Gardening With Children

David Trammel's picture

For many of us, a long cold winter is just starting but for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, Spring has arrived and its time to plant. And for those of us with children, perhaps its time to introduce them to gardening.

Why it's time to get outside and start gardening with your kids

"Taking that time to re-centre and enjoy the calm of the garden is so good for us as adults and, it's the same for our young ones, their days are pretty busy at school or preschool too. And it beats screen time, right?

Gardening is also an easy way for children to develop an understanding of basic science and nature; as they take part in growing plants from germination through to harvest they are gaining valuable life long skills in horticulture. And for my youngest, who lets out a blood-curdling scream at the sign of anything wriggling, it's a chance to face their worm fears.

There's a few obvious things to consider when gardening with young kids; things like keeping garden sprays and equipment, large spades, forks, pruning saws out of reach. Buying littlies their own set of child-sized garden tools will be a hit (and a great low-cost Christmas gift), while deterring them from using the big "adult" stuff."

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For those of us in the North, it might be the time to get out those seed catalogs and sit down with our children to decide what they want to plant next year. Sooner than we know it will be time to start seeds.

As a general observation, to me Green Wizards has always been a multi-generational project, one that I won't ever get to see fully mature. I can though get it started, much like a seed.

alice's picture

So important for little ones to dig in the mud and other gardening activities. I have met an urbanite who claim to be phobic of growing plants. Yes, I met someone who felt anxious for if she had to touch a living plant. I can't imagine how isolated from nature she must have been brought up, but if I have met one person who admits to that there may be many people in the cities who are equally cut off.