A garden offers an educational lesson that the classroom can not
- one of reaping what you sow, of respecting and appreciating the
land upon which we live and, at its most basic, of teaching tomatoes
don't grow on shelves at the Acme. Children get excited
to see what they grow, notes E.G. Rall Jr., "because they were
the ones responsible for planting and harvesting." Rall
has maintained a children's garden for the last eight years,
starting when their now-teenager was just five, to today, when their
youngest owns her own flower press.
You want your little gardener to feel good about this first endeavor,
so choose vegetables and/or flowers that are almost fail-safe. Rall
suggests tomatoes (try a couple different varieties), cucumbers,
carrots, pumpkins, squash, and lettuce, as they are hardy and grow
well in most conditions.
For flowers, Rall suggests giving cone flowers, black-eyed susans,
daisies and salvia a whirl. "These flowers are easy to
grow and nice for cutting. They're also very colorful
and they bloom for a long period of time," he says. Better
yet, they're perennials, so your hard work will pay off in
the coming years as well.
Look for an optimal place to put your garden, one with plenty of
sun, gardens like up to six hours per day. If space is a constraint,
or lack of sun, consider a container garden. "Some gardening
centers sell big containers on wheels, like a little dolly, that
you can move around to capture as much sun as possible," says
Rall.
Once your plants are in (sometime around Mother's Day, after
the last frost), watering should be an almost daily chore. "Water
early in the morning or in the evening when it's cooler and
the water doesn't evaporate as much," says Rall. You
don't need to water every day, but you do need to monitor the
soil. If the top layer is dry and crusty, time to get out the
hose.
And especially with children, keep garden safety in mind. "Children's
tools really are made just for children. They could snap and
break in tough clay conditions," Rall says. (He suggests mixing
compost into the soil to make it looser.) And don't forget
to wash your hands when you're through working, to rid yourselves
of any bacteria from the soil.
Most importantly, make sure you and your child visit your garden
every day. Don't miss its rewards. Make it theirs,
make it together and make it fun!