Gardening With Kids

It’s spring which for many of us marks the beginning of the gardening season.  Two of the things I LOVE to do with kids is bake and garden.  I love that they get to see the transformation of some flour and a few other ingredients to a cake or muffins.  And the process of watching something grow from seed is so rewarding.  I decided to consult my dear friend and gardener extraordinaire Bea Kunz, owner of Sage Hill Farms in Tennessee for her tips on gardening with kids.  Prior to opening her business selling her home grown herbs, Bea taught preschoolers for 30 years. 

A Special Garden-A Children’s Garden~

Gardening with children ( any age ) is about so much more than planting a seed and waiting for it to grow…although that process alone can have a mighty lesson in patience.

I know you’ve heard the term ” a picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, never has it been more correct than when dealing with children.  A good rule is to never tell them something that you could show them instead. They do grasp and learn from visual much more than sound.  Especially if it’s coming from parents or any figure of authority.

Gardening with children teaches give and take, patience, responsibility for what is put in their care, environmental awareness, and pollination education, which can be very helpful in teaching reproductive education to older children. A subject many adults are not comfortable with teaching their children.

During a time when we are so aware of the need for better food and health ,  gardening is a way to pull all the issues into the pool of exploration.Gardening allows the basic instinct of children to get dirty to be acted upon…in the same realm it teaches how to clean up after having so much fun in order to stay healthy. Most children will jump at the chance to pick, clean, and eat any vegetable they can claim ownership of.  If they grew it, they will eat it.

One of the most rewarding aspects of gardening with our children is the doors it opens to conversation.
From learning how to plant a seed, to patience of watching it grow- in between all the waiting, we can discuss the birds, the bees, the insects, the air, dirt, rain, sunshine, and most any other subject can be tied to the garden and its many connections to everyday life.

If you don’t have a lot of outside space you can easily garden in small containers on a deck and cover all the same points of interest as above.  Set aside a special place and give it a name. ” Mary’s Magic Garden.”  The growing process is very magical to children, as it is to me.  Plan a schedule of days, times, and actions to visit and work and play in the garden. This will bring interest to the weather, sun or rain…what we should do to keep the garden safe and growing.

Above all else help your child to keep a journal of the whole process, this will tweak interest for the next gardening season and maybe develop an interest in drawing, writing, or other things that are still waiting to be discovered.

Now…if you are one of those people who has no interest in gardening in the dirt, fear not…there are other ways. Hydroponics — the growing of plants in a mixture of water and nutrients — is an easy and more efficient way of keeping your plants healthy since nutrients are fed directly at the root base, without the need for large containers or big bags of gardening soil.

Remember your childhood class project, growing avocado pits and sweet potato tubers in water jars? With just the right nutrients, any plant can be grown in much the same way. The “flood-drain” system is probably the most popular method for growing hydroponic plants, involving a simple pump system that baths plant roots in water & nutrients, then drains during the day to expose roots to much-needed oxygen.

Some do-it-yourself gardeners have devised cheap ways to create homemade hydroponics systems indoors or out, although ready-made hydroponics kits are becoming ever more affordable in home garden centers as their popularity grows.

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Regardless which method you prefer, gardening with your child will bring immediate and long lasting joy.
Lessons that will mold, sustain, and nourish both you and your child for many years to come.
Happy gardening~

Bea Kunz
http://www.sagehillfarmsandvintagestore.com
Bea grew up on a farm and spent many days of her childhood in the gardens with her mother and papa.
The lessons learned has taken her down a road of environmental awareness and the desire to teach and share her knowledge , not only with her own children and grand-children, but with the world as a whole.