Gardening with children
That’s how easy it is
© Halfpoint / Shutterstock
Gardening with children should above all be playful and with a lot of patience. We provide tips for suitable plants as well as ideas for projects.
Getting children excited about nature and the garden is not that difficult. If you like gardening yourself, the passion is likely to rub off on your offspring. And: Children imitate their caregivers, the perfect opportunity to promote their interest in gardening.
Gardening with children: tips to get you started
Children naturally pursue their curiosity. If you take a few simple tips to heart, you can even help a little:
- It is best to include them from the start: ask them what they like to eat or what else they like and see if that can be planted with you.
- Children want to discover, experience, experiment. It may be that they tend to observe at the beginning, but sooner or later they want to join in. So give them small age-appropriate tasks (e.g. pouring) that they can easily meet. In this way you can quickly achieve small successes and combine positive things with gardening.
- The tasks are welcome playful be designed, so the offspring does not lose interest so quickly.
- Note that with (smaller) children the Ability to concentrate does not yet match that of an adult. For children between five and seven years this is an average of 15 minutes, for seven to ten year olds about 20 minutes and about five minutes more for ten to twelve year olds. Be patient and don’t expect too much.
- Have a try! Children test out. The best way to convince them of gardening is to appeal to all of their senses: let them smell flowers, nibble on berries, dig in the earth and touch plants.
- Also unusual varieties can arouse interest, for example old vegetables like blue potatoes!
- To make gardening fun, it is important to acquire Children’s tool worth considering. The adult devices are likely too big, too heavy, and too unwieldy for the little ones.
- If the children are already a bit older, they can turn around themselves small projects To take care of. How much guidance and support they need also depends somewhat on their age. For older children there can be a small one of their own Raised bed with a few plants younger ones may have fun building a mini greenhouse themselves.
Safety should not be neglected either, toxic pesticides and plants (e.g. thimble) are of course not a good idea for gardening with children. Water sources such as rain barrels or ponds should also be well secured. Also watch out for bees and wasps nests in the garden.
Which plants?
It has already been said: Plants that arouse curiosity, taste good to children or the whole family, and are also easy to care for and grow quickly, are suitable for gardening with children.
Radishes, sunflowers or herbs such as parsley or chives are easy to care for. Edible flowers such as violets, daylilies or marigolds are sure to arouse the little ones’ curiosity.
tip: Licorice Tagetes also smells like the delicacy!
These fruits and vegetables also fit in a child-friendly garden:
- Strawberries
- Potted tomatoes
- Potatoes
- Kohlrabi
- Peas
If the children are already old enough to be more involved and to understand a little basic knowledge, it is advisable to teach them a few basics, such as: B .:
- Which location does the respective plant need?
- Which plants can be nibbled raw without any problems, which not?
- How is it poured correctly?
Gardening with children on the balcony
Gardening does not necessarily require your own garden. There are several varieties that also thrive in boxes on the balcony or on the windowsill. Regrowing is called the regrowing of vegetable residues: You put the stalk or core in a glass with water (change regularly), let it germinate and then transplant it into a pot.
If there is little space, a vertical garden on the balcony is ideal, herbs thrive there (or on the windowsill). Radishes, spring onions, lettuce, spinach and sugar peas also work well in the balcony box.
More ideas about gardening with children
- We have known since the urban gardening trend at the latest that you don’t have to live in the country to be enthusiastic about gardening. You don’t need your own garden or balcony for this. In many places there are now community gardens that are often open to everyone. Children also benefit from this when they can exchange ideas with others while digging and planting.
- Building a hedgehog house is z. B. an exciting project for autumn, maybe you will see the first resident soon ?!
- What else can be done in autumn? There is still a lot to harvest (and snack on), some plants can be cut back or you can plant early bloomers for spring. Maybe you will make a bird feeder in autumn or winter?
- Even making birdseed yourself makes the little ones happy. Although the work does not take place directly in the garden, you will soon be able to watch the birds snacking outside together.
- For creative handicraft fun, you paint flower pots together, whether patterns, faces or fruit motifs!
Conjure delicious things from the harvest
Gardening makes you hungry! Did the little ones accompany their fruit and vegetables from sowing, tending to harvesting, does the fruit taste much more delicious, bet? Here you will find two very easy recipes that you can cook and eat together:
Juicy berry muffins made from ice
ingredients:
- 250 g flour
- 300 g blueberries
- 3 teaspoons of baking powder
- 0.5 l vanilla ice cream
- 2 teaspoons of cream
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- Some butter
preparation:
- Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and stir with a whisk.
- Add the slightly melted ice and mix well. If the mixture is too thick, add cream. Carefully fold in the blueberries.
- Butter a muffin baking sheet and fill up to with the batter. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.
- Lift the muffins out of the baking tray, place on plates and dust with powdered sugar. Add a scoop of ice cream, a mint leaf and a few fresh blueberries.
Crispy carrot fries
ingredients:
- 4 carrots
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp liquid honey
- 2 tbsp parmesan
- salt and pepper
- thyme
preparation:
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees circulating air. Line the baking tray with baking paper and preheat in the oven.
- Mix the oil, honey and thyme together.
- Peel the carrots, cut in half and cut into thick strips.
- Mix the honey mixture into the carrot fries and let it steep for about 15 minutes. Take out, place on the baking sheet and sprinkle with parmesan.
- Place the carrot fries on the baking sheet for 20 minutes and bake in the oven. Stir once or twice.
- Take out, season with salt and pepper. Good Appetite!
© Wunderhaus verlag GmbH
You can find these and other recipes in the book “Das Gartenbuch” by Holly Pond Hill (2021, Volume 3) from the Wunderhaus Verlag.
Would you like to find out more about garden design and plants? Here you will find interesting information about planting blueberries, planting strawberries, planting radishes and planting thyme.
Tip: In the BRIGITTE community you can exchange ideas with others about gardening.