The Home & Garden Issue

Most parents want their children to get outside away from phones, TV and video games, and gardening is a great way to achieve this goal. However, recent research shows that there are several other reasons to start a garden with kids. The benefits range from making kids smarter to making them healthier. Here are 10 great reasons to get kids gardening:

Students who garden score higher on science tests.

Gardening is full of science. Children learn about plant classification, weather, soil, and plant pests and disease. They are introduced to botany in a natural, hands-on way, and recent research shows that students who had gardening experiences as part of their school curriculum did better on standardized science tests than students who were not exposed to gardening in school.

If they grow it, they will eat it.

As a teacher, I’ve taught STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and have served as a Junior Master Garden club leader. In these roles, I witnessed the “if they grow it, they will eat it” phenomenon. Students love to dig up what they have grown, and then curiosity gets the better of them – they want to taste it.

Master Gardener Beth Tovi volunteered to mentor students in the garden for eight years at the elementary school where she served as a media specialist. She sees the nutritional and health benefits children gain from gardening.

“With the growing concerns about obesity, diabetes, and even high blood pressure in children, gardening gets them physically active and outdoors. And children will eat anything they grow – even if it’s green.”

Digging in the dirt can make kids healthier.

Several studies show that children who were raised on farms don’t have as many respiratory allergies, asthma, or autoimmune disorders as children who were raised in urban areas because children who live on farms are exposed to more microbes and fungi in the dirt. Letting children get outside and get in the dirt may actually make them healthier than keeping them tidy, clean and inside.

Gardening strengthens emotional and interpersonal skills.

Children who garden learn responsibility, patience, perseverance and how to deal with disappointment if the garden doesn’t grow the way they expected. How do they collaborate with other siblings, friends, or schoolmates to get the garden work done? These are character-building skills that research shows children reap in the garden.

One year, I witnessed this at a school garden when we had a drought. Watering the plants and trying to keep them healthy was an arduous task, and the students and I learned about perseverance and teamwork.

Gardening connects children with nature.

When children garden they gain ownership in what they are cultivating. I have seen my own children grow “attached” to the plants in the containers on our patio garden. As children become more knowledgeable about all the living things in the garden, they are less likely to be afraid of touching the plants, getting soil on their hands or being near bugs. They are no longer afraid of the unknown when they become familiar with what is in the garden.

Gardening helps relieve stress for the whole family.

A garden can be therapeutic. Your fourth grader isn’t battling traffic, raising children or feeling the demands of a pressure-ridden job, but even kids can feel stress, and the garden is good for eliminating it. In fact, a study in the Netherlands showed that after 30 minutes of gardening, subjects who had shown stress before they gardened had a “fully restored” positive mood. And if the adults in the family are feeling stressed and they garden with their children, it can help the whole family feel more harmonious.

Gardening teaches kids to problem-solve.

“When they garden, children learn problem-solving skills,” Tovi says. “They say ‘This trellis doesn’t work very well. How can we make one that will better support this kind of plant?’”

In a garden, children ask questions like “What is eating this plant?” or “Is this tree dying?”

Once children become absorbed in solving the problems in a garden, they want to research to find the best answers.

“They become sleuths, starting in the garden and heading into the computers,” Tovi says.

Gardening is a good work out.

Gardening is good physical labor involving muscles that don’t always get a workout. Even the most seasoned gym-goer may admit to being sore the day after working in a garden. Gardening involves stretching, bending, digging, lifting, pulling and raking. Gross and fine motor skills are used, and even the youngest gardener, with simple tasks, gets physical activity.

Gardening helps children become environmental stewards.

When children start reaping the food and flowers that come from a garden, they realize a garden’s impact on them and their impact on the garden. Once they have this tangible experience, it is much easier to teach them to care for the environment.

Gardening can lead to a longer life.

Studies show that adults who garden in their later years live longer. Instead of living a sedentary life, gardeners get off the couch and are active in nature. Teaching children good habits when they are young will make them more likely to follow them
through life.

Sow the seeds of a garden with your child today and see them reap the benefits for a lifetime.

No Yard? No Problem!

