Child's play - gardening for kids

A few years ago we had the privilege of designing and creating a garden at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the children’s charity, the NSPCC. Our ‘Garden of Magical Childhood’ (above) gave us both the opportunity to talk to kids about what they wanted in a garden and at the same time allowed us to relive our own gardening memories. This whole experience, together with collaborating on various school gardening projects over the years, got me thinking about how magical and rewarding getting children involved in growing things can be, so this month my blog is all about gardening for kids. 

The key things for getting any child interested in gardening are to make it simple, make it worthwhile, make it colourful, make it educational, make it stimulating and above all make it fun.

I got in to gardening at an early age when my dad built me a wooden box filled it with soil and gave me some Freesia bulbs. I planted them and watched them grow and then was amazed to see them flower. Once I got that result I was hooked. That’s the thing with gardening if you get a success it inspires you to keep going and keep on growing!

Here are a few general ideas to get your own children inspired.

1. Start simply with seeds Get a packet of cress or mustard seeds from the garden centre or DIY store, then take an old margarine tub or Tupperware box, line it with damp tissue or kitchen roll and sprinkle the seeds on top. Within days you’ll see them germinate and grow. Alternatively, why not get the kids to grow their own runner beans in jam jars. Line the inside of an old jam jar with damp blotting paper and drop a bean seed down the side of it. Keep the paper damp and then in a week or so you’ll see the roots and shoots develop, quickly followed by the leaves. You can even have competitions to see how quickly your beans grow.

1. Provide your child with their own planting area, their ‘own garden’. This can be a small patch in the garden or just a plant pot outside the back door but it becomes their responsibility to look after it. Containers are a particularly good idea as they can be moved about.  Using recycled containers can be just as effective, even on a small scale like old yoghurt pots, tin cans or egg cartons. Make sure you also give your child their own trowel and watering can so they can copy you as you work in the garden.

1. Stimulate the senses. Use bring coloured flowers such as geraniums, Echinacheas (below) and petunias, use fragrant plants like sweet peas, mint, lavender and rosemary, use tactile plants like grasses and use edible plants like lettuce, carrot, tomatoes or strawberries.
   

1. Try some garden artwork. Get the kids to decorate their own plant pot or plant label or for something a bit different get them to paint a pebble that they can then put in the garden. Painting pens are good for this as they are available in lots of bright colours and not as messy as paint brushes.

1. Grow your own food. Often children aren’t too sure where some vegetables come from so why not get them to plant and look after their own fruit and vegetables and then eat the results at the end. Try planting small plug plants now and get the kids to regularly measure their growth, watch them flower and see the fruit develop and ripen.  Use it as a good learning tool to explain how plants grow and what they need to keep them healthy. You never know it may make them more likely to eat their greens. Good vegetables to try are carrots, especially the more colourful ones, and tomatoes so that they can try to make their own tomato sauce.

1. Make it competitive – It’s always fun to see who can grow the tallest sunflower or longest runner bean and it gives you a good excuse to keep going out into the garden to measure them.

1. Use easy to grow flower seeds. If you get good results, then you are more likely to keep gardening so choose reliable plants like cosmos, love in a mist and sunflowers.

1. Grow plants to attract wildlife. Plants like buddleia and lavender are great for attracting butterflies, bees and other pollinating insects and without them we wouldn’t get all the fruit, flowers and vegetables that we all enjoy.

1. You can also attract wildlife into the garden by building a bug hotel with old logs and straw, or just by building a compost heap. Often children are more interested in finding worms, slugs and ladybirds than growing plants so make sure there is somewhere in the garden where they can find them and then you can explain the benefits of insects and other beneficial organisms.

1.  Be aware that some plants are not as child friendly as others so always read the label. Steer clear of foxgloves and oleanders.

Gardening with kids doesn’t have to be expensive and not only is it a great learning opportunity for the whole family but it also gets the children outside, so why not give it a go. Start on a small scale with a plant pot and a few seeds and see what develops, you never know you may be sparking their interest and give them a skill that will stay with them forever. It did for me and it has given me a rewarding and successful career.