Gardening Adventures with Your Children

If you want your child to grow up to be a gardener, it’s important to remember to share gardening experiences with them throughout their childhood. These include frequent, pleasurable occurrences, designs that include messy, colorful plots and great memories of working together in the garden. Each child’s capabilities and attention span will vary so it’s important to adjust your expectations. The goal is to teach your children to respect and enjoy gardening as well as experience a feeling of “I did it myself” at harvest time.

The Composting Council of Canada developed the following good reasons to foster a lifelong love of gardening in children.

1. Health: Growing your own vegetables makes it easier to get enough servings each day.

2. Exercise: Digging, turning, spreading compost, mulching, hoeing, excavating rocks - all burn calories, help build muscles and strengthen hearts and lungs.

3. Education: Gardening is terrific for providing hands-on lessons in botany, weather, and cycles of life.

4. Waste Reduction and Recycling: Compost piles transform kitchen scraps, leaves and yard waste into rich soil amendments. Gardeners can reuse of all kinds of cans, cartoons, meat trays and more.

5. Togetherness: Use vegetables grown together to make delicious meals together.

6. Memory Building: Provides great memories for the years to come.

7. Satisfaction: The more time you spend with your children in the garden, the more they will feel the garden is truly theirs and the more eager they will be to take care of it.

Submitted by Nicole Bigham, On-site Owner, The Goddard School in Buckeye-Verrado