Gardening with Children: Growing Green Thumbs

Where does a love of gardening begin? Ideally, a horticulturist begins quite early in life. After all, children love bright colored flowers, and they adore digging in dirt! Besides, who knows what they might find living just under the surface in a backyard planting bed or window-box?

Very young children can begin to learn about flowers and plants quite early. Hands-on practice can sow seeds of interest that may last a lifetime. A love of gardening is a gift that lasts forever!

Is yard-work a hobby or a chore?

When we were kids, our parents enlisted us for raking and weeding tasks. As a result, gardening was one of our chores. We pulled dandelions from flowerbeds, yanked errant grasses from brick pathways, and raked mountains of autumn leaves.

My mom would divide the yard into equal portions (one for each of us). Then the phone would ring, and she would disappear. We would groan and garden, almost in unison.

Alas, it was a long time before any of us developed a real passion for horticulture!

My own kids actually love to burrow in the dirt. They adore planting flowers and vegetables and nursing them into blooming adult plants.

Kids love to have their very own gardens.

This is what we did, and it was a huge success.

When my children were quite young, I purchased a cute plastic sandbox at a neighborhood yard sale. (It happened to be a big red crab with buggy eyes!). I poked several holes in the bottom of it and filled it with potting soil.

We took a family field trip to the local garden center, and I invited my kids to select their own assortment of annual flowers and kids' garden gloves.

Back at home, I showed them how to remove their seedling plants gently from the gel-packs and tuck them tenderly into the rich, black dirt.

While they arranged their own plantings, I completed mine nearby as well. The first few years, the children's garden was crowded with everything from asters to zinnias. We ate fresh strawberries, parsley, and tomatoes from it too!

Daily, we watered our gardens together.

As my children watched their garden grow, they became quite enthusiastic about gardening!

You can build a children's garden almost anywhere!