Gardening with young children can be a mixed bag of experiences. Initially capturing their interest in gardening is fairly easy, especially since gardening involves dirt, getting messy, insects, worms, the outdoors, and/or water. But keeping that interest alive through the years can be quite a challenge; yet it is very rewarding for everyone in the family if your are successful. If gardening is also your personal passion it can be difficult at times to find the patience necessary to deal with the chaos machines that young children are. Left to their own devices, eager to ‘help’, kids will rip up your starts in lieu of weeding , step on your plants, and flood your garden while ‘watering’. But it doesn’t have to be this way; gardening with children can actually be harmonious for everyone. So, I’m going to tell you not only how I make my garden a happy place for everyone but also how I’m installing the love of gardening in my children.
Fostering a Love of Gardening
Nothing would please me more than installing a love of gardening in my children. Here is how I am working towards that goal.
- Let them pick out some seeds to grow. If they want rainbow carrots and you can actually grow them in your climate, then pick out the rainbow carrots. Why fight something so exciting. If everyone is allowed to pick some plants to grow then everyone will then look forward to the seed catalogs in the winter, visiting the greenhouses for starts in the spring, and ultimately the garden.
- Always invite your kids to garden when you go in there. This will create a safe, welcoming space for them.
- Give them their own garden bed. Let them plant whatever they want. This year my youngest son planted pumpkins, zucchini, lettuce, and kale all in the the same 2′ x 2′ bed. He had a ball, sticking the seeds in the ground, covering them (i.e. throwing dirt), and watering his bed. I also will ask him to weed and let him harvest his own food, thereby creating a sense of ownership from start to finish.
- Grow a browsing garden. By this I mean grow plants kids can browse on during the summer that doesn’t require cooking such as; peas, berries, green beans, rhubarb, and lettuce. This is my favorite technique to catch kids interest and you can read more about what we grow in our garden on our previous post ‘My Casual Garden’.
- Let them water the garden. Kids love hoses, water, and watering cans. Get them their own watering can if you need to. Which brings me to my next hint.
- Buy kid size tools. My kids have their own watering can, hand trowel, and hand rake. They love them. They also have claimed our short-handled shovel as theirs as well. Whatever they see me doing they want to do the same. It is easiest for them to participate if they use their own tools, instead of potentially losing mine, or feeling frustrated when their small hands can’t handle adult size tools.
- Check your garden frequently for growth. Make a big deal when you see plants grow, flower, or actually grow a fruit. That way it’s exciting to the kids, they look forward to checking the garden daily, and at the same time you are teaching them what plants look like at the various stages and what the weeds look like.
- Let them harvest and help you cook the food from your garden. To me this is a no-brainer. Let them reap the rewards of their work and learn to cook at the same time.
The Harmonious Shared Garden
Here are my tips on how to garden harmoniously with your whole family or in some cases just sharing the yard in peace.
- Fence or define your garden. Even if you live in town and don’t need a fence make sure you specifically designate your garden space as ‘garden’ so your kids don’t dig it up or play soccer in it.
- Have your kids ask permission to go in the garden, especially if they are young. This will allow you to supervise your children and minimize frustrations resulting from kids overzealous tendencies in eating and watering plants.
- Make the garden gate latch high. My garden latch is low enough for my almost seven year old to reach but too high for my four year old. This has saved my plants many, many times over. Because believe it or not, kids don’t always follow tip #2.
- Teach them how to plant, water, weed, ID plants, and harvest properly. Why wouldn’t you? They’ll be a lot fewer mistakes made and fewer accidents if your kids are educated.
- Encourage accountability for their actions. So your kids accidentally rip up the wrong plant, leave the gate open for the deer/moose to get in, leave the hose on, etc. There are a million ways for a kid to mess up a garden. Use these mistakes as learning opportunities and also let your kid help clean up the mess.
- Create a kids corner in your garden. Create something your kids can play in that’s not your plants, such as a sandbox or dirt corner with rocks they can build with. That way if your kids are not interested or just plain too young to participate, they can be supervised and still have fun.
- Garden by yourself. If your garden is your special retreat for peace and quiet then its perfectly fine to tell you kids that you want to work alone. You don’t always have to garden with your kids. My favorite phrase we use at my house is ‘it’s Mommy’s alone time, please go play’. Or as my sister used to say, ‘Mommy is in time out right now so she can’t play’.
