6 Ways to make children’s gardening enjoyable

In a day and age when children spend hours indoors playing on their phones or computers, nurturing a love for the outdoors is a gift you can pass on to your child at an early age. Gardening is a great way to get them excited about being outside.

Emily Jones, Reel Life NPO project manager, and Jane Griffiths, an expert in organic vegetable gardening and Jane’s Delicious Kitchen author, suggest these 6 fun garden activities:

1. If you turn it into a competition to see who can make the greatest pile of weeds, even the chores of weeding can become a game.
2. Some edible flowers such as echinacea, pansies, Californian poppies, cornflower, and calendula should be included instead of planting only vegetables. These attract beneficial insects such as bees and butterflies. With your children, explore your garden and encourage them to find and watch ladybirds, bees (don’t get too close to them as they might sting you), and all the ladybirds and bees.
3. Create a tepee with beans. In the dirt, firmly anchor three poles and collect their tops together to form a tripod. Wind some twine around and tie it in place securely. Plant beans to climb around the poles, leaving one side open. The beans will climb up the structure easily. Your kids will have an edible green teepee to play in within a couple of months.
4. Let your kids help you create simple recipes that include some of the vegetables that you grow.
5. Help them make a garden journal that contains one item that occurs every day in the garden. They discovered a new leaf, a bug they hadn’t seen before, etc. Let them draw pictures if they still can’t write!
6. Let them draw an image of their friends in the backyard (snails, ladybugs, caterpillars, worms, weeds, flowers, trees, and bees).