Gardening With Children |
Everyone remembers a stage in their life when the "funnest" thing to do outside was make mud pies and dig in the dirt. Most children love being outside, and with a little help from an adult can easily have that energy channeled into gardening.
Gardening provides many benefits to children, just as it does to adults. First, nurturing plants teaches children responsibility and how to care for others. Watching seeds sprout and grow is fascinating, and allows children to experience the wonder and magic of our natural world. Children are rewarded with a sense of accomplishment for their gardening efforts; of planting, watering, and weeding; when their seeds grow into plants that produce flowers or vegetables. Working outside provides physical exercise and the benefits of sunshine and fresh air, while gardening with other children can help build social skills. Finally, gardeners both young and old benefit from lower stress levels and increased relaxation while gardening.
Keep a few things in mind when gardening with your child; first, how much garden space is available and how old is the child? For a 2 - 4 year old, planting 1/2 packet of seeds, 2 tomato plants, and 1 pumpkin or watermelon creates a big garden world even though it seems like a small space to you. Don’t plant too large an area, which will required you and your child to be continually weeding or watering. It's wise to intensively care for a small space rather than overwhelming both you and the child with the weeds that will grow in a big area.
Young children can even be satisfied with a container garden if space is limited. Or, mark off a section of your big garden just for your child to plant and care for. For younger children, soil preparation may be the most fun part of gardening. Young children love to dig in the soil with a large spoon and help get the garden spot ready.
Choose plants that appeal to sight, feel and smell. Speckled beans, mini carrots, ‘Easter Egg’ radishes (mixed white, pink and purple colors), ‘Ruby Queen’ red sweet corn, miniature ‘Jack Be Little’ pumpkins, white ‘Baby Boo’ mini pumpkins, purple eggplant, ornamental gourds, mini cherry tomatoes, soft lambs’ ears (Stachys byzantina), night blooming four o’clocks, sunflowers, snapdragons and hollyhocks are all guaranteed to delight your child.
Children revel in the unexpected; using unusually colored or shaped vegetables adds fun to the growing experience. Miniature vegetable varieties may also be more accessible and understandable to small children. Or give the child ownership of his garden and let him child choose his own plants to grow.
Look for disease-and-pest-resistant plants for a child's garden. Children love to touch, and fingers often end up in their mouths, so organic and pesticide-free plants are safest. Vegetables that are fairly problem-free and can be grown with little or no use of pesticides include beets, carrots, cucumbers, onions, peas, radishes, spinach and rhubarb.
Older children, 5 to 8 years old, can grow a larger sized garden with a greater variety of full-sized plants, such as tomatoes, peppers, lettuce or other greens, radishes, carrots, squash and herbs. Visit a nursery with your child and choose an unusual vegetable that you have never grown. Experiment growing something new with your child. But most of all, have fun as you and your child share the experience of learning and gardening together. |
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