Ideas to encourage children

[Guest]

My girls are still only little, but slowly - very slowly I am starting to sort out the garden and am just after ideas to include for my girls. Whether it is enjoying the space, nature hunting or actual gardening

What did you enjoy when you were little? What do your children or grandchildren love?

I would love to hear all your ideas and suggestions

[broadway]

I suppose the obvious answer is what do they eat? Get them to plant, nurture, pick, and eat:-)

Gonna try and do the same with my sons next year. Although at 21/18 you may have more success than me:-)

[KDdisco]

Worms are always a winner! As a child I used to love collecting worms to put on my special patch of garden and now (many years on) I've found that even my teenagers are interested in our wormery.


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[Knight of Albion]

Nasturtiums! (The story of my first gardening experience is on the website)
Probably the best flower to start with. Easy to grow, will take almost any conditions, cheerful flowers in abundance and the leaves are interesting in their own right.

For vegetables, try salad leaves. Very quick to grow, soon ready to eat - children can get bored easily, so these are very good for keeping them interested.
Potatoes will get them hooked once harvest time comes. Runner beans are a 'no brainer' to grow and are a good starter vegetable.

Oh and try introducing them to the myriad of creatures that live in even a humble sized garden. Get them interested in nature as a kid and it will stay with them as a passion throughout their life.

[teakdesk]

What did you enjoy when you were little? What do your children or grandchildren love?

Personally, I wouldn't try to point kids in any particular direction... they tend to resist. Leave them to see you enjoying the gardening/growing and they will naturally ask questions and become interested.

As a child I had a garden that was safe to play in with no forbidden areas and parents who trusted me to play outside on my own (ie with neighbouring children but no adults). Bushes became dens, trees got climbed, frogs got found, children got dirty!!! By the time I was 8 years old I was allowed to go out of the garden and enjoyed hanging around with the farmer on the adjoining farm; being allowed to bring the small herd of cows in for milking on my own was a particular triumph!

I treated my children as similar to my own childhood as I could (no adjoining farm, unfortunately!) and left them to their own devices; my daughter is now a keen gardener, my youngest son grew fresh herbs in large plastic boxes in his room at Uni (both sons now live in flats which curtails growing somewhat) and both boys enjoy outdoor pursuits (running, cycling, surfing...).

So, for me, anything that encourages kids to go outside (even one of those awful trampolines!!!) is well worth it!

[arpoet]

I save sowing anything with big seeds until the weekends when my grandson come to stay... beans and peas are great for each week he can watch the growing in the greenhouse. Also planting out potatoes and onion sets are great for kids.
I also leave the compost in tubs for him to riddle.
Encourage him to knock the flowers off dandelions and how the seek out slugs and snails, break up stones for the bottom of pots.... the list is endless..

[Bren In Pots]

I'd say peas they're easy to germinate and kids like both the peas and shoots.

[Noosner]

Also, growing cress on the windowsill or any other sprouting seeds come to that. It's a nice time limited task with a quick result, which they can eat straight away.

[skeggijon]

starting peas off in egg boxes was always a favourite of mine when I was a kid, though to be honest I didn't need much encouragement. I've always loved growing things - especially things you can eat.

When I was 7 I started growing loads of tomato plants to sell on and apart from occasional breaks, such as going to uni or volunteering abroad, I've pretty much kept up with that lol.

[noviceveggrower]

Hi.
I have a 7 and 4 year old but when my Granddad was alive I would go gardening with him.
I would say seed wise how about sun flowers. Kids are always amazed when they see something start off so small and for it to grow as tall or for it to tower over them. Or sweet peas they can grow so much from one seed with lovely flowers as a bonus.
My two have their own little area to dig in. They love seeing how deep they can make their holes. I just fill them in again and they start again. I their space its nettle free and chemical free. I just let them loose on their area. So if you can give them a safe area I would as its their own and something special just for them.

[teakdesk]

I have a very vivid memory of being at the school I left when I was seven (so the event was probably when I was about six years old).

We took an empty fish tank and taped a runner bean seed to the glass side. We then put stiff blotting paper (yes, I am that old!) against the side and taped it into place. We may have put something inside against the blotting paper but I don't remember.

We then watered the blotting paper and covered the tank with a thick cloth to keep out the light.

We watered every day.

I was horrified ( can still vivedly remember the trauma) when we came back after a weekend to find long white strands winding their way downwards... I'm sure it was many years before I accepted them as roots and not something alien from Doctor Who! *shudders*

[Scarlet]

My boys were never interested in gardening! I spent hours in the garden when they were little, they were more interested in climbing trees, scooping fish out of the pond and then later on making adjustments to their BBQ and bonfire area!

Personally, I wouldn't try to point kids in any particular direction... they tend to resist. Leave them to see you enjoying the gardening/growing and they will naturally ask questions and become interested.

Really? Hasn't happened with mine so far. They have no interest in gardening at all! They had tractors and wheel barrows when they were little but they were used to collect sticks for bonfires

So, for me, anything that encourages kids to go outside (even one of those awful trampolines!!!) is well worth it!

What's wrong with trampolines? My kids have spent hours on ours.

[teakdesk]

What's wrong with trampolines? My kids have spent hours on ours.

Have you looked underneath yours?
Have you been invited to dine at your neighbour's since you erected it?
Have you been visited by the council noise team?
Have your neighbours moved?

I'm only joking... I absolutely love the three neighbours we have with their trampolines and love their children too.. but napping on a Sunday is now done inside in the sunny bay window instead of in the fresh air!

[Aberdeenplotter]

kids just love getting down and dirty so set aside a piece of ground for them to dig about in, make mud pies etc. When I was knee high to a grasshopper, I had such an area in the corner of our garden where there was a telephone pole which I tried to dig out with a teaspoon. I played there with my dinky toys and as I grew bigger the area I played in, by this time called the hole, grew bigger as well. Eventually my dad suggested I should try to grow some vegetables there and started me off with radishes, a very fast maturing crop which can be pulled and eaten in situ. I've never lost my interest in growing vegetables nor my liking for radishes

[Guest]

I am so glad I started this thread you have all been great. I think you have given me my biggest challenge yet - 'keep it simple'

Infact this has reminded me of so much I loved as a kid that I had forgotten. As a kid I loved bugs (I don't know what happened there ) but would look under the neighbours rocks for bugs and newts, go jam jarring in the marshes and at one point I had 2 snails for pets the pretty ones with swirly coloured shells.

All I want to do is give them opportunities where it goes from there is up to them.
Oh and maybe not a trampoline but a tyre swing is definitely on the list

Also I don't consider myself old and I remember blotting paper, infact you could only write in ink (fountain pen not biro!) if your joined up handwriting was good enough