With summer vacation fast approaching, are you looking for ways to keep your kids away from electronic devices?
Gardening is healthy, it's good exercise, and it's a potentially lifelong activity so it's worth giving it a try.
The key is to present it in an engaging way, which can be difficult compared to the fast-action glitz and never-ending algorithmic feeds that digitally bombard young people.
The folks at KidsGardening.org say the key is to make gardening fun, not just pulling weeds and doing the same tasks over and over again.
Instead, KidsGardening.org offers two pieces of advice: “First, start small. Container gardening is a great way to start a vegetable patch at home. Second, grow something that interests your child. That could be their favorite vegetable or their favorite color of flower.”
KidsGardening.org was founded in 1984 as a division of the National Horticultural Society and has been providing support to educators and parents ever since.
Here are some of the most highly rated ideas, along with some from Felder Rushing's “The New Junior Garden Book” (Better Homes and Gardens Books, 1999, $21.43 hardcover) and some that have worked for this avid gardener and grandfather.
Hana can play hide and seek with a little help from her parents and grandparents.
Find that flower
The age-old children's game of “hide and seek” never gets old, and this botanical version has been my gardening secret with the grandkids.
Start by cutting some flowers or other interesting plant parts from around the garden, then have the kids walk around the garden looking for where each plant came from.
The prizes for successful finds make it even more fun, and it also gives you the opportunity to teach kids plant names and other interesting facts (like, “Did you know that this pink hydrangea turns blue because of what's in the soil?”).
Bean or Sunflower Contest
Kids often love to be competitive, and one way to bring that competitive spirit into gardening is to have a gardening contest to see who can grow the biggest plant or produce the most fruit.
Beans and sunflowers are two of the best plants to start with. Both are easy to grow from seed and grow quickly.
Have two or more kids plant the same seed at the same time, then let the kids get creative and do or add anything they think will help the purpose. Use warm water instead of cold? Cover the soil with leaves? Use sugar as fertilizer?
If you have only one child, let them do three or four plantings and treat each one differently.
This budding naturalist is on a treasure hunt, using plants as clues.
Garden Treasure Hunt
This game takes some time to prepare, but it's my grandkids' favorite game and also the most sneakily educational.
The hunt is a game played at each station. The kids open an envelope at each station and use the clue inside to get to the next station. I make up an intriguing story (and payoff) at the end, like pirates burying a box of candy at the last station, or bad guys kidnapping the kids' favorite stuffed animal and they have to rescue it.
Use plant markers such as, “Go to the white-barked tree and look behind you,” or, “Take 10 steps to the right of the fragrant purple lilac bush and look under the rock.”
Hints also included a compass, tape measure and math problems.
Many of the fruits and vegetables found in your kitchen can be induced to produce new plants.
Kitchen Scrap Gardening
This is one of the top recommendations from KidsGardening.org: get your kids to grow new plants from food leftovers.
First, search your kitchen and fridge for potential vegetables and fruits. Some great choices include sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, pineapple, ginger, and oranges, lemons, limes, and avocado seeds.
Sweet potatoes are especially easy: Insert three or four toothpicks into the flesh to create a rack to hang the tubers on over a clear cup. Fill the cup with water so the bottoms of the sweet potatoes are submerged. Place the cup on a sunny windowsill and within a few weeks they will produce stems and leaves from the top and roots from the bottom.
Cut about 2 inches off the tops of carrots, beets, and other root vegetables and place them in a tray filled with pebbles and water. After a week or so, new leaves should appear at the tops. These can then be planted in a pot filled with potting soil.
“This is a great way to reinforce the sustainable living concepts of recycling and reusing,” says the Kids Gardening staff, “plus it's fun to grow new plants from parts of old plants.”
“Legacy” plants can be cut and rooted to create new plants.
Starting a Legacy Plant
Another favorite part of KidsGardening is the lessons on plant propagation.
A “legacy plant” is a plant that can be passed down to others through seed saving, division, or growing new plants from tip cuttings.
Let your child pick out a houseplant or garden plant that intrigues them, then have them snip off the tops of a few 4- to 6-inch stems.
