Family Gardening Made Fun
July 22, 2017GROWING TOGETHER AS A FAMILY
Gardening together can be a fun and rewarding experience for your entire family. This is especially true for families who have recently moved into a new home and are just getting started on making their new space feel more like home.
As a bonus, collaborating on what you’d like to plant and see grow in your garden, will help to teach your child to develop incredible life skills such as patience, focus, and responsibility for the property on which you live.
PLANNING YOUR FAMILY GARDEN
First and foremost, you and your family need to decide what kind of items you’d like to plant in your garden. Will it be a flower garden, a vegetable garden, or a fruit garden? Head to your local gardening depot to purchase the variety of plants you’ve decided to grow and to collect all of the supplies (gloves, shovels, soil, etc.) that you will need to get started.
When at home, grab the measuring tape and head outdoors to measure your designated gardening space with your children. Once you’ve identified where your garden will go, and how big it will be, grab some markers, pencils, and paper. Draw the scaled down length and width of the gardening space for your child and then encourage them to divide up the garden with the plants, flowers, or vegetables you’ve chosen to plant.
Not only will this process encourage your child to make decisions about what they’d like to grow in their garden, but they’ll also apply their creative skills by drawing, and their mathematical skills by dividing up the garden into sections.
LABELLING YOUR PLANTS
Why stop at plants? Your family garden can be whatever you want to make it! Get creative by tasking your child with painting little wooden sign or rocks. These items can then be written or painted on with the names of the plants you’re growing (rosemary, strawberries, tomatoes, etc.). Labelling your plants will help your child to identify which plant is what, and it will also encourage them to expand their creativity while designing some artistic aesthetic elements to add into your beautiful family garden.
GETTING MESSY
Once your labels are ready, separate each plant and make sure that all of your garden markers are in the right place. Involve your children by allowing them to help dig the holes, consult their design plan for spacing, and to plant and fill in the holes. While no one wants to get completely covered in dirt during this process, be sure to remind your child that it’s okay to get their hands dirty and to connect with the nature around them.
& ART DECO
Taking garden decoration another step further, offer up some creative crafting ideas that will keep your child interested in the garden once it’s up and running. Some of our favourite ideas include constructing your own wind chimes, painting funny faces on flowerpots, and setting up multiple bird feeders. Depending on your style, you may even decide to head back over to the garden depot to pick out a mini windmill, or even a gnome!
WATERING SCHEDULE
With small attention spans, parents have to get creative with how to keep their children focused on following through with the gardening process. A great way to do this is to schedule garden days, or a specific time of every day, where your child is responsible for checking in on the plants, watering the plants, and giving a progress report of how things are growing. These results can be written in a journal, on a white board, or anywhere in the home where the whole family can follow along.
ENJOY!
When the time comes, and your veggies, fruit, or flowers are fully-grown for the season, be sure to encourage your child to take pride in the hard work they’ve done to bring their garden to life. Also be sure to allow your child to enjoy their creation – to detach and eat the cucumber they’ve grown, or to cut off some roses and to display them on the kitchen table.
Family gardening is a great way to help to connect your family, and to begin landscaping your new yard – increasing the value and aesthetic of your property. This process will also teach your child patience, help them to develop an appreciation for nature, and it may even cause them to finally appreciate the broccoli you serve them at dinner.