How Does Your Garden Grow?

Is there a spot in your yard that could use a little something? Maybe not, but maybe there's a big flower pot lying around empty waiting to be put to use. Gardening is a great project to do with young children. Go to the store and pick out seeds and bulbs with your child(ren). Grow a vegetable garden or flower garden, maybe even both. Children love to grow things. Seeds that germinate quickly and are good in a cooler spring climate are a good choice. Have your child think of things that they like to have in a salad and grow them. This can be easily started inside and then brought outdoors as either a container garden or part of our landscaping.
Children learn great lessons in this project. They learn to take responsibility in caring for something else besides themselves. They begin to understand the life cycle of plants. Generally, they grow in their appreciation for the food they have grown. Often times, children will take more risks in eating what they have grown than picking it up at the grocery store.
Take time on a rainy Saturday to start your garden project. Pick out foods from a magazine that look good and then match the pictures on the seed packets. Pick up a starter pack and enjoy! You could even have your child keep a journal about their garden. They could name their plants or label them. At harvest time celebrate by preparing the food together! We would love for you to post pictures or stories about your garden.