A garden is a place to play, learn, explore, work,
relax and connect with nature and each other – for people of all ages.
Supervised babies and toddlers usually enjoy time touching and
eating things in the garden. Talk about your surroundings as you show them
things. Being outdoors provides them with health benefits and promotes calm.
And growing some of your family’s food is the ultimate way to interact with
the earth. Gardening is dirty work, though, so avoid any fuss about mess by
wearing appropriate clothing for the job.
Preschoolers are often enthusiastic gardeners. The magic of
propagating seeds appeals to their sense of wonder. They are usually eager
to help – especially if moving dirt, using water or harvesting are the tasks
at hand! Working together, they will soon learn how to grow their own plants
and care for these themselves. Edible gardens often inspire picky eaters to
try a wider variety of foods.
Life cycles, cacti, bonsai, cooking, craft and wild creatures will
fascinate many older children. They may enjoy doing yard work for pocket
money and explore other garden enterprises as well. Big kids can be
genuinely helpful in the garden and gain much from working alongside an
adult. The varied tasks in a garden provide pleasant physical activity.
I have always had my hands in the earth. I was blessed with
gardening parents and grandparents. They allowed me to save pumpkin seeds
from the kitchen scraps, bury our pet bird’s seed and plant cuttings from
other gardens. I recall the times they bought me a packet of flower seeds or
a basket of tiny plants especially for my enjoyment. It didn’t always fit
their landscaping plans and I probably killed more plants than I grew....
But I have a connection with the earth that originated in my childhood
gardens. Those gardens included a few pots on a window ledge in the inner
city, acres to roam far from anywhere, shared gardens in rented units and
then an average suburban backyard. Sometimes, they were even borrowed
gardens at grandparents’ or neighbors’ homes, or even a couple of carrot
tops to sprout on my dresser.
If you’re not yet a gardener, explore the joy and magic of growing
plants alongside your children. Start simply and grow something you love to
see or eat (you’ll remember to look after it that way). Beg or buy a few
very basic supplies and tools, some seeds or seedlings and set them up in a
place with at least four hours of full sun a day. All it takes is good food
(some quality mulch, compost or a natural fertilizer applied every so often)
and enough water. Check the soil just under the surface; when it’s dry,
water well in the cooler parts of the day. Consider an irrigation line or
well-placed sprinkler if you can’t hand-water regularly.
Try some container gardening or a small bed before digging up the
yard for a large veggie plot! Read about no-dig gardens in books or on the
Internet and employ these methods so that it won’t seem like work at all.
While some adults see them as out-of-place or untidy, straggly sweet
peas or giant pumpkins climbing a wire fence are a thing of beauty to
children. If you are a keen gardener, let the children learn by having
their own space and doing it their own way. Our two-year-old saves weeds
that I discard and pots them up with potting mix, nurturing them until they
flower. She names them and takes them off to play, often forgetting their
whereabouts so that we have to search for her little friends and return them
to the garden area before bath time.
If you go outside to work in the garden for part of each day, even
if it’s only for a few minutes to water and harvest before dinner, you may
find that your children won’t be distracted by the swings or trampoline –
they will want to garden with you.
Children these days spend much of their time indoors – books,
television, toys, games, puzzles, learning and socialization. A great deal
of their time is spent in the car, the house, shops, classrooms and other
places made by humans – often with a lot of noise or other people. To have
some peaceful space outdoors helps children recognize the natural rhythm and
essence of life. Nature works its magic with little input from us; we can be
extraordinarily busy or even sick with a cold but our garden will keep on
growing.
Ours is a home-educating family and our garden is more than a place
of fun. It’s our multi-sensory world of learning. We grow some of our own
food in gardens, on fruit trees and vines and by raising hens for eggs. As
we work together in the garden, each success and failure is a lesson. The
children sell excess produce at a roadside stall and so the learning
continues to another level. Outdoors, they interact with the world and each
other in a more cooperative and loving way.
Recording your gardening experiences helps preserve your family
gardening memories. You might choose a written journal, video,
photographs, scrapbook, nature diary, stories and poems or a folder of
artwork to record the beauty, magic, science, life cycles, surprises,
visitors and more. Nothing inspires creativity like Mother Nature.
A garden is more than just plants. It’s a realm that runs parallel
to ours where we – and our children – can touch and be touched by nature.
Belinda Moore is a home educating mother of six. She landed in tropical north
Queensland, Australia quite by chance and enjoys the simplicity there,
compared to her time in cities. Growing things has been a lifelong passion,
no matter where she has lived. Other passions include her family,
homeschooling advocacy, writing, sewing and environmental issues.
