Kids and Gardening
 

Hi y'all! Well, a wonderful thing happened not too long ago. My 24 year old son discovered growing his own hot peppers....he's hooked! We never talked Gardening before,because he never showed interested,but now he is excited! I've shared my seeds and some of my knowledge. His girlfriend has become interested as well. She's got an apartment container garden that she started from seed. It feels so good to connect with my kids in another interest. blessed

Congrats!

My daughter shows no interest yet . . . but at least my dog loves being outside with me!

Jeff

Still going strong here. We are about to start sowing seeds again for our fall garden.

My grown kids don't have an interest, but I invite my local grandkids over to help grandpa plant his tomatoes. Each gets to pick out their plant, plant it and that plant is theirs. When they come over I ask them if they want to go check out their tomato plant and they are always eager to check it out. The first ripe tomato off their plant is saved and given to them. There are 3 of them and they range from 6-9 years old and I love it probably more than they do.

I didn't started gardening until 30 years old, and it was due to learning about nutrition and trying to eat healthy. But I stuck with it because of the enjoyment of the experience. I grow for the enjoyment first and foremost, the harvest is secondary.

One of my three children, he's 7, has an interest for gardening. He started showing this a couple of years ago. This season though he seems to be less interested. I am not pushing him and hopind he will regain interest once the season is in full bloom. At his age my dad used to garden and I thought it was kind of a punishment if had to spend some time with him in the garden.
Sometimes I wish there were no TVs and no smartphones

Both my grown children are gardeners. My son has little sunlight but grows two potted tomatoes that I give him but he has to move them daily to follow the sun. He is prepared to do that!
My daughter gardens and grows things to sell at a farmer's market along with her other goods. I started off both kids by getting them to plant a few pea seeds and then let them reap the rewards which they loved. We always had things like raspberries and apple trees around while they were youngsters growing up in the country. ( Um, should I mention blowing up apples with firecrackers?)
As well as having them spend whatever time they wanted in the garden they were allowed to learn to use a knife at age five to help prepare the vegetables from the garden, as much as they were able. Both grew up liking the greens on their plates and graduallly developed a taste for the other good veggies from the garden. Daughter once said "I hate beets and I will never like them, I will always hate them!!!" Guess who now loves beets?

One of their grandmothers taught my daughter how to make flower fairies out of flowers picked from the garden. They would be put together and floated in a kiddy pool. Delightful!

Plus the insects and snakes in a garden are always of interest to kids. I have had neighbours with kids who were afraid of every insect that flew or crawled but that was learned from their parents. Realizing that my mom had taught me to be terrified of dogs when I was a kid I did my best not to pass on my fear of snakes to the kids. On one vacation my son became personna non grata at another cottage when he had a sweet little girl help him catch as many garter snakes as they could find together and put them all in the girl's parents' storage shed. That still makes me laugh.
My daughter when little once told me that she could smell a snake nearby under a bush. She now likes to handle those large pet pythons. Yikes!

My 8 year old grand daughter always checks out the garden when she comes over, lately enjoying some of the few sour cherries from a small tree. Having eaten them since she was little she really likes them now. She asked after the sweet tomatillos I grew when she was three so I started up some more for her this year. She goes with her mom on market days and helps sell plants. One year I had her pot up all my wee spider plant babies in 2'' pots and when they had grown enough roots we took them in as a donation to a thirft shop. We enjoy as much outdoor time together as we can.

I guess there are lots of ways to involve children in the garden depending on the child as to what sparks their interest. Exposure goes a long way.

Back in the 1970's a local department store had a brand of seeds called silly seeds,
not to be confused with the ones on the internet now.
They were oddball seeds like corn stalks that would grow 10 feet high,yard long beans,
snake cucumber that was a true cucumber and would grow 2 feet long curled up like a snake.
All designed to get kids interested in gardening.
I have never seen the snake cucumbers again.

Never had kids but I have gardened sense just about the day I could walk.
I came from a very long line of Texas farmers.
Working in the garden was expected on us kids and some times I didn't like it one bit but it was my job to do.
My evil sister always got out of the chores somehow.
Work or dont eat you wont live here for free.was said around the house many times.
Plus I had to help with all the other many chores around the place.
Feed the chickens.
Feed the ducks.
Gather eggs.
Carry the slop bucket to the hogs,(They were my hogs I raised from babies in grade school).
Feed cows.
Carry milk.
Make butter.
The list is endless.
The older and bigger I got the more chores were put upon me.
There is a lot of work on a working farm and ranch.
I have stories galore about life on the farm.
My wife said I had the mind of an old man by the time I was a teenager.
I never got to play with others much, it was work work work.
And I dont feel bad about it not one bit either.
I have always had a fondness for growing stuff.