Ages and Stages – Gardening with Kids

SAFETY IN THE GARDEN

Don’t forget to cover up, especially against the sun in the warmer months.
Don’t let children use tools that are too big for them or with sharp edges.
Be careful with buckets of water around babies and toddlers.

Littlies

The little ones in the family love being in the garden. At this age they do need constant supervision and not much will be “achieved” but be patient with them.

Activities for this age group can include

Digging: Young children love digging. A spot in the garden or a sand pit will provide them with endless hours of enjoyment. Let them get dirty!
Hunting out snails: Not usually squeamish until later, give them a bucket and let them gather as many as they can.
Let them help pull out weeds with you. Keep in mind that they won’t be able to distinguish which are weeds and which are precious seedlings at this stage.
Talk about seeds and what they do. Let them plant a few large seeds, such as nasturtiums and remind them in a few weeks time to have a look.
Nature walks are fun. Arm yourself with a bag or basket and take the little ones for a walk. Even a short walk around the neighbourhood can uncover priceless treasures which you can talk about or just bring home and paste down as a special artwork.
Pick some flowers and make a ‘jam jar posie’.
Watering is always fun. Their own little watering can make the task easier and avoids lots of water being wasted, as might happen with a hose.

Pre-schoolers (ages 4-5)

At this age, imaginations run riot and gardens provide great play areas for all sorts of games. Supervision is still needed.

Provide this age group with a spot where digging is allowed. Let them enjoy making mud pies, decorated with grasses and seeds.
A secret hideaway is always needed in games. If your garden is too bare to use this way, create your own with a simple tee-pee made with lightweight and inexpensive bamboo poles and an old bedsheet thrown over. That way, if it does collapse on them, it shouldn’t hurt!
Pressing flowers and leaves gathered is easy using large books. Just remember to check in a couple of weeks’ time for a beautiful collage made by pasting these nature objects onto some paper. Make space on your fridge door for displaying the artwork.
Easy-to-handle seeds are good at this age. To make them even easier to handle, help the children paste the seeds onto some kitchen/toilet paper with a flour/water mix, with the spacing that is recommended on the seed pack. Then bury the paper at the depth specified and help the children plant the toilet paper!
Let them play shopkeeper with the fruits of the garden. “Buy” them from your little shopkeeper, with an old set of scales to make it more lifelike, and who knows, they may even be more inclined to eat their veggies!

Early School Age (6-7)

Curiosity with an increasing ability to work more independently makes for a perfect age in the garden. Don’t forget to supervise and please, no dangerous tools.

Children are now reading and writing to an extent so these skills can be used for

Sign posting their area in the garden
Reading instructions on seed packets
Making markers for seed raising

Other fun things to do

Identify common bugs in the garden eg ants, ladybirds, praying mantis. Let them understand that many bugs are beneficial or play a helpful role in the garden, as pollinators or predators of the pests. Get the kids to watch them for a while rather than try to catch them straight away. If they do trap them, remind them to release them again later.
A special garden patch – a patch of their own – is valued now. Guide them into what is suitable for the season, so that failure is avoided. Let them decorate it with pebbles or signs. A pretty border of flowering pansies is always attractive while waiting for other seeds to grow.
If space is too tight, there are plenty of planter pots available to purchase or scrounge second-hand. Even the clam shell style sand pits can be used as planters if holes have been drilled into their base. Avoid pots with rims under which spiders might be hiding!
For fun containers, why not use old gumboots or large toy trucks? Make sure there are some drainage holes, fill with potting mix and put in a small flowering plant. Anything large enough with some drainage holes drilled in can be made into planting containers. Quirky and cute!
Start off germinating seeds in the kitchen. A sunny windowsill makes a warm spot for seeds to take off. Even some “kitchen seeds” do well here, such as avocado stones.
Picking produce is always fun. There are heaps of edible plants that are easy to grow and the children delight in being able to pick them and present them at dinnertime. Digging for potatoes is like digging for treasure!
Bulbs are fun and easy to handle.
If they want to stay close to you, show them how to dead-head flowers. Their own craft scissors may be suitable and safer for this job.

Older Children

A space of their own is paramount now if you want to keep them interested in gardening. Let them conceive their own creations. Answer their questions – and if you don’t know the answers there is always help on hand. The internet (look at Gardenate.com), a gardening book or even one of the staff at a good nursery can help with a phone call.
Be ambitious but realistic. It’s no use planting tomato seeds in the middle of winter in Melbourne in the garden, but it can be done on a warm windowsill indoors, to be transplanted when the weather does warm up.
Children can be more “scientific” in their gardening now if they wish.
Get them to start a gardening journal and note what was planted and when; and the results of the plantings. This can be referred to the following year so that improvements can be made if needed. Special online apps for gardening (eg Gardenate) allows them to log on and create their own gardening diary electronically.
Worm farms and compost bins are both waste management systems. Setting them up is a day’s task and they do need ongoing (though not onerous) maintenance. The results are worth it as the finished product can be used to add nutrition and fertilise their own garden. They become a great lesson in nutrient cycling and also shows how many of today’s plastics just won’t degrade naturally if they have made their way into your system.
Their own basic tools should result in them being more responsible about the care of the tools. After all, if they can’t find them the next time they need them, then they can’t blame you, can they???

Then there are the “chores”. Raking up the leaves, spreading mulch and general weeding is all the more enjoyable if you can show them that you enjoy doing it too. Balance it though. Just remember that many an aspiring gardener has been put off for a long time by the mundane tasks. Gardening is more than just weeding! It’s a lot more fun creating and in the end you may just have helped create another gardener for the world.