Herb Garden

[Arielle72]

My 8 year old daughter wants to plant an herb garden for fresh veggies for her piggy. She has picked out orange bell peppers, cilantro, parsley and chammoile (Is this one ok?) Its kind of cute watching her with the little garden. I have cleared an area in my garden for her and she's so excited. She also has a brand new kids spade and gloves and watering can.

Are there any other herbs that would be small and easy to grow? I'm not doing tomato plants or anything big like that. She wanted carrots, but I told her that she would only be able to grow one and what good would that do?

[ArtisticRainey]

What about garden cress? It's so easy to grow. And pigs can have it 2-4 times a week according to Ly's chart. If you get an old pop sock or cut off the foot of a pair of tights, stuff it with moist cottom wool, put the cress seeds on top, tie the end of the sock, then get your daughter to draw a funny face on the front of it, she can grow a Cresshead. They can look really funny when the 'hair' grows in. And then she can feed the cress to the pigs when she gives it a 'hair cut'.

Would your daughter consider switching to green bell peppers? I only ask because peppers tend to change colour, and orange peppers go red -- thus sweeter. Green ones tend to go yellow before red. Unless my peppers are just bizarre.

[Justin]

Wheat grass grows fast. It will be ready for harvest in couple of weeks.

[Haley0489]

Originally Posted by ArtisticRainey

Green ones tend to go yellow before red. Unless my peppers are just bizarre.

Really? Are green peppers go green to red, and we tend to pick them before they get to change again.

Of course, that may have something to do with you living in the UK and me in the US .

[ArtisticRainey]

No joke, they do! As for coming from the UK...most of my food comes from Spain.

[bamby71994]

Cumubers. They are easy to grow and give you alot of cumubers. The cress ideal sounds really cool! I think I will try it!

[Ly&Pigs]

Cumubers

New veggie?

It's cucumbers.

[ArtisticRainey]

Quote:
Cumubers
New veggie?

They're just a little shorter (!). I might try to grow a cress guinea pig...

[Arielle72]

As for the color of the peppers, I'm just going by the seed package which says orange bell peppers. I always thought color just had to do with the state of development of the pepper myself. Our piggy only eats the orange ones, and then, not very often. He HATES green peppers. If any of his other food even touches the green ones, he won't eat anything. Silly piggy!

[Ly&Pigs]

Here's an interesting thing I found regarding bell peppers-
Q. If you leave green peppers on the vine do they turn red? Where do orange and yellow peppers fit in. Do they all start green or are they from different seeds?
A. Sweet bell peppers can be orange, yellow, red, purple, brown, black, ivory or green, depending on the stage of ripeness and the variety.
Green bell peppers are fully developed, but not ripe.
All sweet bell peppers start out green, and change color as they ripen. (They also get sweeter).
What can be confusing, is that there is also a variety that is green when ripe.
The color depends on the specific variety, the most common variety is red when ripe.
So--- Green sweet bell peppers start out green and are green when ripe.
Red, yellow, etc. sweet bell peppers start out green and turn red when ripe.
What you find in the store are usually either unripe green sweet bell peppers or unripe red ones.
They will not be any of the other color varieties in the green stage because the other colors can be sold at a much higher price, so they are always allowed to ripen before being sold. The additional time it takes to ripen and change color accounts for part of the reason they are more expensive. Also, since they are ripe, they have a shorter storage time.

From- Peppers : Food Facts & Trivia

[i-love-nev]

Somethings I have been growing in a green house that are easy and quick:

Corriander (cilantro)
Round Carrots (these are great!! bought them from pampered piggies)
Dandelion
Cos lettuce (yup, its so easy to grow, but now I am over run with cos seedlings the seedlings grow within about a week and a half)
Timothy Grass
Orchard Grass
Parsley
Mint
Capsicum/bell peppers
Just to name a few!

PS. If you plant cos lettuce, unless you have a huge place to put them only plant on maximum 25 seeds haha.

[Arielle72]

What is "cos lettuce?"

Tyler is a picky piggy and will only eat certain types of lettuce (for example boston or bibb lettuce is out, but radiccio, green leaf, and romaine are in)

[Ly&Pigs]

What is "cos lettuce?"

It's what Romaine lettuce is called in the UK and Australia.

[ArtisticRainey]

Originally Posted by Ly&Pigs

It's what Romaine lettuce is called in the UK and Australia.

That's funny. We get it called both cos and romaine here. Must just differ from grower to grower/store to store. Or it could be the fact this place is a black hole of stupidity.

[auburnmare5]

I think the herb garden idea is cute!