This is a good time to introduce the subject of gardening by doing some indoor activities. And you can start on a few adult jobs too!
Indoors
* When the children are mixing a salad, or eating peas, discuss where plants come from and why they need soil.
* Balance potatoes and onions on jars of water and notice the different roots they produce.
* Grow cress on damp cotton wool in 'Humpty Dumpty' eggshells.
* Sprout aduki beans, mung beans, alfalfa seeds, chickpeas and brown or green lentils. Put the seeds into containers such as yoghurt pots, cover loosely, and rinse every day; add the sprouts to salads, soups etc.
* Plant sweet pea seeds in pots of John Innes seed compost mixed with good garden soil; put outdoors in a sheltered place, keep slightly moist, and plant out in spring.
* Potatoes are perhaps the easiest crop of all, so buy some 'seed' potatoes from a garden centre, and sprout ('chit') them, ready for planting outside in spring. To chit them, put them into egg trays or boxes, each potato with its biggest 'eyes' uppermost. Large potatoes can be cut in half. Leave in good light, but not in direct sun, and wait for stubby green shoots to grow.
Outdoors
* Order/buy redcurrant bushes for easily-grown summer treats. Plant them as soon as you get them, so prepare a patch of earth now. Standing on wet soil compacts it, so try to stand to the side of the planting bed. Dig the soil deeply and fork in compost, well-rotted manure and bonemeal. At planting time, dig wide planting holes and spread the bushes' roots out well. Put the soil back neatly and firm it with your heel. Prune all the stems back by half, cutting cleanly just above an outer bud.
* Perhaps plant Jerusalem artichokes. They're very easy and can make a two- metre-high screen in summer. But beware - once planted, they'll come up every year!
* Sprouting broccoli is a 12-month crop but worth growing. Sow the seeds and keep outdoors as for sweet peas (above), but mix two teaspoons of lime into each pot. Put three seeds into each pot; if all three grow, discard the two weakest.
