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Gardening with Kids - Volume 1

We've all heard "April showers bring May flowers" enough to know that this is the time to lay the groundwork for a beautiful garden. Just be sure to let the kids in your life in on the fun! They'll have a great time, and they'll learn the skills they'll need for a lifetime of fun and effective gardening. Plus, there is nothing cuter than watching your 5-year-old swagger over with a little wheelbarrow of compost and proudly asking "Where do you want it?"

One of the easiest ways to garden with children is to offer them their own small plot to work. Let them help you prepare the soil by removing weeds and incorporating compost and other organic amendments. Little hands will face far less frustration if the soil is loose and well-prepared, and if they have their own child-sized tools to use.

Then let your child pick a few seed varieties to plant. I like to spread out planting and harvesting times, so there's more to do throughout the gardening season. For instance, you can start with an early crop like peas, beets, radishes, or spinach.(My personal favorite is peas, because they're fun and delicious to eat right out of the garden.) Then, a few weeks later, when you need another gardening activity for the kids, you can put in the warm season crops like beans, pumpkins, or tomatoes.

Few kids will be captivated by 3 months of weeding and watering (but some will!), so plan to lead some fun gardening projects to help hold their interest. For example, kids love to decorate their plots with stones, shells, driftwood, and perhaps a bench or two. There are great personalized stepping stones you can make with cement and hand, foot, or leaf prints, or you can add beads or pottery shards. You can attract birds with homemade bird feeders or catch the sun and wind with fun windchime and suncatcher projects.

Check this page periodically for instructions for these and other fun garden beautification projects.

Then there are the cool kid-friendly plant projects: the "personalized" pumpkins on which your child's name seems to have magically appeared, the sunflower houses strung with live morning glories, the big zucchini that somehow managed to find its way into a narrow-necked bottle. These and many other projects will be described in full detail in future installments of this page. Sharon Lovejoy's book Sunflower Houses: Inspiration From the Garden. is a charming guide to a whole range of projects and activities to enjoy in the garden.

A child's level of involvement in the garden will depend on her adult guide's gardening style and the child's level of maturity and interest. I have known a 4-year-old who watered her garden daily, and a 7-year-old whose garden would have turned to dust without his mother's intervention. Your level of involvement in your child's garden will depend on your parenting style and gut instincts. I personally weed and water my kids' plots, but they would probably learn a great gardening lesson if I didn't! As in most parenting decisions, do what feels right.

This installment of "Gardening with Kids" is but a brief overview of the subject. Check back periodically for new columns on more specific projects you can do in the garden now. The bottom line is that any time spent growing things with your children is time well spent, as long as you are positive and encouraging, and have planted a few extra seedlings to allow for little clumsy feet!"

Happy gardening!

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Other helpful and interesting sites:

• www.botanicalinterests.com: Offers over 400 high quality seed varieties, featuring no GMOs and a large selection of certified organic varieties.
• www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com: Virginia-based growers and sellers of popular and uncommon bulbs.
• www.gardensalive.com: Offers organic solutions for lawn and garden care