Children acquire a range of skills when they tend flowers in the organic garden. Lessons about weather, soil, wildlife, ecology, and even language engage all five senses as children nurture plants grown without chemicals. Share your love of organic gardening with a child, and give him an opportunity to turn a summer of fun outdoors into a lifelong hobby.
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Planting flowers that encourage pollinators to visit your organic garden captivates children and provides an important lesson in ecology. Children can be afraid of bees, but if they’re not allergic to beestings there’s no reason why kids can’t enjoy observing non-aggressive bumblebees and native honeybees filling the pollen baskets on their legs.
Butterflies are easy to attract with nectar-rich flowers like butterfly bush or ‘Butterfly Blue’ scabiosa. You should also plant host plants like bronze fennel so children can observe the entire life cycle of these garden jewels. Explain to children that the conventional pesticides that kill nuisance caterpillars also kill butterfly larvae, so engage the help of nimble young fingers when you handpick cabbage loopers or cutworms.
If your child marvels at the prehistoric world that dinosaurs once inhabited, you can recreate some of that antediluvian mystery in your own backyard. Plants that thrived during the Jurassic period include ferns, conifers, cycads, and gingkoes. Although the exact species that lived millions of years ago may not be available for cultivation now, the architectural beauty of similar plants may start a learning quest for the budding botany student.
Flowering plants evolved during the Cretaceous period, so add a primitive angiosperm such as a magnolia tree. Enrich your dinosaur garden with ample amounts of compost to mimic the rich soils of prehistoric forests.
The youngest gardener in your home striving to learn his ABC’s can appreciate an alphabet garden, which includes a plant to represent every letter. You can make this activity meaningful for older children in the household by planting flowers and plants native to your area. Explain that native plants sustain the wildlife in your community and grow without the addition of chemical pesticides. If you feel stumped by the last letters of the alphabet, choose plants that represent a theme, such as ‚”xeriscaping.”
You can build a playhouse for pennies with two packets of seeds and some fishing line. Grow giant ‘Greystripe’ or ‘Mammoth’ sunflowers single file, in the circumference of the desired playhouse. If one or two sunflowers don’t make it, these gaps can provide the entrance to the playhouse.
Plant a morning glory vine between each sunflower plant. The morning glories will use the sunflowers for support. When the vines reach the tops of the sunflowers, train them across the sunflower circle by running fishing line across the circle from one sunflower to another to form the roof. There won’t be any chemicals from pressure-treated wood in this natural playhouse.
Children appreciate a freshly picked bouquet from the garden as much as the grownups do, so devote a flower patch for picking. You won’t have to worry about pesticides or herbicides wafting into their nostrils in your organically-grown garden. Plant flowers that increase blossom production when picked, such as ‘Cut and Come Again’ zinnias.
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