Dig It Now, Let It Grow & Reap Benefits For Life

Allow your child and garden to grow together, assisting each other in a variety of ways.

It sounds like an alien statement, isn’t it? It’s true, believe me. Simply put, your child can help your garden, and your garden will help your child in a variety of areas, from academics to creativity.

Gardening for beginners is not that easy but you can make it easy for your kid, whether it is about the indoor hydroponic garden or outdoor gardening. If you read the best parenting blogs, then you might have noticed that gardening is the most given parenting advice because of its tremendous benefits.

Why is Gardening Important For Kids?

Before we discuss gardening as one of the parenting tips, we need to know the benefits that home gardening brings to your kid. Following are some of them:

Boosts Creativity

Kids imagine how a seed would grow like a plant and it improves their imagination and visualization power. The butterflies and colorful flowers in your garden are enough to boost creativity in your kid.

Cleaning: A Crucial Thing

Cleaning and gardening are strongly connected because after every gardening activity you need to clean your hands, tools, and so on. When your child is involved in gardening activities, there is a good chance that he may excel at cleaning. Make a point of emphasizing the importance of cleanliness and hygiene.

Makes Them A Nature Lover

They will gain a better understanding of the entire science of nature as they become more involved in gardening. Make them nature lovers by keeping close to plants, birds, butterflies, and much more. They will learn the importance of respecting nature and expressing gratitude for all that it provides.

Gaining Knowledge

Forget the stereotype that gardening is just a fun pastime; it can also be a valuable source of information for your child. If guided properly, kids will learn a lot about science, because from seasons to soils, nutrition to botany, and from natural resources to recycling, gardening entails everything.

Responsibility & Patience

Children are impatient (mostly), but it can teach them patience because gardening is all about patience.

Also, try not to use self-watering planters and make watering a social responsibility for your kid to make them more responsible.

How To Involve Your Kid In Gardening?

After reading the advantages, you may be eager to get your children involved in gardening, but how to motivate them?

Although your children may not be interested in gardening at first, you can naturally turn it into a fun zone for them by following these steps:

The Fun Way

Don’t make them do something they don’t want to do! Consider it as a parenting tip or warning, but never do this. Create interest among them for things that they find boring. Do the following to make gardening a fun activity for the kid.

• Plants/Seeds

Allow the children to choose which plants or seeds to grow in the garden.

• Own Zone

Allow kids to make their zone in the garden and make them in charge of that zone.

• Toolkit

There are many gardening kits for kids available online, hand over some colorful tools to your kid.

Make It Look Exciting!

Think about things that easily attract the eyes of the kids. Consider something a little more unique and exciting than colorful flower planters. You can also add the following items to your garden; they may appear difficult at first, but they will pay off in the long run.

• A small garden house covered with a trellis.
• A topiary garden full of ornamental plants.
• A miniature garden with small but attractive elements.
• A terrarium containing green plants and colorful crystals and pebbles.

Invite Guests!

No, I am not talking about folks and friends, but I am talking about birds and butterflies.

It’s not enough to have birdhouses in your garden. Plants that attract birds, such as Holly shrubs, should be included because birds will attract your child.

Clean The Garden

Tell your kid about the garden cleaning task and its importance. Some kids love pulling weeds or cutting extra leaves. If your kid is not interested in garden clean-up, then a reward system may help him.

Let Them Reap It! 

The most exciting part of gardening is harvesting what you have grown. Make it more exciting for the kids. Take them to the garden and ask them to get green veggies for the next meal.

Relate Other Activities

Try relating other activities with gardening to make it more exciting and for the overall development of the kid. Following are some habits that you can relate to gardening.

• Let them start a journal to write daily garden activities to improve writing skills.
• Clicking photos of the plants, flowers, and crops.

Safety Is A Must

This one is for you and for the sake of safety. Just keep in mind the following aspects to make gardening safe for your kid.

• Safety Everywhere

Always keep your child’s safety in mind when making decisions. Starting from tools, give them tools that are safe for tiny hands. Don’t leave them alone when it comes to garden pond cleaning.

• Away From Machines

Keep heavy-duty brush cutters and a garden cleaning machine out of reach of your child in some home gardens.

• Insects and Thorns

Insects are all over there on plants or in bushes, so keep your kid safe from such insects. When cleaning flower pots, they should also try to keep their hands away from thorns.

• Infections

Potting mixtures have bacteria that can be harmful to the skin, so sanitizing hands after washing them is also important, but touching plants after using alcohol-based sanitizer can harm them.

Don’t worry, some natural sanitizers, such as HOCl-based sanitizers, ensure safety from infections and cause no harm to the plants.

Believe me or not! Spending time with kids in a garden is a soothing experience. When you see a child playing with soil and plants, I’m sure you’ll be transported back to your childhood. Let us know about your previous experience in the comments!