Kids Gardening

As I sat down to write this article about gardening with kids, it was the week of the terrible tornados here in the Nashville area. I looked out the window from my desk and saw that it was a beautiful day. Quiet a difference from a few nights before when the storms came barreling through our county.

I saw the blue skies, felt the warm temperatures, and I could see the yellow winter jasmine in full bloom cascading over the rock wall and into our creek.

It was one of those days that draw your thoughts to going out to enjoy the day. I tried to ignore it for as long as I could, but couldn’t stand it.

I got up from my desk and went outside to make a wreath out of the winter jasmine. I did this for two reasons. The first reason is that I am a self-diagnosed ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) type personality. Basically, this means that I think that everything is vitally important to do – right now.

The second reason I did this was to prove a point. Having fun in the garden doesn’t have to be a huge, well thought out, organized operation. We can all do gardening as we do life. Kid's gardening is no different. Make it a point to take advantage of “gardening moments” with your children every week.

This can be as easy as walking outside after a rain to enjoy God’s creation. While you walk, you can talk to your child about the life giving water that our Lord supplies to the plants and to us.

You can even bring nature inside this time of year by forcing spring flowering trees and bushes to bloom a little bit early. Simply by cutting a few branches and putting them in some water, you can easily bring nature into your home.

If you’re going to do this project, be sure to scrape off about an inch of the bark at the base of the limb so that it can absorb the water.

Another fun idea for gardening with your kids, is to take your child to the garden center with you to pick out some fun seeds to grow this summer. You may even want to start them indoors.

Fun and easy seeds like sunflowers, gourds, and zinnias are always a hit with kids. Gardening and involving them in the whole process, is much more likely to give you an enthusiastic participant.

Perhaps many of you developed a love of gardening early as a child. Some of you may have even developed a strong dislike for gardening as a child as well.

Making your child weed the garden one hour everyday before they can go swimming or play video games, is a great way to make them dislike gardening. Possibly, for the rest of their lives. I have actually meet people like this.

So that we don’t have unrealistic expectations for gardening with our children, let’s look at some things that you can do to instill a love of gardening in your child and also what skills you can expect from different age groups.

Stages and Ages for Children's Gardening

The second thing you can do is to get your children to help you with some of the chores. Let them do some of the “fun stuff” like planting and harvesting. Always keep in mind their capabilities and attention span and realize that you will probably have to finish the job yourself.

Here are a few more guidelines that I found at www.kidsgardeining.org that you might find helpful to begin the process of gardening with your children. This is an excellent site with lots of resources, tips, and ideas.

Preschool, Ages 3-4 Don’t expect too much. Have fun moving mulch or pulling a few weeds. Tell them stories about your favorite childhood memories of being in the garden, or show them what your favorite flower is. At this stage, gardening with your children is more about them watching and being with you rather than actually having them accomplish anything.

Kindergarten, Age 5 At this age, gardening with kids is about makeing forts, tree houses, secret gardens, or their own garden. One fun project for this age group is to help them make a tepee out of long stakes. Let your child help plant beans that will climb up the polls all summer. What better way to encourage them to eat their green beans!

Elementary Ages 6-7 At this age, you can incorporate reading and math skills. Get them to help you measure out the garden area you are going to plant, or maybe they can read the planting instructions on the seed packets to you. For this age group, gardening is still about the doing and not the end results. You may also want to check out the kids gardening section of the Junior Master Gardener Program at www.nationalgardeningassociation.org for this age group as well. Gardening with kids at this age is so much fun. They seem to love most anything you're willing to do with them.

Middle School and High School This is when the emphasis shifts from doing to doing well. At this age, you are no longer at the kid's gardening stage. You have now entered the young adult stage. Your budding young adult may like to design their own garden on graph paper, or they may want to organize a class project for their community.

The 4-H club is an excellent resource for this type of activity and a wealth of information on kid's gardening.

At the high school level, your child may choose to do independent studies in horticulture at a community college, as our child did, and eventually decide to pursue a career in horticulture.

No matter what your child’s bent is, gardening with your kids can be a fun and rewarding experience for them as well as the whole family. You never know if you have a “budding” landscaper, architect, nature photographer or painter in your home.

Tell us your gardening story below

Do you have a great story about this? Share it! Getting the next generation interested in gardening is a great endeavor for them and for you. Gardening can be integrated into learning about math, reading, spelling, and so much more.

We started a garden at our boys elementary school and it was very exciting to see the children enjoying the outdoors.

Tell us how you are gardening with kids.