Gardening with Children

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Comment by Patty on November 10, 2009 at 9:52pm

A mud garden!!! What a fantastic idea! We put a pool in this past summer & the kids enjoyed digging in the dirt all over our yard . However, the dirt mounds will soon be replaced by lawn & gardens. What a great way to keep a place where it is OK to be messy. :-)

Comment by Tamsin Salehian on November 10, 2009 at 6:53am

Hi,
I have just joined this group and thought I'd share a little... I have two kids, Jasper who is five and a half, and Sequoia who is almost three years old. This year we have just moved the vegie patch closer to the house and the kids were totally involved in the construction. We built a small herb spiral in the centre with stones as borders and then we made a series of five beds around it like slices of pie in a big circle. It has been growing for almost six weeks and the kids plant something new each week. We have also, at my son's request, left a small bed empty of plants so that it can be a mud garden - just for digging, mixing in gravel, water, building mountains and volcanoes and making a good big mess (the garden that is discouraged if I am watering plants just before we are due to go out somewhere!!) We have had to fence the garden as the first seedlings were all decimated by wallabies and possums... and we have just noticed that we have to build a higher fence as there is a big dent in the chicken wire where a wallably didn't quite make the perfect leap over yet still managed to enjoy fifteen chilli plants and all of the silverbeet - so the kids aren't convinced that a vegie patch is the quickest way to grow dinner, but they are definately enjoying it!

Comment by Bea Kunz on August 29, 2009 at 11:05pm

Glad I found this forum, the garden is a beautiful place to connect with children and to help children connect to their natural heritage.
I have two small grandsons, one is very connected to the gardens and the other can take it or leave it...so we work a little extra at keeping him involved.

The youngest helping with harvesting the herbs.

They both love the kitchen and we have a cooking class with each visit.

Comment by Rod Jendrysik on August 29, 2009 at 9:55pm

Hi Cindy,

I have the kids involved in helping in the garden all the time. when they were the size of the little ones in your picture I bought them the little rakes, hoes and shovels. I let them dig and rake in the areas that I have not yet planted. They also help with the weeding and planting. If the rows aren't so straight. Oh well. It's all good. You just adapt the garden. Sometimes starting with transplants with them works a little easier especially with tomatoes since they are pretty durable. When they lose interest go ahead and let them go wander. They usually come back to do something else such as holding seed packets etc. You can always take breaks, talk about the plants and watch the bugs. It's also fun to have them look through the seed catalogs with you. There's always something through out the season for them as their interest allows. Before long they will be able to tell you which plants are what and what the bugs are.

Rod

Comment by Cindy on July 21, 2009 at 7:39pm

Just joined. Looking forward to any ideas for kids in the garden. While my son would stay out there all day looking at bugs and playing in the dirt, my daughter is a little less enthusiastic. So far I have tried bringing crayons out with us to let her color on the raised beds, and rocks, and put wind chimes up that she can make noise with. They both love watering the garden and have their own special watering cans but she will usually only stay out there for 15 min. max and then it is a fight with her brother wanting to stay out there for hours on end.

Comment by Melissa on June 30, 2009 at 8:33am

This was cute: I was in the garden weeding and heard "Mmmmmm". I looked over to see the baby (16 months old) ravaging the raspberries, ripe or not! I guess she figured they were red like the strawberries, so they were ready. She also picks every pea she can get, even ripping out the whole plant if necessary!
The other day I saw her grab a bud off the marigolds and pop that in her mouth. Didn't even have to intervene; apparently they don't taste too good!

Comment by Natalie Lawson on June 25, 2009 at 9:47pm

This sounds like a great group! Just joined :-) Love kids! I'm a long-time teacher of young children (and children of all ages). I specialize in cooking classes with kids that can connect them to real, whole, straight-from-the-ground foods ! ! !

Next big adventure: gardening with kids :-)
I look forward to reading all of your info & posts!

Be Well,
Natalie

Comment by Melissa on May 27, 2009 at 11:54am

Sara thanks for posting that. I say anything that could bring a kid closer to gardening is right for this group! The fun of harvesting is part of the fun of gardening.

Comment by SaraBClever on May 27, 2009 at 11:20am

I just postd this on preserving the harvest, but as I have nice memories of this as a kid, I'm posting here as well! http://www.pickyourown.org/index.htm

Comment by Melissa on May 7, 2009 at 9:23am

Good idea! We like to do scavenger hunts. I'll write up lists (sometimes VERY long) and they have to find everything and check them off. I'll write things like "something orange" (thy have to fill in the blank) and "flower with 5 petals" and specific stuff like that. It helps their reading and writing, too. And it's a good tool for settling sibling arguments that result from cabin fever! They rush to finish first, and the winner gets bragging rights. The winner also ends up helping the 'second winner' and the fight is always over by then. Gives me a little time to prepare the next thing to occupy them too, lol!

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