If you love gardening, your children probably want to try gardening as well. Many children are natural gardeners. They are insatiably curious, desire to do adult activities and like playing in the dirt. If your kids are interested in gardening, why not let them create a child-sized garden of their own? You’ll help them learn about nature, encourage responsibility and let them experience a sense of accomplishment. Best of all, you’ll spend time together.
Starting a Child’s First Garden
Choose a convenient spot for your child’s garden plot and let them help you prepare the soil. Children are well known for their impatience, so help them choose crops that will sprout quickly so their efforts will be rewarded as fast as possible. Radishes, snow peas and leaf lettuce are great to begin with. Onion sets will also start sending up shoots rapidly. Adding cherry tomato plants from the nursery gives your junior gardener an immediate sense of accomplishment. If you have room, pumpkins are a great addition as well. Kids will be proud to produce their own personal jack-o-lanterns.
Naturally, children also like to grow flowers. Sunflowers are always a good choice and nasturtiums grow quickly as well. Nasturtium blossoms are edible, too, and the kids will love seeing their flowers added to fresh salads.
Don’t Take the Fun Out of Gardening
Kids don’t need to work in the garden for long stretches at a time. Mix up routine gardening chores with more fun activities, like painting or coloring plant markers or constructing a funny scarecrow. If they want to play in the water while they are quenching the garden’s thirst, let them. If they happen to give you an accidental squirt, don’t get angry. After all, you’ll dry and so will they.
If you want to nurture the love of gardening in your children, don’t let gardening become a chore for them and don’t criticize minor issues. Don’t worry if planted rows turn out a little crooked or they miss the occasional weed. What they are doing is more important than how it looks. You can give them a helping hand, of course, but even if they make mistakes or neglect the gardening, resist the urge to take over their space. If they see their plants have died because they didn’t care for them, that, too, is a valuable lesson.
The real trick to creating a child’s first garden is to fertilize it with lots of laughter, love and praise. Marvel with them over emerging sprouts and join them in sneaking a few delicious tastes of veggies stolen right off the vine. When you use goodies from their garden in a meal, make sure you brag that Billy or Susan grew the delicious vegetables. Remember, kids not only harvest produce from the garden, but cultivate confidence and self-esteem as well and those are the most important crops they can ever grow.
