Article by Joanie Odom

Parents are always looking for summer activities that they can do with their kids; something to occupy, but not waste, their children’s time and their own. Gardening with your kids is absolutely one of the best things you can do with that time. It’s educational, productive, rewarding, and gets you and the kids out in the fresh air getting exercise. Most importantly, it’s a lot of fun.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned in a garden, and not just about botany. Keep track of how many seeds you plant and how many germinate and grow successfully, and you’ve learned about statistics. A soil test can be a chemistry lesson. Observing worms, bees, and hummingbirds is one of the best ways to learn about symbiosis. Even an aphid and ladybug infestation can be great for learning about the food chain and how easily it can be thrown out of balance. Everything that happens in the garden is a potential science lesson, but possibly the most important lesson to learn in keeping a garden is the relationship between work and reward. This is why I recommend that, whengardening with kids, growing vegetables and fruits that the kids like is essential. Even flowers that appeal particularly to your kids can be a great way for them to make the connection between how hard they work and what they get for it.

There are two types of plants that I always recommend for a garden grown with kids: edible plants and plants that attract pollinators. Both of these are great for the lessons learned by growing them as well as their ability to keep kids interested and excited about the project. Plants like Buddleia, or Butterfly Bush, attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, an exciting result for your kids’ hard work. There are lots of veggies and fruits that are great for kids to grow. Okra, tomatoes, and peas are really easy and fun to grow from seed, and strawberry plants are readily available, inexpensive, and produce a healthy treat for your kids hard work. Even growing foods that your kids don’t like can be great for them, just let them sell the produce that they don’t eat to your neighbors (like a healthier version of a lemonade stand). Try out a variety of food plants to ensure a greatgardening experience for your kids.

Whether you set up a backyard garden, find space in one of the many community gardens popping up in cities across the country, or enroll your children in a local children’sgardening program, find time this summer to teach your kids the many important lessons that gardening can teach. They’ll learn, get exercise, and have fun doing it.