Plant Gardens 101

Enjoying your gardening passion with your children can be as rewarding an experience as it is fun, however, for many gardenophiles limited yard-space is a problem that may not allow them to share their passion.  Here are some tips you can follow so that you may encourage the love of gardening with your children even if you do not have the space in your yard for it.  The answer: Hydroponic Gardening.

Hydroponic gardening is a valuable teaching tool and a great way to transfer your knowledge to a new generation that would likely have not gotten it anywhere else.  The experiences children have with their parents or grandparents tend to stick with them throughout life and creating a hydroponic garden with your offspring can be one of those lasting impressions that kids remember.

Experiences aside, creating a new hydroponic garden can be a very fun project for you and your children.  And, if you start it indoors, the weather outside is not an issue, so this can be the perfect rainy or snowy day activity that actually provides learning and value, not just busy-time.

Spending time with your child can ignite a spark to make them feel better about themselves and their contributions to the family because they are doing something worthwhile.  The result is the building and solidifying of self-confidence that they will hold with them for the rest of their lives.  These interactions are much more important and fulfilling in the long run than letting your kids play video games which only offer temporary entertainment.

With the simple action of getting your kids involved, you could ignite the same passion for plants and nature in your children as you have inside you.  There are so many man-made distractions for children that many fail to connect to the natural world at a young age - this makes it much more difficult when they are older.  All it takes is a spark to young curiosity to establish a life-long hobby, skill, and perhaps even a career choice.

You can take pride in the fact that your child knows that fresh vegetables and fruit comes from the ground, not the produce aisles in the local supermarket.  Proving a solid understanding of this at an early age can relay the importance that protecting the environment around us is in our best interest.

While here are a few reasons to start hydroponic gardening with kids, I am sure that you will encounter many more reasons in your gardening adventures.

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Silverbeet

Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris cultivar

One of the easiest to grow of all the vegetables, Silverbeet, also known as under the names Swiss Chard and for the coloured stemmed variety Rainbow Chard, gives a huge harvest in a short amount of time. Two plants would be enough to feed one person with silverbeet for every meal of the week

PROPAGATION You can grow these plants directly in the ground from seed, or you will get 6 to 8 seedlings in a punnet for around $3.00 at your local nursery. Seeds can be sown in early spring and late summer, early autumn. Put two or three seeds in the one hole about 40cm apart and 1cm deep. Keep the seeds moist, but not wet. I prefer late autumn plantings, as I find they are less likely to bolt to seed than spring plantings. (more…)

Give them their own ‘patch’. This is a great way for kids to learn to be responsible for something. It’s best if their patch is small, at least in the beginning. If they love it and want to do more, you can always make it bigger.

You want to encourage them by getting results as quickly as possible. When I was a little tacker it seemed like time almost stood still – especially when I was waiting for something. Start with seedlings of lettuce, cherry tomatoes or snow peas – foods that they love and are quick to give results. Potatoes are always a winner. Digging them up is like digging for buried treasure!

Take your little one(s) with you to select seeds that they can grow in their plot. They’ll probably choose plants with bright colours and interesting textures, which will add interest to your dinner table. You’ll find they are really keen to eat what they’ve grown, so you’ll have them trying new things. This also gives them a valuable sense of contribution to the family and pride in themselves. (more…)

Well in my view you need to give them their own space. Tell them this plot is yours. It does not have to be large, about 2 feet square for younger children or you could even get them started by growing crops or herbs in pots. Older children may prefer something larger. I know that a small high density bed that is only 2 foot by 2 foot does not sound very big, but it will be to a young child. A larger bed may just seem too big to do anything with to them, so start them small. If you have more than one child, give them their own high density bed each or just make a larger bed and divide this up into a section for each child and then divide this into mini plots for each crop. For very young children I would not make the bed more than 2 feet wide as they can reach the middle of this from each side. (more…)

If you can create a sense of nature, patience, and an appreciation of work they’ve done themselves in your children, you will have accomplished something great. This will have provided them one of the longest lasting gifts you could give them. One way to accomplish this is to encourage them to learn vegetable gardening. All that is needed is a small patch of earth, some seeds, and water. Some other things that may be added along the way will be wonder, laughter, and dirty faces. All of this will be mixed together to provide a very memorable project and experience.