Strip all but the top pair or two of leaves and insert the bottom two-thirds of the stem into potting soil. Place the pot in a warm, shady, moist spot and watch for new leaves to begin to grow within a few weeks.
This method works for a surprising number of shrubs, roses, evergreens, trees, and even perennials. Once the tips have rooted, the young scientists can grow new “baby” plants. And they will have learned one of the ways new plants are created.
Children are more attracted to unusual plant containers than traditional pots.
Boots Planter
Felder-Russing says kids are much more interested in planting flowers and vegetables in fun, unusual containers than in standard clay pots.
He suggests using an old boot: just fill it with potting soil and plant it just as you would a potted plant.
Spray paint the boots to add interest, and cut, drill or punch holes if they don't drain well enough.
For this activity you can use any recycled items you have around the house as long as they can hold soil and drain water from the bottom.
Examples: old school backpacks, baskets, wash basins, toy boats, old wooden boxes, old wallets, plastic bowls with holes cut in the bottom or coffee cans.
Roy G. Bibb Gardens
Kids and water are always fun, but this Felder Rushing idea incorporates a lesson about the colors of the light spectrum.
Start by gathering at least seven clear, two-liter bottles: one for each of the seven colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple (the first letters spell out Roy G. Biv).
Next, fill the bottles with water and have kids add drops of different food colorings until they reach their desired Roy G. Bibb shade.
You could bury these a few inches into the soil to create the perimeter of a raised bed garden, or let the kids find matching cut flowers from around the garden to insert into each bottle.
As a side experiment, have the children place white cut flowers in different bottles to see if the colored water has any effect on the color of the flowers.
Three Sisters Garden
This is a children's classic that has its roots in Native American customs.
The idea is to interplant three different crops that interact with each other.
Rushing recommends starting by creating a raised pile of soil about 3 feet in diameter in a sunny spot.
First, plant corn seeds 4 to 6 inches apart in two or three rows around the perimeter (to help them germinate a little quicker).
Once the corn plants have grown a few inches, plant 4 to 5 pumpkin seeds in the center of the mound of soil and plant some climbing bean seeds among the corn. Keep the garden soil moist.
Once that's all done, use scissors to cut off any excess plants and plant two or three pumpkin plants and some corn and beans 6 to 8 inches apart.
The beans use the growing corn stalks as support for their plants, and the pumpkin plants fill in the ground underneath them. The beans also add nitrogen to the soil, benefiting the corn and pumpkins.
Pressed flowers and leaves
To add a craft element to gardening, have kids collect leaves and flowers, crush them, and preserve them.
Small, flat flowers work best, but larger flowers will do if you tug on the petals.
KidsGardening.org suggests creating a “plant press” by layering plants alternately on absorbent material (newspaper or blotter paper) and cardboard, then create a “plant sandwich” by placing a sheet of cardboard between the plants and layers of paper.
Then, tie or weigh down the stack of plants to keep them under pressure while they dry. You can use straps or belts or even place something heavy (books, bricks, etc.) on top of the stack of plants.
Place the press in a warm, airy place and check to see if the flowers are dry after about 10-14 days. If they are still damp, replace the paper layer and wait a few more days.
Once the pressed flowers or leaves have dried, they can be fixed with diluted glue and used to create a variety of artwork, including pictures, note cards, bookmarks, and placemats.
Plant pigments can be smeared onto paper or fabric to create floral-like works of art.
Leaves and flowers print
Another craft project that KidsGardening.org says is a proven success is tapping plant dyes from plant parts to create artistic fabric products.
For this task, you will need a mallet, a light cloth or napkin, and a collection of flowers and leaves.
Place a layer of heavy newspaper on a sturdy work surface, then place a layer of wax paper on top of the newspaper to prevent it from transferring to the fabric, then place the fabric on top of the wax paper.
Have your kids arrange the plant materials in any design or pattern they like. Then, cover the plant layer with another layer of wax paper.
The children then use a mallet to hit the covered plants, forcing the dye into the fabric.
For framed prints, leave any tiny floral bits on the fabric. For napkins or pillowcases, remove any plant remains. Then iron the fabric to set the color.
Check out George's list of 10 amazing children's gardens that are worth incorporating into your holiday plans
