From Sarah’s garden to yours

Many times, becoming a family is a strong reason to want to start a garden. You can show kids the wonder of nature, learn where their food comes from, and understand the world around them. It is a wonderful way to get kids outdoors and off screens, and can create lasting memories of fun times whilst teaching them important life skills they can use in their adult lives.

However, it can be all good and well as an adult to have this vision of loveliness where everyone is joyfully playing in the garden among beautiful flowers and vegetable plants laden with the potential harvest. The little people in your life may have a different idea.

• Toddlers won’t quite understand what you are trying to achieve and may upend your plans by picking crops that aren’t yet ripe or pulling up plants you have just planted, when left unsupervised.

• Preschoolers love helping out, but are easily distracted by mud, butterflies and worms and may not stay on task for long.

• Primary school-aged kids are able to embrace all things garden, but even they can lose interest if things are difficult, tedious or even downright boring. Let’s face it, even adults can find weeding boring.

• Teens are even harder to engage unless they have an innate passion for the garden and see it as a joy and a pleasure. Teens who feel this way are few and far between so the best way to engage them is to bribe or pay them. Cash and screen time are both acceptable currencies. The hope is that by getting them out there, they will grow to enjoy it and at the very least, they are helping out, getting things done and inadvertently learning a thing or two about gardening.

It has to be acknowledged that not all adults are into gardening and many would rather watch paint dry than plunge their hands into the rich brown earth. Many adults only garden because they have to, to keep their properties looking nice, but it is no different to them than vacuuming and it is thought of as a chore or task rather than a hobby or something pleasurable.

Kids are still young enough not to feel the stigma of gardening that some may have and if we are to empower a generation of kids, so they don’t see gardening as a chore, then we need to make it fun for them. Fun is how kids measure experiences, so how do we make it a positive experience for them?

Firstly – don’t get angry or frustrated with them. They will disappoint you if your expectations are too high. Things will get destroyed – by accident, they will wander off leaving a task undone, they will squabble with each other, tools will get lost – often nowhere near the garden, and they will be keen to get back inside to chat with their friends online. As annoying as this can be, to foster a love of gardening, avoid creating a negative association with the garden. The last thing you want them to remember is “Every time we gardened Mum would shout at us.”

Set appropriate tasks personalised to each child. Toddlers are great with large seeds like beans and peas. Preschoolers can work side by side with you to water the garden or plant strong seedlings. Primary school-aged kids and teens can be trusted to do the weeding, and they can all help with the harvest, under supervision or with good instructions. Reward them for a job well done so they can experience a sense of pride, but also let them know loud and clear that you appreciate what they have done.

Don’t make the garden all work and no play. Sometimes just being in the garden can give a multitude of benefits. It can relax, calm and heal when you kick off your shoes to lie in the grass and watch the birds or clouds. Normalise spending time in the garden. Make after school snacks a picnic, nothing special, just serve their usual food in a garden setting. Put comfy seating areas throughout the garden so anyone with a book or even a device will be drawn out into nature.

Come up with age-appropriate games and crafts that the kids will enjoy. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

Toddlers:

You can’t go past playing with water or mud. Ok, they will get wet and/or dirty, but they will be learning through play right there in the garden, no extra clean up needed, except for the kids themselves.

Preschoolers:

Stringing beads, shiny and noisy items onto strings and attaching to a piece of driftwood would not only be a magnificent piece of art for the garden, but it will also be a lovely windchime and scare birds away from precious plants.

Primary school-aged kids:

Dress them as pirates and get them to dig for buried treasure in the ready-to-harvest potato patch. You could slip a few extra exciting things into the soil beforehand as a surprising reward.

Teens:

Teens will probably complain that whatever craft or project you come up with will be lame – if they still use that word. So, you need to make the payoff worth their interest. It is easy to lean into them to do a lot of tasks in the garden as they are mini adults and pretty much capable of most gardening activities, but don’t make it boring.

If you are going to get them in the garden, then make it useful to them as well. Align it to things they are studying at school. Get them to help measure out a new garden and work out the supplies needed, using all of their mathematical abilities. Let artistic teens create art for the garden. Give them a free hand to make a mural, sculpture or be responsible for all of the signage in the garden, and we can’t ignore the live example of biology growing happily in the garden. Find what interests your teen or what they need to know, and use the garden to make the most of it. You may still need to bribe or pay them though and there is nothing wrong with that.