Gardening With Your Children

Teaching your kids to garden is not only a great way to introduce them to plants and fruit and vegetables, but it can encourage them to eat the healthy produce that they have a hand in growing while also allowing the two of you to spend some time together. Children love to mimic parents, and they can’t help but learn and pick things up, so by bearing these things in mind, teaching the kids to garden should be relatively easy.

Safety First

When engaging in any outdoor projects with children, safety should always be the top priority. Before embarking on any major gardening tasks, assess which activities can be handled by your children and which require professional assistance. This proactive approach ensures that your kids are protected from potentially dangerous gardening chores. For instance, simple tasks like watering plants or plucking flowers can be assigned to children, while more complex tasks like tree removal should be left in the hands of an expert arborist firm, which can be easily found by searching online for terms like “tree removal companies near me“. By addressing potential hazards, you’ll possibly create a safe and enjoyable garden environment for your little ones.

Mimicking

Our children love to mimic our actions. Watch them play house, play with their toy kitchen, or even interact with their dolls and toys, and you will see some of the things you do and hear some of the things they say. Take your son or daughter out with you when you garden, and many of them will want to mimic what you are doing. That helps when you’re teaching them which flowers are which, how much to water new sod, how to plant seeds, dig up weeds, and tend the plants, without it feeling like a chore or a job. The more they mimic you, the more it’ll be good practice to them until it starts coming to them naturally and they can do it independently of you. Learning to garden this way can also be a great bonding opportunity between you and your children.

A Plot Of Their Own

As well as buying miniature tools, and even toy lawnmowers, you can give your son or daughter a plot of their own. Start with something small like a simple container before moving up to something from Premier Polytunnels. Allow them to choose from a selection of seeds and plants, but do limit their choices to those that are relatively easy to grow and difficult to kill. Then there are other gardening projects such as creating a garden trellis, bird feeders, making garden compost and beekeeping that might interest children. That said, each of these projects require specific procedures to be followed, and therefore need a good deal of adult supervision. With bird feeders, the feed will vary from one species to the other, just as beekeeping shall involve the careful management and care of honeybee colonies.

In the latter case, it would be a good idea for children to observe from a safe distance as to how apiculture tools are used; the bees are cared for; and honey is harvested using a honey extractor. The underlying idea is to generate a sense of responsibility and care for nature and balance in kids through exposure to such garden related activities.

Fun Names And Incredible Colours

You could encourage your child to have a themed garden. This could be as general as a green vegetable garden, or they could aim to grow a purple patch; alternatively, encourage them to introduce pollinating plants that will attract bees into the garden. If you can introduce your kids to bees early, then there is a better chance that they won’t be afraid of them as they grow up.

Low Maintenance And Quick To Grow

If you’re going to give the responsibility of tending and caring for plants to your son or daughter, then do make sure that they are easy to look after. The disappointment of seeing their own patch of garden wither and die could be enough to put any child off. You should also consider those plants and flowers that will grow quickly to get results.

Growing fruit and vegetables gives a child a sense of achievement, and this can even help you to encourage them to eat more healthily. Just because they grew a carrot doesn’t necessarily mean they will start loving them, but it might be easier to convince them to try eating them or even to tolerate them, at least.