For most budding imaginations, gardens are magical places. And if you keep yours simple and choose hardy, quick-growing varietals, it can become an airy classroom. Gardening teaches kids patience, as well as where fresh food comes from. Watching tiny radishes, a bright tangle of morning glories, or an oversize pumpkin grow from a handful of seeds is thrilling to even the most indoor-centered child. Most important, early enthusiasm for plants can translate to environmental stewardship in adulthood. "Children have to really love something before they can protect it and serve it," says Caprice Potter, who runs the Gateway School's Life Lab Garden in Santa Cruz, California. So start cultivating that tiny gardener now.
The Growing Connection
Nancy Busick, director of the youth program at the American Horticultural Society (AHS), suggests letting kids see the direct link between fresh food and gardening. "Lots of children who won't eat something at the table will eat it and like the taste if they've grown it themselves," she says. Many plants that children immediately relate to, such as carrots, sugar snap peas, and cucumbers, can be sown directly into the soil and are fast growers. For kids with brief attention spans, the unsung lettuce plant is perfect—it sprouts in five to seven days and can be eaten a few weeks later at only two inches tall.
Themed gardens are a playful way of strengthening the seeds-to-supper connection. Every year, Potter's students plant a pizza garden that includes tomatoes, onions, and peppers for the sauce, wheat for the crust, and herbs for seasoning. At home, try growing cherry tomatoes (buy plants at a nursery and transplant them next to a fence or trellis) and herbs like oregano and basil. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which has the nation's oldest children's garden, riffs on the same idea with rows of peanut and strawberry plants for a peanut-butter-and-jelly garden. "Kids get the sense that not everything comes out of a jar," says Sharon Myrie, the garden's vice president of children's education.
But themed gardens don't have to revolve around the dinner table. "Children love getting involved in growing native plants and seeing what wildlife they attract," says Marco Pinchot, the youth and family manager at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, which has a popular butterfly garden. For a simple at-home version, he suggests planting sunflowers; their large landing platforms attract several species of butterfly. Michael McKinley, senior garden editor at Meredith Books (publisher of Miracle-Gro: Instant Gardens and Miracle-Gro: Beautiful Gardens Made Easy), advises tailoring a theme to suit your situation. When he moved to a new house, he was at first dismayed at how little sunlight the yard had. "My daughter and I decided to plant a spooky garden," he says. "We would only grow things that thrive in the shade, like voodoo lilies, perennials, and dark-leaf plants."
Next Page: Keeping kids interested in the garden after the seeds have been planted
