Create a Children's Garden

Children are natural gardeners. They are curious, love flowers and prefer playing in the dirt. So why don’t you create a kiddie-sized garden together with your child? You’ll help her learn about nature, encourage responsibility and let hr experience a sense of accomplishment. A children's garden is an excellent way to create a safe, summer place to continue learning. In his own garden a child can observe and discover while she interacts with nature. And above all, you’ll spend time together and will have fun.

Make it organic
An ideal children's garden should be completely safe and child friendly. This means no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Go organic in any way when it comes to producing your own vegetables, which your child would love to eat once they have grown.

Plant great selection
Let your child decide where and what to plant, but you may want to show her around other gardens first. Use your time together to tell your child about how important anre the vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables, and which ones are even better for her diet and will keep her healthy. Name variety of fruits and vegetables, so she can pick up her favourites and plant them in her garden. Plant vegetables that the child loves to eat. Explain the child how plants need sunshine, water and healthy soil. Establish a sense of ownership by giving the child his own plot. Remember that plants that sprout quickly, and grow fast, will hold the child's interest and give him a sense of pride. For example cucumbers, beans, and zucchini all have large seeds and are easy to grow. Cherry tomatoes and radishes, although having small seeds produce rapidly. Let her plant some flowers as well, as this will encourage her sense of beauty and aesthetics. Sunflowers and marigolds are bold and easy to grow.

Decorate
Place a kid-size bench close by where the child can sit, play or show off his garden to friends. Having an area with some rye-grass in the garden is a good idea as you could throw down a blanket for your little one to play and enjoy the sunshine around the flowers. A small fairy or other “garden friends” will add up to the perfect kiddie garden.

Educate
Create learning activities that at the same time are fun for the child. With the help of a picture book ask you child to point the birds and insects which visit the garden. Encourage her to draw the plants which she has in her garden. Don’t be too picky about the colours – it’s absolutely fine if her grass is blue on the scribble pad, as this encourages creativity and thinking “out of the box”.

Relax
A garden will provide your child opportunity to utilize all his senses as he experiences the unpredictability of nature. Use her garden as a canvas for some relaxation and free play. Why don’t you give her a nice massage there on the grass, the flowers’ aromas will sooth and help her relax. Or how about showing her some yoga exercises while having a rest after planning the seeds? Let her have a rest and relax in her most favourite piece of nature.

Taste
Once you have a selection of perfectly organic and packed with vitamins vegetables, some cooking activities will help her love her garden even more. This is a brilliant way to make picky eaters have their vegetables! – By making her own salad (with the help of mummy), and experiencing its great taste, your child will enjoy it more!

Have fun
Mix up routine gardening chores with more fun activities, like painting or colouring plant markers or even constructing a funny scarecrow. Don’t worry if planted rows turn out a little crooked and don’t criticise about minor mistakes. A perfect garden is the one created with love!

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