Day 2: Family meets allotment - Kid's activities

Today the baby and I introduced the allotment to my eldest son (3.5 years old) and my husband. It was a cold, windy morning so we had a nice picnic looking out over the view and my husband looked after the children with some kiddy friendly activities while I dug-out another bed.

The before photo of when we dug out the second bed

To entertain the children we did a bit of a tour of the plot looking at all the different spaces and features, scouted for bugs and found a millipede, lots of ants and a couple of fat worms which they were delighted with! We met our closest neighbour who has the bottom half of our half plot, and we spent some time chatting with her which was brilliant. She's only had her plot for two weeks, so we're both looking forward to seeing our progress over the next few months.

Luckily the baby slept for most of visit so we could focus on our eldest and get him properly acquainted with the idea and purpose of the allotment. Also, as the plot was recently stripped of a lot of brambles by the council there are quite a lot of stalk stumps and spikey debris that little hands and knees need to be mindful about.

He caught on quickly that he needed to tred carefully and he thoroughly enjoyed speaking to the other allotment owners. It reaffirms for me that this was a good thing to do as I think he'll absolutely love coming over the coming years. As his brother gets bigger and more mobile they'll love spending time together here doing kids activities.

Before arriving at the plot, I went for a scouting trip to B&Q to find some tools for the kids to dig etc and to browse their seeds. There is a lot to choose from and I think I need to be strategic in my purchases, so I only got a couple of bits before heading to Aldi for some much needed essential snacks!

There will of course be more on this later, but I know that I'd like to plant some of the following:

• Herbs: I'll use a bed and some tubs for herbs. Unsure which herbs yet!

• Lettice: I'll get a bag of mixed seeds and see which varieties grow best and which we like the taste of most.

• Fruit tree: We've got an apple tree already, but I think I'd like another like a pear or a cherry tree perhaps.

• Vegetables: I think I'll start with things that we already eat a lot of at home like cucumbers, courgettes, carrots, corn.

• Flowers: I've got some packets of wild flowers that I'd like to use, so I just need to decide where to place them.

More on what I'll be planting where once I've got my plot map later this week. The kids had a great first day and as always with children, snacks were key to keeping morale up!