When your backyard is a concrete patio or an apartment balcony it’s hard to imagine growing a bountiful garden. But it can be done in containers. Choose some eco-friendly containers with drainage holes in the bottom, fill them with a potting mix, and then choose seeds or seedlings to plant. Another option is to grow an herb garden inside on a sunny window ledge.

A great resource for starting a container garden is “The Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible: How to Grow a Bounty of Food in Pots, Tubs, and Other Containers” by Edward C. Smith.

This book teaches even beginning gardeners how to grow organic food in small spaces. The book covers container and tool selection, caring for plants and controlling pests without chemicals.

With a little research and tender care, you can grow flowers and vegetables that flourish.

Creative Theme Gardens to Grow with Kids

These interesting themes are a great way inspire children to garden.

Pizza Garden

Grow all the herbs to add to a pizza. For an extra touch, make the garden round like a pizza.

Fairy Garden

This garden includes both plants and miniature structures and is a great place for your child’s imagination to grow.

Pollinator Garden

Build a garden that attracts butterflies, bees, birds, bats and other insects and animals that will help pollinate plants. Try planting milkweed, zinnias and snapdragons.

Herb Garden

Herb gardens are a great way to foray into the world of gardening. They can be grown inside or outside and include plants such as basil, oregano, sage, thyme, parsley and many more.

Art Garden

Students can grow flowers and plants that can be used to make art, or they can grow a garden of plants for kids to sketch.

Maze Garden

Create a maze with hedges, grasses or corn. In the middle of the maze, put something interesting like a sculpture, fountain, or another special garden bed.

Peter Rabbit Garden

Grow the vegetables found in Mr. McGregor’s garden. The great thing about this garden is that you can grow some of the vegetables – carrots, lettuce, radishes and cabbage – in cool weather, so you could continue to garden into fall.

Salsa Garden

Grow tomatoes, peppers, and onions to make a delicious salsa.

Wildflower Garden

Visit a nature preserve to discover the native wildflower plants in your area. Then build a garden with those flowers.

Three Sister’s Garden

Teach children about plants that grow well together, like corn, beans, and squash by cultivating the three in one mound.

As winter melts away into spring, keep your eyes open for those early spring blooms—crocus, daffodil, and hyacinth. They’ll signal that it’s time to get out and dig in the soil.

To children, gardening is a bit like magic. One simply puts seeds, those little packages of mystery, into soil and after waiting for a loooong time, as much as two weeks; little plants peek up into the world.

You can capture some of that mystery and magic with these four mini-gardening projects:

Sunflower Houses

Sunflowers are magnificent things to plant because they have a short germination time, as little as seven days, and they grow spectacularly tall. Children will love planting their sunflower home and then watching it grow inch by inch over the coming months. You could even do a little mapping and graphing as the home is planned. And then, when the magic is done, the kids can play in the house all day and sleep out in their sleeping bags at night.

www.greeneducationfoundation.org | How to Build a Sunflower House

Gourds on a Fence

Planting a row of gourds along a fenceline is a great way to enjoy the growth of these beautiful and varied plants. Kids love their beautiful colors and shapes. Gourds need to grow and mature until all the greenery has dried up. Then, when the gourds are thoroughly dry, you can use them for decoration, for rhythm instruments, or for homegrown birdhouses by hollowing them out.

www.foothillsfarm.com | Ginny’s Gourds

Pumpkins to Jack-o-Lanterns

Pumpkin seeds are easy to plant in mounds of soil with seeds spaced four to five inches apart. They’ll grow all summer long and bloom with their trademark orange blossoms. Then, in the fall, they turn from green globes to nice, fat, orange pumpkins. Use them for cooking pies and tarts, but be sure to set aside several to hollow out and carve into Halloween jack-o-lanterns.

www.allaboutpumpkins.com

Succulents in Clam Shells

Succulents are those interesting plants that retain water in their fat leaves and come in all shapes and sizes. They are the hens and chicks, the sedums and the sempervivums that look like green roses. These plants, especially when grouped together, make truly lovely arrangements. The fun part is they can grow in minimal soil and are perfect for a kid project. Take a large shell (or other interesting container) and drill several small holes in the bottom for drainage. Then, place a layer of wet sphagnum moss in the bottom. Top with potting soil and then add several succulent plants close together. These make nice gifts or just place them in a spot where you and your children can enjoy them throughout
the year.

www.simplysucculents.com

You can spark your family’s interest in the great out of doors with these and similar gardening projects. For more fun projects to do together see
www.kidsgardening.org.

