Kids Gardening is an Exciting Learning Adventure

While adult gardeners are reveling in the rights of their spring gardening tradition, little gardeners are in wonder about how it all works. Rather than have them do menial jobs in the adult garden, give them a garden of their own, one that they can plant, reach, grow and remain engaged in. Here are some guidelines for successful gardens for children.

Make the Garden the Right Size

Children require a space that they can work in. By using the square foot gardening method invented by Mel Bartholomew, the garden can be just the right size. Prepare a frame that is three feet by three feet instead of the adult size which is four feet by four feet. Place a vertical frame at the back of the square if the garden is going to contain cucumbers, pole beans, tomatoes or pumpkins. This provides support for the vine type vegetables to grow vertically, thus requiring no additional space. Use Mel’s gardening mix recipe of one-third compost, one- third pear moss and one-third vermiculite.

The smaller three foot by three foot square garden frame gives children six squares to tend and is small enough so they can reach inside all of the squares. It can be set up close to the house, or on the apartment balcony or patio so they can work in the garden safely close to parents or supervisors. Boxes that are set upon a balcony or patio will need to be twelve inches deep and will need to have a bottom.

This type of garden is also easy to water and takes little water, adding to it’s eco-friendliness. Keep a bucket of sun warmed water near the garden and a plastic container for watering plants.

This type of garden is appropriate for children for many reasons. “>Bartholomew states in his book, Square Foot Gardening A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work, that a garden for children should contain plants that are easy and quick to grow, colourful, and interesting to look at. The traditional row garden may seem too overwhelming because of the size, the amount of work required to prepare, weed, cultivate, water and so on. With the square foot garden the child can grow different crops per square using very few seeds.

Choosing the Right Crops

Children have less patience than adults when it comes to growing things and need to sew seeds that will germinate and sprout quickly:

• Radish is an obvious choice as it can be planted early in the spring preferring cooler temperatures, requires very little maintenance except regular watering, germinates quickly and grows fruit fast, within twenty-five days. Have the children plant four of these these seeds in two or more squares successively for a few weeks to give a staggered harvest to contribute to the family dinner table.
• In addition, leaf lettuce, not head lettuce is a good choice. These varieties include Oak Leaf, Salad Bowl, Summer Bibb, Black-Seeded Simpson or Red Sales. These varieties grow quickly and can be harvested when the leaves are just two inches tall.
• Pickling cucumbers or burpless variety cucumbers such as Orient Express or Sweet Success are good choices because they sprout quickly and bear a lot of fruit per plant. Grow these at the back of the garden where they can climb the vertical frame. Only two seeds required for this square.
• Yellow bush beans are also a good choice because of the short growing season required. Within ten weeks they will be picking beans and contributing to the family dinner. Plant nine of these seeds per square. The seeds can be planted at the rate of one or two per week to provide fresh vegetables for a longer period of time rather than having them all ready to pick at once.
• Vine type cherry tomatoes like Sweet 100 or Early Cascade are excellent choices for a child’s garden. The cherry tomatoes grow quickly, grow abundant fruit and are fun to pick and eat..
• Pretty flowers, such as Marigolds add to the beauty of the garden. Marigolds are easy to grow, flower quickly, gives the child flowers to pick to adorn the table and acts as a natural guard against insects.

Plants That Will Engage Young Gardeners

While the youthful gardener may be looking for more immediate satisfaction, while the earlier crops mentioned above are blooming, they might try a longer growth season vegetable such as pumpkin. Just one seed in a square. Once the pumpkin fruit is evident, they can scrape their name into the fruit’s outer core and enjoy the harvest with a personalized pumpkin. The pumpkin seeds should be planted at the back of the square and will require support for the vine to grow upwards.

Teaching Gardening Methods

Throughout the process, teach children to use the correct balance of soil as pointed out in Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening, teach them to not walk on the soil, and to keep the gardening experience within their limits of size and energy, something even the adult gardener has difficulty heeding. Otherwise the child’s gardening experience may end in frustration.

The Young Gardener

Support the young gardener in her endeavor while guiding her through the process and giving her seeds that will spur her on by producing early fruit. These strategies could produce an adult gardener with specialized abilities. The experience also provides the child with an understanding of where food comes from and the skill to grow her own food in a time when growing her own food may become a necessity instead of a recreational activity.