Teaching Children about Growing Things

Gardening is a wonderful activity for children. Teaching children about growing things can be done in a classroom setting or in their own backyard. They will benefit from their hard work.

One of the easiest ways to teach children about gardening is to help them create a container garden. This type of garden requires little space and just a small investment.

Container gardens can be located on a patio, in a window box, pr really in any small space inside or out. In areas with little sunlight, plant lights can be used to ensure proper lighting.

You don’t need to be a gardening expert to teach children about growing things. There are countless books, on the market, which guide you through the entire process. Many of these books include colorful pictures, of container gardens, which actually aid young gardeners in deciding on a garden of their own.

There are usually workshops covering container or small space gardening geared toward children. Family owned nurseries, are often more than willing to take the time to assist you with project ideas.

If you are teaching younger gardeners, plants which reach maturity quickly are a good choice. Carrots, radishes, bush beans and certain types of squash take less than 55 days to harvest. They are all good container gardening candidates.

Also consider planting container gardens that are theme based. Plant a ‘salsa garden’. Doing so will teach them about growing things and Mexican culture at the same time. By planting a tomato plant, a jalapeno plant, onion sets and garlic chives, they will have the main ingredients to make homemade salsa.

You can easily transform an ordinary bag of potting soil into a container, with hardly any effort at all. This works especially well if you are planting herbs. Mint, parsley, basil, sage and dill, are herbs to consider for this project.

Lay a bag of potting soil on a flat surface. Cut at least for small X’s in the bag. Remove a bit of soil under each X, forming a small hole. Water each hole. Plant one herb plant, per hole. Move bag to a location which receives adequate sunlight.

Instead of making drainage holes, in the bag, it is much neater to slowly sprinkle water in each hole when plants look wilted.