Getting Your Hands Dirty
April is here. Spring has sprung. The woodpeckers are pecking, doves are cooing and baby birds are hatching. The bulbs are blooming, tree blossoms are beginning to dot the landscape and the kids are playing outside. The days are mild, the earth is muddy and the dogs are tracking in mud. Finally, gardening season is upon us.
Gardening with kids is a great way to be outside, get creative with them and let them do what they do best: play. There is always something magical and fun in the garden. A natural, inherit magnetic attraction exists between children and the earth, whether it’s playing in the muck or watching a seed transform to a flower. Gardening with all age kids offers an outlet – a sense of grounding – in a world that is dominated by screens.
Your garden need not be perfect. My kids have their own gardens. Each has about 60 square feet that they can do what they please. Generally, however, all of our veggies are in the same bed. We share that responsibility together by reminding each other to tend to them. In their gardens, they till the earth, sprinkle (kid-friendly, fast-germinating) seeds, tend to it by watering and weeding and even add painted rocks – or whatever they wish – to it to make it uniquely theirs.
Granted, I guide them, letting them know what steps are to be taken and allow them to do those steps. Aerate the soil – gently, sow the seeds – gently, water the garden – gently. Gardening reminds me how powerful gentility is.
Gardening teaches kids patience. When a seed is sown, it may take a few days to germinate (think: lettuce, peas, peppers, spinach, zinnias). Or, it may take a week. It teaches them the cycles of the seasons and the days. Connecting to the earth gives them perspective. Slowly, they come to understand that certain fruits and vegetables are only available during certain times of the year. They really understand the deliciousness of growing their own food. Somehow, it tastes better – sweeter than if we had purchased it from the grocery. The flower bouquets are that much more beautiful than the store bought one (even a “winter bouquet”).
Tending to the garden with the kids allows us to bond with them. We don’t talk gardens the whole time. We talk about school and what we’re going to be for Halloween (yes, in April) and dolls and football. We are connecting. We are getting our hands dirty and our clothes wet and we are tracking mud in the house. We are shaping their memories and creating profound (albeit unconscious) habits (patience, respect, gentility).
Don’t get me wrong, they lose interest and forget about the garden. But, I remind them and bring them back – back to center, back outside, back to earth.
A native of Park Hill, Marne is a professional horticulturalist and garden designer who cultivates her own plot on Dexter Street, where gardens and two kids grow. She can be reached at marnenorquist@gmail.com.