Great Introductory Garden Books for Kids

Garden to Table: A Kids’ Guide to Planting, Growing and Preparing Food by Katherine Hengel.

Gardening Lab for Kids: 52 Fun Experiments to Grow, Harvest and Enjoy Your Garden by Renata Fossen Brown.

Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots: Gardening Together with Kids by Sharon Lovejoy.

Square Foot Gardening with Kids by Mel Bartholomew.

Do you have a green thumb? Even if you’ve never gardened, you may want to try it with your kids. Gardening teaches a lot about the life cycles of both plants and insects. Plants can look beautiful and smell great – and they can taste good too! And as a bonus, kids who grow veggies are often more likely to try them.

You can grow plants almost anywhere. Try a patch of your yard, a community garden plot, some planters on a patio or roof deck, or even a few pots on a windowsill.

Need a little more inspiration? Try these books about gardening to get you excited. Then go get your hands dirty!

Grandpa’s Garden by Stella Fry

Billy gardens with his grandfather. He’s impatient about everything, but learns to wait for seeds to sprout, for birds to eat the insects that are eating their plants. The back of the book has suggested garden plans and activities for each season.

Growing Vegetable Soup, written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert

The characters are largely unseen in this book, but dad and kids grow vegetables and turn them into soup. Ehlert’s unique illustration style includes labels to help readers identify seeds, sprouts, and tools. The last page includes a recipe for vegetable soup. Ehlert’s Planting a Rainbow may be of interest too.

Inch by Inch: The Garden Song, by David Mallett, pictures by Ora Eitan

The book features the classic song “Inch by Inch.” The lyrics and images connect the gardener with natural chains and cycles.

Jo MacDonald Had a Garden, by Mary Quattlebaum, illustrated by Laura J. Bryant

Drawing on the tune “Old MacDonald,” Jo MacDonald Had a Garden brings readers into the garden where Jo, Old MacDonald’s granddaughter, and her cousin Mike go from planting to reaping. Kids have fun looking for the new plant or animal added to each spread. The back of the book includes information on all the plants and animals added, along with activities, tips, and resources for young gardeners.

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, by Kate Messner

This beautifully illustrated book shows what’s happening, the shoots and leaves and other plant parts kids will see, but it also shows what might be less visible, the worms and roots and bugs down in the dirt.

Gardening How To

Gardening Lab for Kids, by Renata Brown

The subtitle of this book says it all: 52 Experiments to Learn, Grow, Harvest, Make, Play and Enjoy Your Garden. If you are looking to maximize production in a garden, this isn’t the book, but if you want to maximize fun, check this one out.

Grow: A Family Guide to Growing Fruits and Vegetables Together, by Ben Raskin

This basic introduction gets you thinking about what plants need, the tools you need to get started, and some info on the top fruits and vegetables. There’s also a chapter on planning your garden.

Ready, Set, Grow!: A Kid’s Guide to Gardening, by Rebecca Spohn

Whether you want to garden inside or out, there’s something for you in this book. It also includes recipes using food you’ve grown and garden craft projects.

Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy

Sharon Lovejoy loves introducing children to gardens. In this and other books, she has lots of ideas for making gardening fun. Imagine a garden that tells time by when the flowers bloom or lettuce spelling out your child’s name or a cucumber inside a bottle. She’ll show you how to do that and grow a sunflower house or a bean and flower teepee and so much more.

Square Foot Gardening with Kids, by Mel Bartholomew

Square foot gardening is a specific method of compact planting in a tight space, and Bartholomew, who popularized the idea decades ago, explains how to get started and succeed. This book is designed for adults who want to garden with kids and has specific ideas on gardening with kids at different ages and stages from toddlers to teens.

What will you and your family grow together?