Make Gardening More Fun for Kids

Although spending time with the children in the garden can be the source of many fabulous childhood memories

when they’re older, actually getting them involved can be daunting. So many times people want their children to get involved, but then go down the path of preaching and controlling what they are doing. That makes it an experience that isn’t fun for anybody!

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Gardening is the type of activity that is very relaxing and meditative. It is an activity that reminds any of us (especially those of us who are used to taking control), that it’s not possible to control everything – in particular nature. Gardening is never ‘finished’ and it will never be exactly how you want it to be as there is never enough time to achieve that. This makes it ideal for children as they are usually far better at going with the flow than us adults.

In our collective experience, we know that there are a few points that should be kept in mind when gardening with children to aid in keeping things fun. Here are our top tips for getting this right:

Get them involved in planning

By involving children in what the end result is meant to be, they’ll have a much clearer idea of where things are going. You can ask them to draw a design of the garden and then write out an action list. Allow them to add in their own ideas and you’ll have a passionate helper on your hands.

Give them their own jobs to do

Select jobs for children that will keep them busy, but not bored. They won’t appreciate jobs that are overly repetitive or could be classified as jobs that you don’t want to do yourself. You might want to ask them to water the borders for a few minutes, pull out some weeds and then put in some seeds. It will all get seen to in the end.

Show them and then they can show you

This one works well with 3 to 4 year olds. You can show them the right way to do something then they can enjoy showing everybody else how to do it (including you again).

Give them their own patch

Whether it’s a patch of earth or a container your child will feel inspired to become far more involved due to their sense of responsibility being ignited. They can choose their plants, write on their own plant markers and learn how to look after and maintain their plants.

Do you garden with your children? How did you encourage them to get started?