Digging in the Dirt

by Emily Webb and Mary Williams

Spring has sprung!

Bring the beauty and the bounty of the season home and get your hands dirty by starting a garden with your kids. Grow vegetables for a yard-to-table eating experience or flowers to make your yard more inviting. Make gardening a springtime family affair with these ideas and activities.

Know When and What to Plant

n Don’t know when to start? The danger of frost needs to be over before planting, but Georgia’s weather can be unpredictable! The experts at “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” have a planting database where you can enter your zip code, and they’ll provide information on when to sow indoors, transplant and seed outdoors. Find information at almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar. For more help, you can also reach out to your local county extension service; they are happy to share their advice.

n Plants that germinate and grow quickly are the best for keeping kids’ interest. Try peas, pole beans, sunflowers, radishes, corn, morning glories, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash or nasturtium. You can also ask them what they’d like to plant, particularly if they like fruits and veggies, or give them a few options to choose from.

n Keep the area small. You don’t want it to feel like a chore; you want it to be fun. Let them decorate their own areas with painted rocks or labels they create themselves. Square Foot Gardening is a small-space and efficient way to grow vegetables; find more information at squarefootgardening.org.

n Make the space a creative hideaway! Find instructions for building a green bean teepee and a sunflower house on almanac.com.

pbs.org

Bring Creatures to Your Yard

Make your yard more inviting to birds, hummingbirds and butterflies with additions to your garden.

n Attract blue jays, cardinals and chickadees to your yard with a bird feeder or birdbath. You can build an easy bird feeder using a pinecone, peanut butter, bird seed and twine. Check out Home Depot’s website for a kid’s project and instructions on how to build a bird feeder on your window. Follow Pike Nurseries’ idea for creating and hanging a colorful birdbath in your yard.

n For a fun craft and to see one of nature’s pollinators at work, create a hummingbird feeder with a plastic bottle, cotton ball, rubber bands, flowers, yarn, water and sugar. Find full instructions at pbs.org.

n According to The National Wildlife Federation, butterflies are attracted to red, yellow, orange, pink and purple blossoms that are flat-topped or clustered and have short flower tubes. Some native flowers that fit the bill in Georgia are milkweed, sunflowers, persimmon, phlox and coneflowers. You can also make it easy with Insect Lore’s Butterfly Garden; available at insectlore.com for $27.99.

Flutter with Fairies

We could all do with a little magic! Add some whimsy to your garden with cute fairies, pixies, elves, gnomes and more from fairyhomesandgardens.com. Craft a cute fairy house on a terra cotta pot; find full instructions at lifecreativelyorganized.com.

Buy It

n Beetle & Bee Kids n Grow With Me Adjustable Garden n Kids Gardening Tools: The Storybook Kids Explorers Club offers a cute set featuring a “how-to” board book to spark interest in gardening, as well as a bag, shovel, rake, trowel, gloves, garden stakes and a watering can. $19.99 at amazon.com. n Natures Good Guys Live Ladybugs: Learn all about ladybugs and how they help plants thrive. $5.25 at amazon.com. lifecreativelyorganized.com

Garden Hand Tools: This set includes a trowel, rake and shovel specifically designed for kids and is recommended for ages 5 and older. $20.19 at amazon.com.

Tool Set and Child’s Wheelbarrow Set: Kids will have fun getting their hands dirty with this set featuring a wheelbarrow, shovel, hoe, leaf rake and soil rake. $99 at hearthsong.com.

Make the Most of Small Spaces

If you don’t live in a place where you can plant in your yard, your kids don’t have to miss out on the experience of gardening. Patios and balconies are places for potted gardens; depending on the amount of sun you get, try these plants: pansies, herbs, succulents, ferns or marigolds.

n Faber-Castell’s Creativity for Kids: The GROW line is a collection of crafts for kids to grow little gardens of their own with creative twists. Plant a woodland forest, magical land and more. Find products at fabercastell.com.

n Miracle Gro: Their collection for kids that encourage planting, painting, viewing roots or playing with dinosaurs. Find products at creativekids.com.

n The Simplay3 Seed to Sprout Raised Kids Patio Garden: Help little ones learn about gardening by growing flowers, fruits or vegetables in a kid-friendly container. It includes an eight-piece garden tools accessory set that is perfect for a child’s hands. Available at simplay3.com for $69.99.

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