Gardening with Your Children is Time Well Spent !!!

This is my opinion but If anything good can be said for the effects of COVID 19, it does seem to have gotten families to share more quality time together. Meals include conversations. More time at home has inspired renewed interest in simple, creative and productive activities.

Here at the nursery, we saw a new group of families exploring the possibilities of gardening. Many for the first time had considered growing vegetables. Others decided it was time to perform some much needed maintenance or renovation around the home.

In any case, these were family activities where Mom and Dad may be at a skill and knowledge equivalent to the kids.  This makes it less intimidating for the young ones and a learning experience for everyone.  Even if the outcome was not quite as expected, good times were shared and everyone involved learned something that will be useful to them in the future.

This Fall, allow the kids to get dirty and get dirty with them.  Rake leaves, plant some bulbs, build raised bed for next spring, but most importantly spend good fruitful time with the family.

I think it is best to start as early as possible.  If baby is sitting in the stroller, talk to them and show them things. They are little sponges and they may not know what you are doing but they are watching. Let them participate when able and try new things. Avoid discouraging them unless it is unsafe.

Gardening through history is an essential activity. It hasn’t been until very recently, it has been replaced with other more exciting, yet in truth, less productive and more mind numbing activities.

Another thing the events of 2020 have made many aware of is, those who are self sufficient can adapt more readily to change than those who are not.