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Summer School
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It could be easy for an almost
senior citizen like me to get a little cynical about
“today’s kids”—they watch too much television, play
too many video games, eat too much fast food, --pick
your grumpy old man complaint. So I’ll admit to
being pleasantly surprised to see the response when,
a few years ago, as a way to get rid of a few
end-of-season bedding plants, we put six of them in
a brown paper bag and called them a “children’s
garden pack” or something like that—you know, the
memory is the first thing to go once you’re an
almost senior citizen.
The surprise was seeing how excited children became
when they learned that they were going to get a few
spindly bedding plants for free. Then we were
surprised that a few came back to let us know how
well their plants had grown. So the next year we
decided to try having a little garden party for kids
to teach them a few things about plants and
gardening—and feed them a few sugary snacks, too, of
course. Once again, to our surprise, that turned
out to be a very popular event—and because we are as
smart as fifth graders, we made those kid’s garden
parties an annual event at our garden center.
Now, nothing about “today’s kid’s” enthusiasm for
plants and gardening surprises me anymore.
For parents looking for a way to keep their
children healthy, learning, and occupied over the
summer, a family garden offers the opportunity for
school weary kids to rediscover the natural
curiosity that all children possess. A family
garden plot in which each child has their own
responsibilities can be a great summer school
classroom— |
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Previous Articles
A
Loooooong Winter
March 10
Just Dirt
March 18
Horse Manure & Hot Air
March 25
Mulch
to do this Spring
April 01
Creating Long Term
Tree-lationships
April 15
Spring Blooming
Shrubs & Trees
April 22
New
and Improved
Nebraska Arbor Day
April 29
A
Normal Spring
May 6
The Winter of Eight Moons
May 13
Adding Style to your Landscape
May 20
Adding Style to you
Landscape Part 2
May 27
2009
Articles
2008 Articles
2007 Articles
2006 Articles
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one that reenergizes children
even as it prepares them to be responsible adults in
a world where an understanding of the natural world
may be as important as a knowledge of English, math,
and science.
One great way to make sure that
the children in your life get an opportunity to
develop an interest in and understanding of the
natural world is to encourage them to help you with
your gardening and landscaping activities. Young
children especially, are curious about everything.
Encourage them to explore your garden and landscape,
and you may be surprised at how eagerly they
respond. Granted, you may end up with a tomato
plant uprooted or a big black beetle walking across
your family room carpet, but ten or twenty years
from now, will that really matter?
Better yet, why not encourage
your children to have their very own garden. A few
years ago I proposed a few simple rules for parents
wanting to help their child start a garden. Here
they are:
6 Rules for Children’s Gardens
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Keep it small. Even a 2’ by 2’ or a 3’ by 3’
garden will seem large to a small child. A
child’s first few gardens should be just big
enough for a few carefully selected plants. The
location should be in the childrens’ part of the
yard, perhaps near a swing set. It will help to
define it clearly with some edging or boards
(don’t use any chemically treated boards or
timbers, though. )
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Make it a summer garden. Don’t start a
children’s garden until early summer, when
temperatures are consistently warm. Seeds will
germinate quickly, and I even suggest planting
bedding plants that are already blooming.
Don’t expect the interest to continue much after
school begins in the fall—too much other stuff
going on by then.
-
No adults allowed. It’s OK to show your child a
few of the basic gardening techniques,
especially if they ask you to. But then, let
their garden be their project. A properly
disinterested parent will likely be invited to a
number of summer “garden walks”, and for these
special occasions, adults are allowed.
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Pick fun & easy plants. It’s hard to go wrong
with a simple selection of some of the favorite
flowers and vegetables from your own childhood
garden—moss rose, snapdragons, petunias,
sunflowers, tomatoes, string beans—try a mixture
of easy to grow seeds and bedding plants.
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Let nature happen. I suggest no chemical
pesticides or herbicides of any sort in a
children’s garden. A little fertilizer is just
fine—so long as the child is putting it on.
Pulling a few weeds, watching bees and
butterflies stealing nectar from the flowers,
and roly-polys scurrying around in the mulch are
all part of the experience of a childhood
garden. Give that child a magnifying glass or
a microscope to see some of the smaller stuff
that lives in a garden and you just might end up
with a Nobel-prize winning microbiologist in the
family.
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Add a little water. A shallow container like a
saucer for a large flower pot would make an
excellent (and inexpensive) ground level bird
bath in a child’s garden. It would increase the
likelihood of bird, butterfly, and insect visits
to the garden.
Finally, anything grows. Remember, these rules are
for the parents, not the child. In the child’s
garden there are no rules for the child.
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