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At just two years old he was dragged out in the dead of winter to dig out a goldfish-shaped pond. He was weeding by the time he could walk, and planting seeds and little flowers just this spring at three years old. This article is how to get kids out in to the garden, and teach them a life time of loving growing plants.
How do we get our kids to love playing in the dirt and gardening? It takes a lot of work and time in the garden.Being out there in the garden will, in time, give them a feel for the garden but in the end they may never love the garden the way we do. We all hope to pass this wonderful experience called gardening to our children and some will learn to love the garden but others will never, no matter what we do, love to be out with their fingers in the dirt.
The first thing kids need to do is spend time exploring the garden. They need to get right in there and touch the flowers, feel the leaves, and look for bugs. They might trample a few plants here and there but the time you spend there will be the most amazing thing for them. Children need to explore everything in their world; this is how they learn about the world around them. If they are allowed to be in the garden and explore, in time they will want to take care of the plants they have learned to love.
Once they want to help in the garden, let them! If they don’t get it right the first time, leave it! You can go back in a hour or so and fix the problem but don’t fix it right then and there. The next time they try it, help them do it and show them in positive ways how to fix the problem from last time.This will help them learn. Be negative about something like garden work and they will connect the two of them (the quality of the work they did and the joy of the flowers) in their head….and you will have lost the battle already. Children, on the whole, only want to do things they are good at or feel like they can do well. When they feel they can do gardening well, they will want to do it on their own.
After your children think they can do it and want to help you in the garden, it is time for them to branch out on their own. This needs to be an area that can be seen from the back door. Yep, right in the middle of everything.For kids to really be out there and want to garden, you have to make their garden important to them. They need to be the ones to pick out what to grow, within reason. Budgets are good for kids to live within but also learning about shade vs. sun and all of the wonders of soil will really help them to be able to grow on their own.
Let your children grow just like your plants grow. Give them time and space in the garden. Tend their knowledge with love and caring; mourn the loss of their prized plant or the seeds that never grew. In time, most children will learn to love the garden and love growing things. In the end, growing your child’s love of gardening is a lot like growing a rare plant. Give it what it needs and it will grow---but too much or too little---and it will suffer, or worse, pass over.
About M Fitzgerald
I am a pentecostal preacher, gardener,husband, and a father. I love natives, daylilies, iris, and roses. I love teaching others, be they children or adults, about the garden and plants.
Posted by hope43 (from Tulsa, OK) on October 10, 2007 at 6:09 AM:
first one flew someplace so try again. My 6yr. old gd love it been having them help plant some iris's. and repotting they like that to..
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Posted by LouC (from Desoto, TX) on October 10, 2007 at 9:14 AM:
Your son is lucky to have a father like you. Your little students are, too. You are planting so many seeds other than those that grow in the soil. God bless you.
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Posted by cathy4 (from St. Louis County, MO) on October 10, 2007 at 10:07 AM:
Great article! My children love gardening and say it is because they were able to cut flowers and take them to a teacher, and say they were from "their" garden.
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Posted by Dea (from Frederick, MD) on October 10, 2007 at 3:17 PM:
Great article Mitch - teach 'em young :)
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Posted by Islandshari (from Kwajalein
(Marshall Islands)) on October 10, 2007 at 3:34 PM:
Good advise - and not just for gardening, for all of life!
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Posted by judycooksey (from Pocahontas, TN) on October 10, 2007 at 7:58 PM:
Bravo!!!!
Judy
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Posted by KyWoods (from Melbourne, KY) on October 10, 2007 at 11:59 PM:
Thanks for bringing back memories of my son helping me build and plant flowerbeds! He's 18 now, and I'm sure gardening helped bond us, which is good, esp. since we now live far apart.
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Posted by CapeCodGardener (from Mid-Cape, MA) on October 15, 2007 at 9:55 AM:
You've inspired me to start a small "lasagna garden" this week in my back yard for my 4-year-old grandaughter--she can help pick the site and spread the layers. Then next spring, she will be able to plant her very own seeds in it.
Thanks for a great idea!
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Posted by KimAtCopperVine (from Seattle, WA) on October 15, 2007 at 11:43 PM:
Good advice... My daughter spent her first two summers napping in a basket in the garden. When she was old enough to 'help' it was hard to relax and let things get messy and trampled. It was worth a few years of 'creative' plantings, however. Now we work on our year-round container garden together and it is beautiful (in a messy, fairies-live-here, too many seeds) sort of way!
