A Passion For Gardens

Gardening with Kids

With spring finally here, now is the time to get outdoors and start gardening. Gardening is a fantastic activity to involve kids in. With most of us now spending an estimated 90% of our lives indoors, time in the garden, yard or allotment is the perfect way to get kids outdoors and active, and the perfect antidote to gaming, tablets and TV.

Growing plants helps to demonstrate to children (and reminds us adults!) where different foods come from, providing them with a link that goes much further than the supermarket shelves. Plus, there is nothing like the taste of your own home-grown tomatoes or strawberries. You don’t even need to have a huge amount of space to grow something: planting can be in pots or containers, grown up fences or on window sills.

Gardeners are nurturers and caring for a plant or veg patch can teach children to be nurturers too. Giving children the skills to care for and raise something will serve them well in later life.

Like raising children, planting a garden is an investment for the future. What better way to give the next generation a great future than to give them a passion for gardening? As the Indian proverb goes, “All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today.”

Full article to be published in Time and Leisure Kids (south west London) June 2019