Eight Ideas for Gardening with Children
Behold, I say – behold
the reliability and the finery and the teachings
of this gritty earth gift.
-Mary Oliver
I consulted some of my favorite Hudson Valley experts for ideas about gardening with children. Here’s what they came up with.
1. Dig
My friend Nora Snyder introduced to me the picture book My Garden by Kevin Henkes. I love the juxtaposition between the practical elements of gardening and fantasy. The child narrating the story describes being a helper to her mother in the garden: “I water. I weed. And I chase away the rabbits so that they don’t eat all the lettuce.” The child continues, “but if I had a garden…” wishing up an imaginary garden with details she would love, from flowers that change color just by thinking about it to flowers that would immediately grow in the space where one was picked, to bunny visitors made of chocolate which she would eat. Then this line got me thinking: “Sometimes in my garden, good, unusual things would just pop up — buttons and umbrellas and rusty old keys.” What would it be like to bury some random useless household items in the garden for your children to discover while they dig outside? Digging just for the sake of it.
Amie Baracks, education director of the Phillies Bridge Farm Project agrees: “Gardening exploration doesn’t even need to be about growing foods. Many of the kids I work with are happiest just digging in the dirt searching for worms!”
Liz Elkin, landscape designer and owner of Bloom Fine Gardening, adds: “Digging for bed preparation can be great fun. Have children help to make the garden beds nice and cozy for seeds to grow well, just like we need a cozy place for resting to grow healthy.” Another take on digging proposed by Ann Guenther is for the adult to dig a hole, and the child inserts the plant or seed and covers it up.
2. Let the kids choose
In My Garden, the storyteller mentions vegetables in her wishlist for her ideal garden: “The tomatoes would be as big as beach balls, and the carrots would be invisible because I don’t like carrots.”
Baracks suggests: “Ask your kids what they want to grow. Plant things that will stimulate all of your senses. Search for the craziest colored vegetables in a seed catalog and start a small garden in the shape of a rainbow. White carrots! Orange tomatoes! Purple peas! Striped beets! Magenta chard! Spotted lettuce! Black radishes! The opportunities are endless! Even the most ardent vegetable haters have trouble resisting eating the sweet colorful bounty that they planted themselves.” Elkin recommends planting large seeds that germinate quickly and are easy to observe as they grow, “like beans and cucurbits (cucumbers, watermelons, pumpkins, squash, etc.)” The Hudson Valley Seed Library is a terrific local resource for seeds at www.seedlibrary.org, and check out their beautiful art packs.
