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Children in the garden
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Children are always attracted to the garden as playing outdoors stimulates their imagination. Although it is not always practical to have a toddler helping out in the garden, there are plenty of ways to ensure that your child can join in and play happily.
For instance, you can reserve an area of the garden especially for your children, with separate places where they can dig, romp about or cycle. Use clearly visible boundaries to indicate that flowerbeds are not places to play. Grass is, of course, ideal for playing or for relaxing. You should also make sure there is enough shade. This can be provided by trees or by a trellis whose plants form a roof. If this takes up too much space, a parasol can be used instead. Children can cycle on concrete or stone paths, and a sandpit gives them somewhere to dig. A playing area should preferably be visible from the house.
0-2 years old
Very small children are of course too young for actual gardening, but they can enjoy the feel of the soft grass on their skin, the fragrances and colours of the flowers, or the taste of home-grown fruit and vegetables. Even very small babies can appreciate a wind chime.
When they are a bit older, you can teach them that the red strawberries can be picked and eaten, whereas the green ones have to stay on the plant a while longer until they change colour in the sun.
2-3 years old
Children of this age can help to water the plants. Weeding is also lots of fun. Make sure you do these things together with your child in order to ensure that the plants get enough water to develop good roots and that your novice gardener is not overenthusiastic when it comes to weeding!
If you are able, it can be fun to make a nesting box or bird table together, or perhaps even a scarecrow. This scarecrow shouldn't really scare the birds away. Birds are good for the garden as they eat caterpillars, snails, slugs and greenfly.
4-5 years old
From the age of four, children are old enough to sow seeds. Sunflowers and pumpkins are ideal as the seeds are large and therefore easier to handle. In addition these plants grow to an enormous size, and this appeals greatly to the imagination of a child.
Point out to your child the usefulness of certain garden creatures. Worms loosen the soil and increase the fertility of the soil, whereas the larvae of hover-flies, lacewings and ladybirds, as well as adult ladybirds, eat enormous quantities of aphids. Millipedes are also useful predators.
6 and older
This is a good age for giving a child its own patch of ground, especially if it already has some experience of helping in the garden. If your garden is too small for this, planters can provide an alternative. The emphasis should be on letting the child do things on its own, and although help and advice can be given if the child asks for it, well-meant interference should be avoided as far as possible. These young gardeners will also need suitable garden tools.
One advantage of this approach is that if your child is a poor eater, it may be more willing to eat the food on its plate if this food has been grown in the child's own garden.
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