Planting Sprouts with Your Sprouts

Do you garden with your children?  Have you ever watched your child/grandchild eat peas fresh from the garden and discover that they actually like them? Or watched a child stand quietly by a lantana bush, determined to have one of those beautiful butterflies settle on the twig they are holding? Or watched your child follow an ant trail?

Children are curious people.  They love bugs (sometimes from afar!), thoroughly enjoy digging in the dirt, and they like to grow things.  So what’s not to like about gardening?

Children need to spend time outside.  If you doubt this, read “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv.    

I hope your children went outside during Spring break and enjoyed all the sunshine.  I hope some of you went out with your children and started a garden.

How can I get my child interested in gardening?

Playing in the soil will come naturally to many children.  Digging for worms is even better!  They will take great pride in their own set of child-sized tools.  Give them their own small patch of garden, partially prepared so their tools will work in it.  Grow something that will mature quickly.  Radishes grow from a seed to a mature vegetable in just 20-30 days.  A mild variety might even be tasty.

Big seeds are fun – easy to poke into the ground.  Small seeds that can be scattered like pepper are fun, too. Big seeds will grow into giant sunflowers, or beans that can be picked and eaten. Plant the sunflower seeds so that when they grow, the full-grown plants can be tied into a tepee. Grow the beans around a bamboo tepee so that little people can get inside and pick the dangling beans.  Marigolds are hardy, lettuce is very easy, and grape tomatoes were surely designed with children in mind. And is there a child who can resist a strawberry?  All fresh from the garden!  Think big, colorful, quick, easy.

Over time your children will want to care for their own garden, and will be learning environmental awareness. 

I live in an apartment.  How can my child learn to garden?

If you have a balcony, or a patio, or even a sunny room, you can garden!  A pot on a balcony is just fine – to a child it’s a whole garden.  If it’s partially shady, then find some shade-loving plants – ferns, hostas, impatiens. Sunny – you can grow sunflowers, tomatoes – all the summer flowers and vegetables.  Let your child choose from seed packets.

Absolutely no outdoor space?  Try a terrarium.  My grandson has some cacti in a terrarium – grown from seed – and it’s the first thing he inspects when he comes to visit.  I think he’s learned some patience, too – they grow very slowly!

And what about a local community garden?  The gardeners will welcome your children so long as they are moderately well-behaved!  The children will learn about sharing, about helping others, about weeding and watering, and they can grow their own vegetables and flowers just as they would at home.

And a question for you!  Do you and your children have any favorite gardening activities that you would like to share?  Let us know what you do to encourage your children to “dig in the dirt”!

Gardening questions?  DeKalb Extension can provide the answers.  Email your questions and comments to abonsall@dekalbcountyga.gov or leave a question in the Comments box.