Teach your kids to garden. Kids love to play in dirt as much as adults. Invite them to assist you in your garden. Planting, digging, weeding - explain what you are doing and answer their questions. Help them dig their own garden area. Keep it small. 6' x 12' is big enough, using bricks or stones to mark boundaries, and keep planting rows short, 3'-4' long.
Kid sized tools are easy to find these days or let them use one of your garden hand tools. Weight and size are important factors. Teach them to clean their garden tools and explain that the tools will work much better if they're clean. Choose a special storage area for their tools and supplies. A gardening gift of their own sized garden gloves is also a good idea.
Give your children a choice of plants. Together, choose seeds (preferably large ones) and plants like tomatoes which are transplant hardy. Marigolds, zinnias and sunflowers are good choices for flowers. Later in the growing season, help them plant cool season crops like spinach or lettuce. Talk about earthworms and how these "garden helpers" make the soil better for growing plants by loosening the dirt. Explain how the sun and shade can effect their plantings. Vegetables need sun. Some flowers prefer shade.
Make watering easy. Kids will love to water their gardens and themselves with an easily accessible garden hose or watering can. Then teach them to mulch their garden bed to keep the weeds from taking over and to keep the much-needed moisture from evaporating.
At harvest time, just think how proud you will both be when your kids can add their own homegrown tomatoes to a delicious salad or fill a vase with pretty flowers that they grew themselves.
This is also a good time to add fresh food wastes to the compost and to talk about what "organic gardening" means -- Caring for plants using nature as a guide by using only natural compost for fertilizers. Show your kids how to spray soapy water mixtures on their plants to rid their garden of harmful insects. Explain why cool bugs like lady bugs and praying mantis are good garden friends because they keep harmful insects like aphids from eating their plants and .
Above all - have fun gardening together.
