Having kids gardening is an excellent way to teach them about a huge number of aspects of the world around us, as well as being a whole lot of fun. Small children can be amazed when a seed they planted suddenly produces a green shoot. Older kids can take pride in producing flowers for the home or vegetables for the table.
One of the things that kids like about gardening is that it is “for real”. They are used to doing a lot of things in fantasy play or with toys, but kids gardening are interacting with the real natural world. Whether they grow small plants in a pot at their bedroom window, or help mommy, daddy or grandparents planting flowers and vegetables outside, they are witnessing life and death happening before their eyes.
Most people want to focus on the happy aspects of kids gardening, but it is also a great way to introduce them to the concept of death in nature. Not all of their plants will thrive. From those that do, some will be weeded out. Others may be hit by pests or disease. All of this needs explaining to kids. They may be disappointed at first but understanding how nature works will help them later, if they are faced with the death of loved pets or even family members.
The best way to start kids gardening is to take one plant at a time. Favorites for little kids are plants that sprout easily, grow quickly and have brightly colored flowers or attractive leaves. Examples are primrose, pansy, geranium, lamb’s ears.
Sunflowers are great for a sunny garden, because they grow so big. You can measure their progress each week just like measuring your kid’s growth, but faster. Little kids will also recognize sunflowers easily, because they look just like the typical picture of a flower that they see in cartoons and books.
Kids also love to grow plants that they can eat. Strawberries are perfect because they can go hunt for them in the garden. Salad vegetables are good too. Anything that needs to be cooked is not so interesting for most kids, unless you want to involve them in cooking too.
Organic kids gardening is the best kind, of course. You would not want your children to be exposed to a lot of chemical pesticides or even fertilizers when they are working with you in the garden. With small children especially, they will touch the earth as well as the plants, and some of what they touch usually gets into their mouths.
This also means that you will probably want to avoid poisonous plants if you have very small children. This requires a little research because some plants are toxic where you would not expect it. For example, the plants of the nightshade family, which includes potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplant, often have poison in the leaves even though other parts are edible.
If you do not have a garden or have no interest in gardening yourself, you still have plenty of options. As we said already, they can grow flowers or herbs in containers in the house. They can also become involved in gardening projects in the community, or when visiting friends and family members. However, it is important to keep in mind that kids gardening need to visit the garden often if they are going to understand and care about what is happening.
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