Childrens Garden

A childrens garden is a great way to let your kids get in on a little bit of your fun time! Even if gardening isn’t really your thing, set up a small, sunny location that your little one can plant and tend to a garden of his or her very own.

For children, gardening is a great activity to encourage kids to spend more time outdoors and use their energy in a constructive way, while developing a hobby they might actually keep as they get older.

The first task in establishing a childrens garden is to identify it's actual location. Find a special place, either within your garden or close by, that you can designate as your childrens garden. This will be an area that will belong only to him or her! Even if that means a plot full of weeds at the end of the season, this spot is for your child to play, and do with, as they want. (Of course, in the event that your little one doesn’t take to gardening, the space can always be converted back to it’s previous function the following year.)

Giving your child his or her own special place will help you for two reasons:

1. You don’t have to worry about any of your precious plants getting “pummeled” by little, curious hands, and
2. You’ll give your child the gift of creative freedom, and learning from actually “doing.”

While I know it’s hard, try your best to offer guidance only, and let this be a place where your child can learn. Remember, learning sometimes means making mistakes or doing things completely wrong! Your child may have a completely different, maybe even impractical, way of looking at gardening. Offer advice, but less this be a place for your child to explore.

For example, suggest that plants be watered in moderation as too much water can sometimes hurt plants...but if your child insists on over-watering, then so be it! Let them discover the dangers of over-watering for themselves.

My almost 2-year old niece had such a great time picking the “grape tomatoes” from the plant this last August (and eating them as she picked, of course). I told her to pick the red ones, which she did for the most part, but then eventually found her way to a green one or two. She took a bite of a green one, and made a face that told me she did not like what she tasted! Sure, I could have stopped her from picking it and putting it in her mouth, but I think she learned much more this way, and certainly had more fun!

After picking the tomatoes, she proceeded to take several of them into her kiddie pool, smashing them one by one, until she had a good kiddie-pool-tomato-soup thing going on.

Of course you’ll want to set guidelines with your children, but let them have some exploratory freedom as well. We were outside, there were plenty of tomatoes that she could play with and learn about, and while she wasn’t going to be allowed to dump tomatoes into the hot tub, she could certainly dump them into “HER” pool. Try and let your children have some freedom in their garden, and they will probably end up enjoying it much more than being dictated too.

Once you've established the location of the childrens garden, take your child to a garden center to select plants for their garden. I would suggest buying a reliable vegetable or two like zucchini, tomatoes, or pumpkins. Those plants grow quickly, and without much assistance, so watching them grow should be lots of fun.

I would also suggest buying a couple of annual flowers that grow easily, such as marigolds, sunflowers or petunias. You can buy small plants or start some from seed right in the ground outside.

If you have a trellis, or some type of object for climbing, you could plant a morning glory. This is a picture of a morning glory in late summer, trailing a picket fence.

Depending on the preferences of your child, you may be able be able to convince them to add one of the perennial flowers into the childrens garden, and teach them the difference between perennials and annuals. A very, very reliable perennial is black-eyed Susan. This plant tolerate all types of soil, and will spread every year.

Of course, no childrens garden would be complete without special children garden tools that look just like the adult tools, but are sized perfectly for them. Hearth Song carries a large variety of children garden tools.

A childrens garden is a great way to encourage your child to spend more time outside and less time indoors. Have a general idea of what your childrens garden will look like, but be open to your child’s preferences and decisions. Give them options and explain the differences to them, but ultimately let them take the lead.

Above all...and this is a biggie...HAVE FUN! This is a chance for you to spend time with your child, and watch their creativity and imagination flourish.

Enjoy gardening with your child!

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Please be sure to use caution when gardening with your child, and provide appropriate supervision. Make sure there are no immediate dangers, like standing water, poisonous berries or pesticides, that could harm them. As in the house, keep dangerous tools and equipment out of their reach, and supervise, supervise, supervise!!