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Another Mashed Marigold for Mom, A Plea for Cutting Gardens for Kids

© Linda Mazar

#3 in a series of Children's Garden Themes

Spring is going strong and Mother's day will soon be here. Many a Mother receives beautiful cut flowers as a remembrance on this special day, but I am convinced that many moms would prefer a mangled handful of dandelions or wilted garden flowers that were loving plucked in excitement and presented lovingly to his/her beloved mother.

No one can forget the pride that a child displays when bearing a self-picked flower bouquet to Mom. The child beams with pleasure as Mom finds the perfect vase or cup to hold this love offering. Nothing else quite compares to such a heartfelt gift, especially when it's the first bouquet the child has ever picked.

Being a mother is wonderful! You can encourage your children to pick flowers or suppress that urge by what you teach and model for them. It is wise to explain some boundaries as to which flowers (and whose) are appropriate for picking, but where there are flowers, children will want to pick them. Sure, it's nice if some flowers remain in the flower beds, but to have a special garden that your child knows he/she is welcome to pick from whenever the urge strikes is a wonderful opportunity. So quit complaining about picked blossoms and encourage a healthy interest in flowers within your children by helping them plant a "cutting garden" this year.

A cutting garden is one of the easiest gardens to plan. It can be as simple as a mixed patch of colorful annuals, a "perennials only" garden, or a mix of annuals and perennials in the same flower bed. The idea is to plant flowers that will bloom with many blossoms so that the flowers you cut will soon be replaced with more. The selection of flowers are nearly endless, but you may want to consider things such as:

• how well the flower holds up after cutting
• color scheme of your home or landscape
• heights of plants, size of blooms, variety of types of shapes of flowers
• fragrance
• what grows well in your area, soil, and the light you have available

Some flowers you'll want to consider for your cutting garden are daffodils, tulips, hyacinth, peonies, pansies, delphinium, columbine, campanula, astilbe, roses, zinnias, asters, marigolds, glads, mums, cleome, baby's breath, statice, dahlias, lilies, snapdragons, sunflowers (the smaller varieties), phlox, and more! You will also want to include some foliage plants such as ferns, hosta, lady's mantle, etc.

The copyright of the article Another Mashed Marigold for Mom, A Plea for Cutting Gardens for Kids in Gardening with Children is owned by Linda Mazar. Permission to republish Another Mashed Marigold for Mom, A Plea for Cutting Gardens for Kids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.