 Photo Courtesy Of Laxmi Natarajan
Children can start early in the garden, watering and tending to plants. Given the current state of the economy, it helps to be creative and use the home garden to provide children with educational and creative opportunities. Gardening with children and getting them involved in the garden has many benefits, including spending quality time with your children, teaching them the importance of eating healthfully and instilling them with respect for the environment at an early age. The best way to get children interested in gardening is to let them see you enjoying and spending time in the garden. Involving them in the planning and designing of a flower garden or a vegetable/herb patch is a great way to start. You can give them their own space to work, a set of containers or allow them access to the family patch where everyone works together. Children of all ages love to dig holes, so have areas in your garden where they can dig to bury a treasure or plant seeds and plants. Give them their own set of tools (you can get reasonably priced, child-sized tools at garden centers) to enable them to work better. Planting an herb garden with basil, oregano, rosemary, sage and flavored mint like orange, peppermint, chocolate or lemon is a rewarding activity. Growing easy vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peas, zucchinis, beans and peppers will add to children’s amazement that they can actually grow their own food. The important thing to remember is that it is OK to have a messy patch, a less-than-perfect row of plants or mixed-up flower garden colors. You may also need to finish up their tasks, as they may not be able to perform all the required tending. Giving them the responsibility of garden-related chores – watering specific pots, filling bird feeders, adding water to a bird bath, weeding certain areas – and sometimes even paying them a small allowance or rewarding additional privileges to do the chores helps keep them motivated. Harvesting from the garden is great fun. Drinking lemonade with mint leaves added or eating sweet peas and cherry tomatoes straight from the plants is delicious and provides lasting memories. Last week, my 9-year-old made herself and her sister a mid-afternoon snack of Caprese by slicing tomatoes and basil leaves from the garden, adding some fresh mozzarella cheese from the refrigerator and drizzling some olive oil and salt on top. It was a very empowering moment in our family. There are plenty of interesting arts and craft activities to do in the garden. Work on a garden journal with the children documenting the plants, including the planting date, drawings of the plants/flowers, photographs and notes. Paint birdhouses or garden signs/markers to display in the garden. A birdbath constructed from pots and saucers is a fun way to add a personal family touch in the garden. My 5-year-old loves to pick flowers from the garden to make bouquets. Press flowers to make potpourri or a card for their friends’ birthdays. Children love making things and will be thrilled at the gifts they can make from the garden. Talk to children about the science associated with gardening – photosynthesis, pollination, bugs and their lifecycles, composting, worms. All the bugs and worms that reside in a garden can be better viewed and enjoyed with a bug scientist kit that has a place to hold the bugs and examine them under magnification. The Internet and books are a great resource for gathering garden-related information to share. Building forts, secret passages, teepees and pathways with tall sunflower plants to go around the garden, hunting for seeds, berries and fruits adds to a good playtime in the garden. Enjoy nature at its best with your family. Laxmi Natarajan is a landscape/garden designer specializing in residential design and container gardens. Contact her at www.bagicha.com or 703-9756. | 
