GARDENING WITH KIDS

If you think about it, children make natural gardeners.  They are inquisitive, they learn by doing, and they enjoy playing in the dirt.  While working with plants, a child can experience the satisfaction that comes from nurturing something over time and observing the cycle of life.  Gardening is also a great way to teach environmental awareness and appreciation.  Whether you live on 10 acres or on the 10th floor, you can help children develop a life-long interest in plants and gardening. Tending a garden creates wonderful memories and teaches valuable lessons about caring for the world in which we live.

Children as young as two are capable of helping with gardening tasks such as digging, planting, and watering.  Digging may be the most popular of these activities and that’s okay.  If that’s as far as you get with gardening, you can still look for worms or fill the holes with water and wait for frogs to appear.  Older children, on the other hand, can design and plant their own garden space or window box with a little help from an adult.  Kids like to do what adults do, so let them participate in all the aspects of gardening to which they are drawn.  Giving them their own set of serious tools will make them feel as though they’re doing important work.  Cheap plastic gardening tools break easily and may frustrate a child.  Unfortunately, it can be hard to find well-made tools for kids, so let them use your tools if need be, as long as they are safe.  One handy gardening tool is a magnifying glass.  Kids enjoy looking at plants and especially insects up close, which can be a great learning experience.  You can teach them that some insects are beneficial, and that even destructive bugs are highly interesting.

Another way to demonstrate the importance of their work is to give them their own garden beds, even if they’re too young to manage all the work involved.  The space should be very small, in a prime location, and with ideal soil and light.  It might even be a window box if you don’t have the yard space.  If you have a sandbox no longer in use, convert it to a raised bed by replacing the sand with soil.  Using a sandbox can foster a sense of ownership of a familiar space and encourage children to take more responsibility for their gardening projects.  

When helping a child design a garden, plan to start most of the plants from seed.  While it's a convenient shortcut to buy starter plants, children will learn more by observing the entire growing process.  You can always fill in with a few starters to give the child something to tend to right away.  When helping a child select plants, steer them toward varieties that have characteristics they might find appealing.  Kids like things that are very small or very large, things with texture, things with fragrance, things with bright colors, and it’s wise to select a few fast-growing plants to satisfy the impatient gardener.  Many garden vegetables are available in unusual colors and shapes such as speckled beans, yellow pear tomatoes, red carrots, and miniature cucumbers, which can be fun for children to both grow and eat.

Every child’s garden should include sunflowers.  Select a tall variety such as "Mammoth" which will grow to 9-12 feet and produce huge flower heads loaded with edible seeds. Kids will enjoy watching the flowers turn during the day to face the sun.  Other good crops for children include cherry tomatoes, lettuces, radishes, beans, carrots, potatoes, and pumpkins.  Many of these plants mature quickly and can be eaten right in the garden.  Growing vegetables is a wonderful learning experience.  When they grow, harvest, and offer their food to others, children will develop a greater awareness of how food arrives on the table, and being able to contribute to that effort can make them feel very proud.  They may even acquire a taste for fresh, homegrown food, which would make any parent pleased!    

A variety of cherry tomato you might want to try is “Yellow Pear,” which produces loads of sweet, bite-sized yellow fruits.  For beans, try “Purple Queen” bush beans.   Bean seeds are large and generally easy for kids to handle.  The “Purple Queen” variety doesn't require support.  Its beans are purple when ripe so they’re easy to spot at harvest time, but they turn green when cooked.  As for radishes, try a variety called "Easter Egg," which produces a mix of red, purple, and white radishes that mature in just 30 days.  If the family can't eat them all, you’ll have extra to share with the rabbits.  These are just a few suggestions of plants to try with kids.  When searching the seed catalogs or browsing your local garden center, you will likely find other unusual varieties that might attract a child’s attention.

As for other plants, try growing nasturtiums, snapdragons, lamb’s ears, birdhouse gourds, or hens and chicks.   These are also either fast-growing or have unusual qualities.  A fun trick with snapdragons is to gently pinch the snapdragon blossoms to make the dragon's mouth open.  Herbs such as lavender, sage, and rosemary might also pique a child’s interest with their fragrance and texture.  Growing herbs is also a good way to introduce kids to cooking and new flavors.  Whatever you plant, be sure the child has a hand in selecting what they would like to grow.  If they want pumpkins and pansies, then go with it.   

Keep in mind that not every garden task is pleasant, and a child may not be willing or able to tackle all garden chores.  Depending on the age of the child, you may also need to help out a little behind the scenes, such as going out in the evening to pick a few slugs off the lettuce, or thinning the seedlings.  You want to set them up for success and a little assistance to reduce some of the work may help keep a child interested.  As they get older, children can take on more gardening tasks.  Remember that the best time to engage children in gardening is when they're in the mood for this activity.  If their attention wanes, or the garden tasks become boring, let them build a scarecrow. This activity is still a contribution to the gardening effort.  It also reminds the child of the importance of the crop.  Another tip for keeping a child interested is to show off their work.  When giving garden tours to friends, be sure to point out the children’s garden as well.  It might be nice to take a photo of their work to send to relatives.  The attention given to their work is the best motivator for children to stay involved with a project.

In addition to planting a garden, you can also introduce kids to plants and gardening through some fun projects.  To demonstrate that plants use water, fill jars with water and add food coloring.  Place a celery stalk, a white daisy, or a daffodil blossom in the jar.  As transpiration takes place, water is pulled through the stem. The colored water will color the celery stalk, the daisy petals, or the daffodil blossom.  Another great project is personalizing pumpkins.  Plant some pumpkin seeds in your garden.  Once a pumpkin is a few inches in diameter, let the child write his or her name on the pumpkin with a felt-tip marking pen. With a paring knife, go over the initials, using enough pressure to scrape the pumpkin skin. As the pumpkin grows, so will their name. Remove other pumpkins that form later to allow personalized pumpkins to grow as large as possible. 

They are many ways to get kids involved with gardening and following their lead is a great way to begin.  No matter what, the most important thing you can do is to share your own interest with them and show them how much you enjoy gardening.  Be a good role model for them both as a gardener and someone who cares for the environment.