Obviously, it is best to have your vegetable garden outside. That is if you have the space available. With a good shovel, you can cut an outline of the garden in the grass. Your child can then pull the sod away and set it aside it for composting. This will be another great lesson involving the cycle of nature that can be saved for another day. After you have bare earth, your child can help turn the soil with a spoon or trowel until it’s workable by hand. Have your child place the seeds on the top of the soil, cover lightly with earth, and add water. You have just taught your little one the basics of vegetable gardening!    (more…)

Children love to learn, especially if it is through doing. Science is a very important aspect of our life so teaching children science is important. Taking a walk with your child is a very good way to teach them about science and nature. Stop and look at the animals building their homes or the frogs changing from tadpoles to frogs.

The more interesting and exciting you make learning the more they will retain. The live butterfly garden is one of my favorite ways to teach children about nature and science.

A live butterfly garden can open up a whole new world to children. They can watch a caterpillar turn into a butterfly and then set it free.

I have a friend who every year in the early spring she buys her nieces a butterfly garden so they can watch them grow. About three days after the butterflies emerge, they all get together and all set the butterflies free. (more…)

Summer is on the way, it will be here before you know it. One of the greatest things you can do with your kids is to plant a garden, but you must beware or you may be buying new kids bedding. Be prepared to have some dirty kids. Be on the watch for your kids bedding, because it may be in danger. Most parents understand that kids are fascinated by digging in the dirt. Your kids will have to take their baths before going to their rooms to play.

This can be a delightfully happy time for both the parents and the children. Of course, like most things in this world gardening can be complicated. What kind of a garden do you want to plant? There are vegetable, herb or flower gardens, or maybe you will make a combination of one or more of these choices. If you do not have enough room to make a garden or your landlord won’t permit you to dig up the ground, you can still have your garden in pots, consider planting cherry tomatoes and basil in pots. Another way is to participle in a local farm co-op. Participants receive fresh vegetables in exchange for volunteering for a few hours on the farm each month. Whatever you choose, you do need a plan. (more…)

Many kids look upon gardening as being difficult and demanding. Initially, they may be hesitant and wary of trying it, fearing disillusionment. To sweet-talk kids to look upon gardening as an amusing and enjoyable activity, you need to create an environment that will give rise to some unforgettable moments. Before long, they will be confidently digging up the mud and thinking of growing a number of exotic vegetable that even we find not that easy to grow. To bring about this marvelous change, the children need to be presented with gardening supplies, which are cool, informational, and simple.

Kids Toolkit of Gardening Supplies should contain the following:   (more…)

We love our children and we want to teach them to value the things that are important to us. These things include morals, integrity, ingenuity, and an appreciation for the things in life that we consider beautiful and worth expending our energy, time, and effort in order to create. One of those things that many of us love sharing with our children is our love of gardening. Whether you are creating a spectacular garden worthy of acclaim, fame, and blue ribbons everywhere or a simple garden that will hold pretty flowers and a few favorite vegetables there are many lessons that your children can learn from working the earth by your side.The first, and perhaps best, lesson that most children learn when working in the garden is that life works in cycles. This is an important lesson for children, as it is a lesson that will be repeated often throughout the course of their lives. Of course this is only one of the many lessons that gardening will teach but gardening is one of the kindest ways I’ve ever seen this particular lesson learned and it helps ease children into those times when lessons about the cycle of life are not so kindly or gently presented. (more…)

Back when I was just a young kid, around the age of 5 or 6, I remember being out in the back yard with my dad as he turned over the soil, buried his food waste (which I later learned was a great way to add nutrients to the soil), and got the ground ready for the upcoming gardening season. It was a ritual that compares to professional athletes training for an upcoming season. My dad took it that seriously.

Little did I know then that the lessons he would teach about gardening would stay with me to this day. In fact I have adopted the same getting ready ritual that he had. My dad has since stopped his gardening practice for health related reasons, but I feel that I carry on that tradition that he learned from his father (my grandfather).

By watching my dad, listening to what he had to say, I learned a variety of things about gardening, that you just won’t learn in a high school classroom (at least in NJ anyway). (more…)

Many kids look upon gardening as being difficult and demanding. Initially, they may be hesitant and wary of trying it, fearing disillusionment. To sweet-talk kids to look upon gardening as an amusing and enjoyable activity, you need to create an environment that will give rise to some unforgettable moments. Before long, they will be confidently digging up the mud and thinking of growing a number of exotic vegetable that even we find not that easy to grow. To bring about this marvelous change, the children need to be presented with gardening supplies, which are cool, informational, and simple.

Kids Toolkit of Gardening Supplies should contain the following:

1. A children’s gardening book

2. A tiny hand spade for kids

3. A small watering can (more…)