Gardening with Kids

Gardening With Charlie
By Charlie Nardozzi

(Family Features) Family photos often tell the tale of memorable life moments. One of my favorite family photos shows my 2-year-old daughter and I planting pumpkin seeds in the garden. Now she's a teenager and not interested in gardening at the moment, but somehow I feel the "seed" has been planted for her to appreciate plants, flowers and growing food.

Kids' Gardening Benefits

Something almost magical happens when children garden. For example, educators everywhere report that kids' self-esteem, social skills and attitudes about the environment improve. Students who have trouble with academics find practical applications in the garden for what they learn in class. It even reduces absenteeism!

Kids who garden also enjoy physical activity in the outdoors, and become more interested in eating the nutritious fresh fruits and vegetables they grow. Plus, gardening provides exercise in a fun way. The simple acts of digging a hole, raking soil, pulling giant weeds and hauling buckets of water work various muscle groups in the body. Researchers in England found that, with proper guidance, 30 minutes of gardening burned more calories than a 30-minute aerobics class.

Make Gardening Fun

But gardening isn't an easy sell for most kids; they have so much competing for their attention already: television, computers, sports and a zillion planned activities. The key, especially at the early ages, is making gardening fun and approachable.

If you want your child to love gardening, the best thing you can do is show them how much you love it just by reveling in your own garden every day. Your garden doesn't have to be a showplace - it may be a decorative little corner or a profusion of pots. Also, give them good gardening experiences. These will be great memories in years to come.

Here are some tips for gardening with children:

• Start small, and let kids choose what to plant. Offer guidance and make sure there are some sure-success plants among their picks.
• Relax your standards. Crooked rows and a few weeds are fine.
• Leave room for good old-fashioned digging. Holes are a highly popular landscape feature. Look for worms. Add water, and frogs appear.
• Let kids express themselves by coloring signs and decorating the garden in their own personal way. Action figures in the garden are okay.
• Do behind-the-scenes maintenance of kids' gardens, keeping them edged and weeded. Don't expect kids to do all the watering and pest patrol.
• When it comes to impending doom (no pumpkins appeared on vines, the daisy is uprooted and sunning on the deck), do you add a pumpkin from the farm stand? Replace the daisy? Some parents use loss as a lesson; others smooth things over for success.
• Include a fun structure, perhaps a sunflower house or a bean tepee, to provide a seasonal hideout and playhouse.
• Remember: One of the best things you grow may be a gardener.

For more information about gardening with kids, go to www.kidsgardening.org. April is National Garden Month, a time to celebrate gardening with all ages. For ideas, visit www.nationalgardenmonth.org.

Charlie Nardozzi, a nationally recognized garden writer, book author, speaker and radio and television personality, has appeared on HGTV, PBS and Discovery Channel television networks. He is the senior horticulturist and spokesperson for the National Gardening Association (www.garden.org) and former Chief Gardening Officer for the Hilton Garden Inn.

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Courtesy of Family Features