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Gardening Projects for Kids

Gardening projects for kids can be a marvelous way to introduce those little ones to the wonders of nature, the virtues of patience and the merits of responsibility. It's also a great way to get them outside, into the fresh air and away from a computer terminal or a TV set. The best way to introduce children to gardening is, of course, by gardening with children. If you like gardening and do it regularly, you can keep your kids occupied outside there right along with you.

Fun Gardening With Children

Here are some vital pointers that might help you to turn those kids into garden enthusiasts. If you succeed at piquing their interest in gardening, you might just be giving them a wonderful, healthy, productive hobby whose benefits will last a lifetime:

Tell them and show them. Kids need to see things, so show them the wonders of gardening.
Find ways to fascinate the kids with garden activity and fauna. Get them busy and keep them busy. Finding, counting and collecting worms can be a noble preoccupation, for instance. And never underestimate the awe of digging a hole.
Kids like to see immediate results. Plant something that will come up fast. Radishes are a great option. They pop up in a matter of days.
Kids love to get dirty. Here's a healthy, positive means by which you can indulge their passion.
Give them gardening tools exactly like your own. A small shovel, a diminutive wheelbarrow, a pair of gloves and a water bucket might be just the thing to set their interest in higher gear.
Relive the experience. When the actual gardening activity is over for the day, relive the excitement and you praise your kids for their persistence.
Keep records. Encourage them to keep a journal in words and pictures that cover each day's garden activity
Accommodate smaller kids. Help your younger children to start a "tub garden." All you need is potting soil, a tub, some seeds and a sunny location!

Set Up "Ground" Rules

Capitalize on your children's enthusiasm for gardening by encouraging them to maintain their own kids' garden. Show them precisely where they can (and can't) dig, then let them prepare their beds and plant their seeds.

Kids love planting seeds and they love watching them grow into their own plants and flowers. For special fun, give them sunflower seeds. In addition to planting, they can also eat the seeds! Other planting favorites for kids include daisies, zinnias and petunias—largely because they attract butterflies—and blue cornflowers or fennel, because they attract ladybugs.

For special dedication, give the kids a ruler or a tape measure and have them mark daily growth progress by the fractional inch. Here are a few other ways to keep the kids fascinated with their gardening:

Decorate and design labels to identify their plants.
Build a scarecrow.
Visit a local botanical garden and impress upon them the sheer beauty of flowers and plant life.
Give them a bonus on top of their regular allowance that they can spend only at the local garden center.

Naturally, gardening with children calls for gardening with safety in mind. Make sure that the kids, especially small ones, never handle sharp gardening tools. And keep chemicals such as fertilizer and insecticides out of their hands at all times. Best of all, introduce the kids to the wonders of organic gardening and show them that nature's purest way can also be the greatest way to grow a lovely garden and reap a lifetime of benefits and pleasures.

Not sure how to explain plant biology and the life cycle of plants? This article helps adults put these concepts into terms kids will understand.

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