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Gardening with children can be much more than fun. It can be the start of a beautiful relationship between your child (or children) and the natural world. It is an exciting learning experience that uses all the senses and brings immeasurable rewards. Providing a child gardening space that is completely hers (or his) may bring out a passion and enthusiasm you didn't know existed! |
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| GardenToad has created a Flash movie tutorial which you can watch (as many times as you like) to get ideas and suggestions before plunging in. The movie runs 3 minutes and forty seconds. |
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 Take me to the movie! You can also print out the more detailed instructions below: |
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| GardenToad's Tutorial on Kid's Gardens. Gardening appeals to many children because it requires all their senses. They can see plants in all their glory, touch and feel the soil, hear the calls of birds, animals and insects, smell the scent of flowers and of the good earth and once the garden is producing, they can taste the results of their labors. If you are ready to embark on the great adventure of gardening with kids, get ready for a messy but unbelievably rewarding experience. The purpose of this tutorial is to provide some ideas and suggestions. Choosing an appropriate spot for a child's garden is key to making the experience happy and successful. The size of the plot of land should be appropriate for the age of the child and his or her physical abilities. If you are concerned about how the child's garden may look (messy, perhaps!) and that concerns you, then you may want to choose a spot that is somewhat hidden away. However, the chosen spot should have good sunlight and be fairly flat. Easy access to water is a must. If watering the garden is too difficult a task, the child may avoid it and that could spell an early end to the garden and the child's enthusiasm. Provide tools that are appropriate in size to the child--both for ease of use and for safety's sake. Show children how to clean and put away their tools every time they finish gardening. Choose a pair of sturdy shoes or garden boots--to avoid injury to tender toes. And make sure the child has a pair of garden gloves to protect hands. Of course, there will be times when the gloves will come off--as well they should. Gardening is, after all, a tactile experience and children should be encouraged to touch and feel the soil, plants, seeds and more. Have your child wear old clothing so that they don't have to worry about rips, tears or dirt. 
You can help your child keep a garden journal. Seed packets can be clipped to a notebook page that shows the date the seeds were planted. Then the child can enter information about the plants progress, weather, days to harvest and whatever else strikes their fancy.Here are just some of the benefits a child can derive from gardening. They will have an opportunity to observe and learn about: how plants growConfronting obstacles like weeds or a lack of rain also gives kids a chance to develop problem-solving skills. Here are a few suggestions for plants to use in a child's garden: Pole beans and other beans or peas.. They grow quickly and some of them make good fresh-eating. Squash or gourds. They are easily grown and gourds can be used to make pots and other vessels. Salad greens. Easy to grow and they make for good fresh grazing. Sunflowers. Easy to grow, dramatically colorful and large and the source of seeds to eat and to save for planting later. Marigolds or zinnias. Easy to grow, colorful and they make great cut flowers. When selecting seeds, GardenToad recommends open-pollinated seeds over hybrids. That's because open-pollinated seeds produce plants with seeds that will grow plants that are "true". True in this case means the plants will have the same characteristics as the parent plant. With seeds from hybrids, the plants are unlike their parents--and usually are of far poorer quality than the parent plant. Open-pollinated seeds save you money as you can collect and plant seeds from your garden plants instead of having to buy seed each year. Open-pollinated seeds also encourage plant diversity. |
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