Get your kids out in the garden

By Staff
Michelle Blaylock, Mom's Corner
I read an interesting article this week about gardening with children. An associate professor at Kansas State University was given a $1.04 million dollar grant in 2007 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Research Institute to study whether gardening can combat childhood obesity.
The professor’s idea is to create gardens at schools for children to tend encouraging them to be active and also creating “ownership” so the children will be more likely to want to eat the vegetables and fruits that they grow. All of this together will promote a healthier lifestyle reducing the chances of obesity.
I agree today’s children need to be more active. I even agree gardening with children is a great idea. I do have a problem with creating school gardens. I feel teachers have enough to do without having a school garden to worry about. I’m not opposed to doing a gardening unit to learn about plants, but a year-round garden is too much. I also feel that ultimately it is not the school’s responsibility to be concerned about a child’s weight; ultimately that is the parent’s responsibility. I do feel teachers have a responsibility to encourage a healthy lifestyle, but that is where it ends.
All that having been said, gardening with children is a terrific idea. It is no real trick to garden with children. Well, it is no real trick to put in a garden, sometimes getting produce from it is a trick. I have learned a few things about gardening with children, some through trial and error and some from my mom.
My mom always put in a large garden not for the enjoyment of it, but to help feed my six siblings, my grandparents and my daddy. It was survival, not pleasure that drove her. My mom was a no-nonsense gardener. She did not encourage children to get in the garden until they were old enough to actually work.
Nevertheless, she did have some very good ideas about gardening. The first was to get things done earlier in the day so the afternoon could be left to recreation. She also taught me to “lay out the garden” taking into account how big the plants would grow, if they needed room to vine etc. My mom also always had a plan of what to do with the “excess” produce.
Mom always made a point of sharing with our friends, family and neighbors. However, there was still plenty for mom to freeze or can. Mother also planned for next year’s garden at the end of the summer.
For example, as we picked the produce if we found something that was spoiled we buried it in the garden. mom always said that made the soil “richer” for next year.
Like I said, my mom didn’t encourage young children to work in the garden much. However, I felt young children could not only benefit from the experience they could also be a big help. For example, most children love to dig in the dirt. Why not take advantage of it?
My first experience with gardening with young children came when we moved to Indiana, we finally had a large enough yard to have a “real” garden. The kids and I diligently went to work planting it. I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to show them the magic of growing things. Unfortunately, there were several things I had overlooked. In my excitement, I planted way too much, hence more garden than we needed or could really care for properly. Lesson one, don’t plant more than you need; better to start off small and then increase the next year if necessary. I also had been eagerly anticipating the “family bonding” that would occur.
Lesson two, some children may not be interested in the “great outdoors.” If you want your children to participate and enjoy it, you better choose things they like to eat in the first place. Our then 5- year-old daughter, didn’t like hardly any veggies so she really didn’t care about “tending” the garden past the fun of digging in the dirt! I do try to make sure each child has something that is their “favorite” in the garden. I have one that would probably live off tomatoes if I let her, so her job is to keep special watch on the tomato plants and tell me if she sees something amiss.
Lesson three, I learned quickly that it’s better to give children their own little plot. They can still be encouraged to help in the “family” plot, but by having their “own” you can keep the damage caused by not so gentle hands down to a minimum. I hadn’t thought of this when I put out my first garden after having children. Our oldest son was about 3-years-old. His “plant” was spaghetti squash. Every day he would get up and run to check if there was a “squash” on the plant yet. Of course, one day he found a little bitty tiny squash. Yep, you’re right. He picked it and brought it to me to cook. I explained it wasn’t quite ready yet and showed him a picture of what a ripe one would look like. He thought about this a minute and said, “Well, can we glue it back on?”
In my experience, much of having fun with children comes from your own outlook. If you’re doing something and you can’t chance having a mistake made–and there are those times–then that’s the time to find the kids a different activity. Take time to explain to them why they can’t help. Otherwise, expect mistakes, look for the humor in them, and enjoy spending time with your children.
Now, if you hate the thought of gardening and being outside. There are other things you can do to show your child the magic of growing things. Other ideas are growing lettuce seeds on a sponge, herbs in small pots in a sunny window, a window box or planter garden. There are many more but that’s just a few to get you started. I hope you have a great week. If you have a question, suggestion, or tip to share please send it to email: moms-corner@juno.com.