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Your Child's New Garden, Plan now for Planting Later

© Linda Mazar

It's the new year and time to make resolutions. I hope one of yours is to spend more time with your children. I can't think of a better activity to work on together than gardening. Let me stand on my soap-box for a moment here...

There is much children (and parents) can gain by gardening:

Gardening improves self esteem. As child-gardeners take care of flowers or vegetables, they begin to take pride in their efforts. They find it feels good to contribute to the community or to families by supplying food or beauty for the home. They find they make a difference in the neighborhood and the world. They find others are pleased with their efforts. They get attention for the good, positive things they accomplish. All this builds positive self esteem.

Gardening teaches responsible living practices. The child-gardeners learn to take care of plants and nuture them. They quickly learn that if a plant is not watered, it dies. If they do not feed it, it doesn't grow well. If they deprive it of light, it gets leggy growth. If they don't reduce the competition of weeds, it will be crowded out. If they lavish too much food and water on plants, the plants die also. Over time they learn to fine tune their care for plants. These are important lessons to learn as they carry over to other areas of life as well. Some situations could be: caring for pets, helping with siblings, baby-sitting, and raising a family.

Gardening teaches about caring for the environment. The child-gardeners find that what is best for their gardens is what is best for the environment. They learn to use restraint with chemicals. If too much is applied, the populations of helpful insects can decrease, the soil structure can be compromised, plants can be weakened, and disease can become problematic. This occurs not only in their garden, but in the world-at-large. They learn to protect the water supply, not to squander resources, alternative/natural methods of dealing with disease and pests, and more.

Gardening teaches us about nature's ways. Child-gardeners learn about reproduction and genetics. They learn about the survival of the fittest and the hierarchy of the food chain. They learn about plant preferences of conditions (of soil, of drainage, of light). They learn natures seasonal rhythms. They learn about other living bugs which they see while outside gardening.

I'll step down from the box now. Thanks for bearing with me. Sometimes the urge to lecture takes over. It must be from my teaching days . . .

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