How Does Your Garden Grow?

from Sussex Living June 2021

Contributors List

From toddlers to teens, children of all ages can benefit from learning gardening skills. Hanna Prince looks at how to raise green-fingered kids

HOW DOES

YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Gardening with the kids

Small children are natural gardeners. They love being outside; squidging happily around in the soil, digging for worms, moving earth around and carefully planting seeds. When it comes to the activities that adult gardeners find boring – watering, weeding, pruning - they also have remarkable patience. I’ve watched my two-year-old solemnly holding a hosepipe on the apple tree in the back garden, until its roots were sitting in a paddling poolsized puddle.

What’s more, gardening is good for kids. According to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), children perform better at school if they’re involved with gardening and are more likely to be interested in healthy eating if they get to grow their own produce.

There are other benefits too. What better way to get a daily dose of vitamin D than by helping in the garden? Teaming up on a creative

5Tips

for inspiring young gardeners

1Tool up: Nothing motivates a little gardener more than their own set of gardening tools. Start with a pair of gloves, trowel and a watering can – you can add a wheelbarrow if they seem superenthusiastic!

2A patch to call their own: Gardening is creative as well as practical, and older kids will love designing their own area. You can use the opportunity to talk to them about planting design, layout and soil types - ultimately, though, this is just about giving their imaginations free reign.

3Quick results: Kids love planting seeds, but younger ones can get miffed if they take a long time to develop. Opt for quick and easy to grow seeds, such as sunflowers, sweet peas, nasturtiums, marigolds and poppies.

4From plot to plate: What could be more exciting than growing something delicious in your back garden? Children’s favourites such as strawberries, carrots, peas and apples are all relatively easy to grow and sure to taste better than their shop-bought cousins.

5Find what they love: Some kids are happy to spend hours watering the garden – others get thrills from clipping back hedges or even (if they’re old enough) mowing the lawn. Letting them spend time doing what they love will help inspire a lifelong enthusiasm for gardening.

project, such as planting a flowerbed or building a bird house, makes for a great parent-child bonding activity. Little gardeners learn how to love, cherish and nurture the natural world. And gardening teaches essential life skills: responsibility, curiosity, self-confidence, forwardplanning, creativity and teamwork, to name but a few.

If you’re wondering how to get started, a family veggie patch could be the way to go. Growing fruit and veg from seed to plate is hugely satisfying for all ages. My kids started helping with the tomato plants from a very early age and barely walking, pressing the seeds into seed trays, filling pots with compost, pinching out side shoots, watering and, of course, eating the fruits of their labour. As they became more dexterous, they moved on to smaller seeds – our rows of lettuce are a little uneven this year, but it was worth it to see my five-year-old creating the shallow drills with one careful forefinger. They both eat most of what we grow – potatoes, strawberries, peas, beans – not just because it tastes better than shop-bought versions, but also because they are proud of what they have produced.

Growing edible delicacies isn’t the only way to engage young gardeners. There are plenty of garden projects that will spark their imaginations and spruce your garden up at the same time. Try building a twig tepee, making a big box or bird house, creating a container pond or magicking up a fairy garden. It won’t be long until they’re confidently dividing the begonias and advising you on composting strategies. l

Little gardeners learn how to love, cherish and nurture the natural world

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