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Building A Family Garden - How to Garden With Kids
by Dominic Weidman
http://www.iamgardening.com

Gardening is in my blood. In the middle of urban blight and
decay, my Nana's garden was an oasis of color and scent, of
warm sun and cool earth - a place where I could get my hands
dirty and my mind free of school and problems. In Nana's
garden, I learned how to tie up tomatoes so they didn't rot
on the ground, what kind of tin plates kept the birds out of
the seeds and why the first ripe tomato of the summer tastes
better than anything else in the world.

By bringing your children into the garden, you'll be
starting them on a lifelong love of nature and helping
things grow. Gardening is full of 'teachable moments'. The
slow pace of working the earth invites conversation and
introspection, and offers opportunities for imparting your
beliefs and philosophies and knowledge in a natural, matter-
of-fact way that will do far more than all the lectures in
the world.

You can introduce your children to gardening from the time
that they're infants. When you go out to weed or water, take
the baby with you. A playpen or bassinet in a bit of shade
is a great place for a baby or toddler to be part of things
without being in the way.

Let your older children 'help'. What's work to you is still
exciting play to them. Let them cordon off a piece of the
yard with twigs and twine, and hand over a set of kid-size
plastic tools to dig. To make it a little easier, you can
loosen the ground a bit beforehand with a spade or fork.

The Golden Rule of gardening with kids is - it doesn't
matter. Are the rows a little crooked? It doesn't matter.
Are they pulling up the flowers and leaving the weeds? So
what? Let them get in and get their hands dirty, crawl
around and poke at bugs and ask you dozens of questions.

Besides those, there are a few plants that are ever popular
with kids. There's not a child alive who hasn't imagined
planting Jack's beanstalk, or growing a huge pumpkin like
Cinderella's. Pumpkins, beans and squash are prolific
growers in almost any region of the United States, so let
them go for it. Their early success will encourage them to
stick with it.

Sunflowers are another great kid favorite. They sprout
quickly, and grow so fast that they'll tower over your
munchkins by midsummer. Kids love to track and measure, and
sunflowers give them a good reason to do it. A sunflower can
grow as much as 4 or 5 inches literally overnight.

On a sunny, sticky summer afternoon, pick the ripest, most
beautiful tomato you can find. Take it and sit on the bottom
step of the porch and as they gather round (because they
will, trust me on this), slice off bite size chunks with a
pocketknife and share the bounty.

Bean teepees are one of the most fun gardening activities
you can do. Pick a patch of sunny ground, build a teepee
with gardening stakes. Plant runner beans and morning
glories around the base of each, and as they grow, train the
vines to grow up the poles. By the middle of summer, you'll
have a shady little hideaway that your kids will love
playing in.

When you plant and garden with your kids, you share with a
love of the earth, a reverence for nature, and the seeds of
a hobby that will last a lifetime. Gardening together is a
gift that will build memories to treasure forever.

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