Sometimes there is nothing better than spending a summer day in your garden.
Getting children to enjoy gardening as much as you is the tricky part.
Here is how to get children to love gardening:
- Get watering. Buy children their own special watering can and let them be in charge of watering plants.
- Have a sunflower growing competition. Sunflowers grow BIG and TALL and are beautiful bright flowers. Have children plant their own sunflower seeds, mark their plants with their names and see whose grows the fastest and tallest. You may want to plant them close to a wall or invest in some long sticks to tether your flowers to as they grow.
- Plant a butterfly garden. Children love butterflies so why not plant a garden that attracts butterflies. Children can explore the garden searching for butterflies. Butterflies are attracted to specific plants and flowers, click on this link to learn more https://bit.ly/1TD0PYI
- Grow tomatoes. Tomatoes can be pretty easy to grow and you can choose from lots of different varieties, too, like plum, cherry, vine and beef. Children will really enjoy using the tomatoes they’ve picked in a salad or with cherry tomatoes, to snack on as they garden.
- Grow mini cucumbers. Mini Cucumbers are actually pretty easy to grow. Plus, you can use them in salad or just to snack on, and watch them beam with pride, knowing they helped grow their own food. You could also buy a jar of pickling vinegar and teach them how to pickle their own cucumbers.
- Give them space. Give children their own space in the garden. Children can choose what they want to plant, help plant it and take care of it.
- Plant a sensory garden. Kids of all ages can enjoy discovering and playing with their senses in the garden. Incorporating some of these plants will help them explore and a lot of them are edible.
- Touch – soft woolly lamb’s ears, smooth succulents like aloe vera, spiky bottlebrush species.
- Taste – basil, strawberries, peas, rosemary, cherry tomatoes, cucumber
- Smell – lemon balm, native mint bush, lavender, jasmine, sweet peas
- Bright colours – rainbow chard, sunflowers, marigolds
- Sound – sweet corn, grasses that rustle in the wind
Children are curious, enjoy learning by doing and love to play in the dirt so gardening should surely become a favourite past time.