As I sit here at the dining room table, I see a row of happy, smiling faces before me. No, they’re not my children’s faces. The girls are in the family room, designing paper dolls. And Matthew is in his bedroom, doing homework. The grinning faces belong to a family of gourds that my girls painted.
Megan and Kate love making crafts, especially crafts from the garden. So when we found several volunteer gourd plants growing out of the compost pile, we decided to let them grow. Do you have any idea how many gourds can grow on one vine? The girls harvested enough to decorate the whole house, plus more to share with friends, grandparents and cousins.
Gourds are just one of the many things that children enjoy growing. Kids seem to prefer plants that are edible or useful in some way. Maybe you can get a thrill out of rare and difficult-to-grow perennials, but kids are more interested in when the watermelons will be ripe.
The first step to successful gardening with children is to involve them in the planning process. In the winter, my daughters and I amuse ourselves by looking through seed catalogs. Before placing my orders, I consult each member of the family and take requests for favorite vegetables. The girls help by drawing maps of the garden. The maps are different every year, which teaches them the principles of crop rotation, spacing and companion planting.
When spring comes at last, the kids help sow the seeds. Young children like to see immediate results, so fast-growing plants like radishes and snap peas are perfect for them. Strawberries and cherry tomatoes are all-time favorites because kids can eat while they pick. Children also enjoy having their own little patch of flowers for cutting. Some easy favorites are calendula, bachelor buttons and sweet peas. Children who like making crafts will want to grow dried flowers like strawflower.
Kids get a kick out of flowers that do funny things. How many times have you been asked to carry on a conversation with a talking snapdragon? Children also love plants that are taller than they are. Giant sunflowers and towering hollyhocks are both fun and useful – kids can watch birds eating the sunflower seeds, and they can make dolls with the hollyhock flowers. Imaginative little girls use the flowers of Canterbury Bells as teacups for their dolls.
If you want to add a permanent structure to your garden, consider a vine-covered arbor. I remember as a child walking under a grape arbor at my great-grandma’s house and reaching up to pick the grapes. It was like being in the Garden of Eden.
Of course, gardening isn’t just about making crafts and eating grapes. In between the planning and harvesting stages, there’s something called “hard work”. Yes, I’m talking about weeding. Every time I announce that it’s time to weed, my youngest daughter’s eyes fill with tears. But we try to make it as painless as possible by telling stories and singing songs while we work. Sometimes we discover a fascinating new insect hiding in the weeds. So it usually ends up being a rewarding experience, especially when it’s all over and we can sit in the shade and eat homemade popsicles (made with 100% juice, of course).
The time we spend sitting and looking at the garden is just as important as the time we spend working in it. This is our chance to observe the wildlife. Attracting wildlife can be as simple as hanging up a hummingbird feeder or as complex as planting a wide range of flowers, shrubs and trees for the birds and beneficial insects. This has been an ongoing project at our house for many years. During the winter months, we do research at our local library and on the internet to help us decide which new plants to add to the garden. We keep a pair of binoculars and a bird guide close by the dining room window. Nothing gives us a greater thrill than to see a hummingbird sipping from the flowers that we planted just for him.
Maybe the best part about gardening with children is that it reminds us why we started gardening in the first place – for the good food, the sense of accomplishment, and the beauty of God’s creations. As we share our love of gardening with our children, they learn to share the bounty of the garden with others – even if it’s just a grinning gourd.
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Copyright (c) Diane Linsley, Diane's Flower Seeds. All rights reserved. This article was published in the Christian women's magazine, An Encouraging Word, issue #53.
