Garden with Your Kids and Reap the Benefits

A Fairy Garden can be created simply by including a couple of statues. Let your kids paint them

It’s pretty apparent these days that a lot of kids seem to have little regard for the environment. They’d much rather spend time watching television, interacting with their friends through social networking on their computers or playing on-line video games. Who can blame them; some of this stuff can be a lot of fun and in some cases a learning experience. And as adults, aren’t we just as guilty. There’s not too many of us that don’t indulge in at least one of these pastimes, if not more.

The problem is that while we’re engaged in these types of activities were not paying much attention to environmental issues. One way to help teach your kids, and perhaps even yourself a little bit more about nature is to get your kids involved in some type of activity that’s related to the environment. A garden is a pretty good place to start.

If you are going to introduce your kids to gardening there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all keep things simple, don’t try to grow everything. Involve your kids in the planning stage; ask them what type of garden they’d like to have. You could even have a theme if they’re keen on the idea. Perhaps a fairy garden, a space garden or even a pizza garden where you grow plants like, tomatoes, garlic, onions, wheat and green peppers and arrange them in wedge shaped areas so that combined they form a rather large pizza.

Make sure the plants you choose grow quickly otherwise your children might loose interest. Choose plants with brilliant colors, different textures and unique fragrances. In her book Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children Sharon Lovejoy states that if she could only choose one plant to introduce kids to gardening with it would be pumpkins, simply because they come in so many different sizes, colors and shapes.

Kids love to observe butterflies and a garden give them an ideal opportunity.

While many adults might consider gardening a chore, kids won’t. All children have an instinctive interest in the wonders of the natural world. They love to catch and watch butterflies and grasshoppers, they love playing in the mud and this can be channeled into gardening by simply making it an adventure.

For example, if you grow carrots, potatoes and similar root vegetables you can turn the harvest of these into a hunt for buried treasure.  Teach them about the damage slugs and other insects can cause to their garden and let them develop ways of combating these using methods that don’t rely on chemicals.

Believe me, if you can get your kids interested in gardening their enthusiasm and imagination will soon take over and with this will come questions, all types of questions, and thus learning. In this way your kids will develop a real appreciation for the environment and how humans can have both positive and negative impacts. The chances are that you’ll learn new stuff yourself and enjoy it because your children’s enthusiasm will carry over to you.

Keep in mind that you don’t need a large garden to get your kids involved. Why not have a container garden. You could even start with something like an old boot. If it’s the wrong time of the year to begin growing things, why not get some containers and let your kids decorate them?

And once your garden has produced it’s veggies or flowers or herbs don’t let things stop there. If you grow veggies or herbs why not teach your kids how to cook with them? And why stop there. You can also teach them how to preserve their vegetables and herbs so they can use them to cook with during the winter months. If you grow flowers why not let your kids learn how to dry the flowers and make dried arrangements from them. These could be used as gifts for grandparents or favorite aunts and uncles.

There’s just so much you and your kids can get out of gardening. You’ll be able to enjoy each others company as well as being outdoors instead of cooped up inside watching television or playing on computers. Just make sure you make it an enjoyable experience and not a chore or work and your kids will have a relaxing and enjoyable hobby they can take into adulthood and pass on to their own kids.

If you’re looking for more ideas on gardening with your kids there’s a number of good books available. Below are some recommendations.

Kids Gardening Books