Plant a Kids’ Garden

• Sponsor: Calgary.isGreen
• Author: Ana Galich

Sometimes it can be difficult to think of ways to force your kids to spend some time outside, especially in today’s modern world. Surely, you have noticed that sometimes your children will rather stay inside glued to the screens then to go play outside. Each day you can see less and less children playing outside like we did when we were their age. Can you remember that feeling of running free and playing with your friends all day long? Those activities are becoming less and less common. Don’t let your children grow up like that.  Do all you can to keep them outdoors and happy. If you put your mind to it, you will have no problem accomplishing that. You just need to find a perfect outdoors activity for them. Children are not hard to entertain, as long as you keep them interested and happy. And gardening might be the perfect answer.

Children really are excellent gardeners because gardening incorporates everything they love to do. They love exploring, learning new things, discovering how things change and they definitely like to play in dirt. This is because they are curious, adventurous and everything is essentially a new experience for them. Gardening is an excellent way of getting your kids outside the house, to enjoy fresh air and exercise. Especially because they are not aware you are trying to do that so they will be more open to any of your suggestions.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a green thumb. That doesn’t mean that you won’t enjoy having this experience with your children. You can always find some plants that are easy to take care of and that will manage to grow with a little effort. Read on to discover which plants will definitely thrive in your small garden. Maybe you even realize that your children are natural talents. Soon you will have fresh fruits and vegetables on your table every day.

What can your kids do in the garden?

• Watering
• Digging
• Choosing which flowers, vegetables or fruit to plant
• Planting
• Picking the vegetables and fruits as they ripen
• Preparing food using homegrown produce
• Composting and recycling
• Weeding
• Replanting and re-potting

Choose the activities that suit the age of your child. Giving them a responsibility that is too demanding for them won’t leave them happy and excited. They will search for a way to stop gardening at all because it won’t be fun for them anymore.

Gardening is a fantastic activity that will help whole family to bond. Working together in the fresh air, sharing this responsibility and watching seeds you planted grow, will make your relationship stronger than ever. You will also start to see the changes in the way they eat, and what they eat. Even though they maybe didn’t want to eat some type of vegetables before, now they will be delighted to eat it because they have grown it themselves. You will be surprised how gardening can quickly change the habits of your children to better.

Best of all, this way you will implant some great skills into your kids that will follow them through their whole life.

During this process they will gain:

• Love of nature – by watching seeds they have planted grown into fruit or vegetables,
• Responsibility – by having to be involved in every aspect of caring for plants,
• Self-confidence – by seeing how well they are achieving their goals and taking care of their little garden,
• Creativity – by deciding which plants to grow next and how can they use it in meals,
• Nutrition – by learning about growing fresh food and eventually eating it,
• Cooperation – by sharing the gardening responsibilities.

With these skills they will also get a lot of exercise and fresh air that will be great for their health.

What to grow?

To keep your children interested and excited about gardening you need to be clever when choosing what to grow. By choosing fruits and vegetables that are easy to grow you will ensure they have a great experience and that they want to continue doing it.

Peas

This is definitely the perfect vegetable to start with. There is hardly a kid that doesn’t like eating organic peas from a fresh podso they will be extra excited about growing it themselves. The great thing about peas is that they grow all summer which means your kids can enjoy it longer.

Herbs

Herbs will delight your children with their incredible smell and their simplicity. Choose mint, rosemary, basil, sage and dill that are easy to grow and which will be an amazing addition to any meal you are preparing. If you play your cards right you can have these organic herbs through all the year.

Cherry tomatoes

This will probably quickly become your kids’ favorite produce. The kids will hardly wait to pull them straight from the vine as soon as they are ripe. When planting them choose seedlings rather than seed because you will see progress sooner. Seedlings need to be loosely tied as they grow so place stakes alongside each of them or try using a natural tomato cage.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are a must have for any garden especially for a child’s garden. The amazing thing about organic sunflowers is that you can find them in a variety of colors and sizes among which you can definitely find one that is perfect for your kids’ garden.

Strawberries

It is safe to say that strawberries are among your kids’ favorite fruit. Picking strawberries will feel like a natural scavenger hunt for the kids as they look for a new fruit hiding under the leaves each day. They will be amazed how quickly strawberry can go from green to ripe and ready to eat. You’ll probably catch them sneaking into a garden a couple of times a day trying to find new strawberries.

Don’t let this great bonding experience turn into a work instead of fun. Try stopping yourself from ordering them what to do, rather encourage them and give them detailed advice. If you have enough of space, try giving each child their own natural patch of land. This way they will be more proud of their work and you will have large variety of fresh, organic food on your table every day.