Getting your children outside in the garden is fantastic. They can soak up the vitamin D, play in the dirt, and make a mess that doesn't need to be cleaned up. At our house, the children are out in the garden every day. I wrote about some of the activities that my daughter was doing in the garden this time last year. This year, being nearly four years old, she is really getting into "being a farmer".
So how to go about getting them started?
Don't be afraid of children damaging your plants. Give them their own garden bed instead, where they are free to dig and plant and play as much as they like. Miss 3.5 has just finished eating her way through her first crop of peas and carrots, and has planted a new crop of carrots and leeks. She also has plant pots full of petunias. She spends her days digging in the garden with her little spade and watering her plants with "muck gooey", which is a broth that she makes up herself full of dirt, water and a little liquid fertiliser.
Don't be afraid of them getting dirty either. Put them in special gardening clothes and remember that mud washes off in the washing machine.
Have fun!
How do your children play in the garden? What do they like to plant?
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