where we can grow organic fruit and veggies but it also has to be teen friendly...

We have a very large back yard (approx. 45ft wide by 120ft long) with a berm and are located in central North Carolina. We have very bad red clay soil. We have thought about using raised beds that we can put up the hill for the planters.

I kind of had the idea to do some sort of colorful art themed garden as one of our kids is very artistic.

Here is the kicker.... we are licensed therapeutic foster parents so the kids we have are mostly teenagers that have been through all kids of unspeakable horrors. We want the garden to be teen friendly, but feel safe. Any ideas?

 

[Beth_B]

Hi!

Well I was a teenager once (long time ago) and grew up mostly rural and doing farm work (mucking stalls, picking potatoes, cutting peat,, milking, etc) and I'm not sure what you mean by "teen friendly". Rural life is not clean and typically doesn't offer instant gratification. Buying already started plants will give faster results.,

So not sure what you are looking for really. In your climate, squash and tomatoes will probably take off fast. Various greens and lettuce will go from seed to edible in 45 days or less.

Goats produce milk year around, and ditto chickens and eggs, depending on habitation and breed.

 

[marlingardener]

Do the children express any interest in gardening? If so, your idea of raised beds is a good one. The teens could even help build the beds. Start with easy, almost sure-fire vegetables like leaf lettuces, radishes, carrots, green beans.
An "art themed garden" would perhaps interest the artistic child, but how about the others, who might feel left out. I'd suggest letting each child thumb through seed catalogs and see what they can grow given your climate and space available. If they want to grow something entirely inappropriate (asparagus?) guide them gently to a more practical choice.
Don't start any livestock--you don't have the space for it, and if the children lose interest, the animals would suffer. They are teens--not known for having long attention spans!

 

[Becky]

I'd say include an area where they can get some space if they need it - a quiet corner to relax in maybe

Welcome to the forum!

 

[ApidAdi]

Having been a teenager fairly recently (I'm 25) I can attest that having a space that was just mine was a wonderful and freeing thing all by itself. I can also tell you that you really don't have to make a fuss to make it teen-friendly. Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought gardening was plenty friendly when I was a teen.

If you really want to theme the garden, try planting things that have been used to make pigments. You can take the petals from poppies, cornflowers, and sunflowers and grind them in a mortar and pestle to paint with.

Personally I have a sort of obsession with insects. You might try to plant some rue (for viceroys) or milkweed (for monarchs) to try to attract some butterflies. Be prepared for caterpillars! If you find some maybe you can raise them. I've read that raising animals has a powerful thereputic effect on people. And I can tell you from experience that there's nothing like watching a chrysalis open up and reveal a fat, wrinkly butterfly.

You might also try a low maintenance crop. Start one bed and dedicate it to something like strawberries or (I would prefer thornless) blackberries. Find a cultivar that does well in your area with minimal input and let it go nuts. That way they can go out there and collect what they find and bring it right to the table. I was blessed with the great good fortune to grow up with a house with a huge strawberry patch. My favorite summer activity was walking through the garden finding whatever strawberries hadn't been gotten to already by the slugs. We were taught early that ugly fruit is just as good as the pretty ones! It's just the hairy fruit you have to look out for.

 

[Radish Geek]

I understand that corn grows well in the Carolinas - you might plant some Silver Queen or my grandfather's favorite, Golden Bantam. The artist might like multicolored flint corn. Just be sure to plant each variety in its own square patch well away from the other varieties.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I like a small raised bed per child. Whatever they want to grow. Giant pumpkins hopefully!