Mommy's Favorite Things: Green Fingers and Thumbs! Get Gardening with your Little Ones!



Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Green Fingers and Thumbs! Get Gardening with your Little Ones!




The garden is a magical place for everyone of all ages. With so much to look at, to smell, to touch and even taste it’s important to introduce the garden to your little ones as early as possible.
Garden activities are all about learning and fun, exploring and discovering – like how tiny seeds grow into huge plants! How wet and squishy the soil is and how important it is to fill your watering can right to the very top! You can find about more about what to plant in your garden this year by clicking here.

Get learning about all those plants
There are close to 400,000 different types of plants in the world, but if you’re gardening with your children you’ll only need to learn to look after a few of them! Bedding plants are a great place to start when you head into the garden together, we’re talking Begonias and Geraniums, Petunias and Busy Lizzies. You can get these from any plant nursery, and many supermarkets stock impressive ranges too.
The beauty of simple bedding plants is that you can pop them straight into the ground or pot, and you’ve got an instant plant. There’s not much work to do here, so your littles ones won’t get too distracted. Why not set aside a couple of garden pots or an area in a flowerbed that’s just for them and their plants?
All you need to help them with is create a small hole in the soil or compost, pop the plant in, cover it again and then water the flowers. Simple! If you think your child ha a bit more of an attention span and would like a bigger project, then consider planting some vegetables or growing some tomatoes or strawberries?

Growing their own
Staying with fruit and veg. Growing something that your children can tend to and then harvest and eat will give them a great sense of achievement. You could let them choose what they would like to plant and once they’re ready to be harvested, you could have a pizza night and let them add their veggies to their creations!
Here are some suggestions to get growing
       Salad veg: Tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, peppers and radishes
       Fruit: Strawberries, blackcurrants and blueberries
       Vegetables: Potatoes, peas, runner beans and carrots
       Herbs: Cress, basil, mint


Gardening indoors
You might not have a big, spacious garden, but don’t worry. If you have an apartment that comes with a balcony, then let you little one help you fill some plant pots instead. If don’t have any outdoor space then you won’t miss out!
Why not create a little indoor garden? You can buy potted herbs and have you little one water them for you. Or get some weird and wonderful cacti and watch them flower each year – or go for something out of this world and get them a Venus fly trap! They won’t be able to stop watching it – and it’ll get rid of all those perky flies in the summertime!



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