Spending time outside with kids can be fun and challenging. For some families, special events like an outdoor movie night or backyard camping are great options to create family bonding and special summer experiences. For other families, the summer is filled with sports and swimming at the beach or spending time with friends. Yet, for others, spring, summer, and even into the fall offers the perfect backdrop for a family-friendly activity, gardening. From spring prep to fall harvests, gardening with kids, presents an opportunity to bond, but also teaches them about the environment and hard work. To help, the following aims to provide some ideas to engage kids in the process, along with gardening tips to keep those critters out of the garden so you can bond in a pest-free space.
5 Fabulous Gardening with Kids Tips from Yard & Garden Enthusiasts
For more tips, tricks, and ideas about gardening with your family, we put out a call for help and are sharing the curated responses below. (Note: Eliminate ‘Em is not endorsing any of the companies or ideas discussed below, but we asked for suggestions to get some different perspectives.) Keep reading to find out what the contributors who responded to our query had to say about their favorite family gardening ideas.
- Nathan Thorne (@nathan-thorne)
Nathan Thorne is an avid gardener and Horticulturist at Handyflowers.
Gardening with children is fantastic both for the teaching aspect and for the memories to be created—what better way to instill a love of nature, plants, and the outdoors? Here are some of my best tips and tricks based on my experience as a gardener and parent:
Opportunity for family bonding – The garden has also been the means for great bonding time with the family and quality outdoor time. It made my kids more physically active, appreciate the need to take care of the environment, and learn more about where their food originates.
Getting Kids Involved with Gardening – Choose Interesting Plants: Plants that are beautiful or growing tend to attract kids. Colorful flowers, beans, cherry tomatoes, radishes, and fast-growing vegetables, herbs like lavender with their fragrance, and lemon balm can fascinate them.
Set up a kid-friendly garden space – Let the kids have a part of your garden—or even containers—to plant their own seeds. Allow them to paint or put stickers on their garden markers and pots in order to personalize it.
Make it interactive – Engage the children in all phases of gardening, from tilling soil to sowing seeds, watering, weeding, and harvesting. Explain how plants grow and why they need sunlight and water.
Make It a Learning Experience – Teach children about plants’ life cycles, the health value of soil, and how some insects, like bees and butterflies, do their share in transferring pollen from flower to flower. Use gardening as a practical means to introduce subjects such as photosynthesis and ecology.
Fun Activities – Incorporate fun activities like going on a scavenger hunt for leaves or insects in the garden, keeping a garden journal on the growth of plants, and making crafts that nature inspires with garden materials.
Celebrate Progress – Celebrate the first sprout, the flowering of the first bud, or the harvesting of the first vegetable. Encourage the kids to share their gardening success stories with their family and friends.
- Jeremy Yamaguchi (@lawnlove)
Jeremy Yamaguchi is the CEO of Lawn Love, a company that’s bringing high-tech solutions to the lawn care industry.
Gardening in general can be a great activity for kids, but I think specifically gardening with fruits and vegetables is a fantastic idea. Not only does it give them something to work on and see through to fruition, but it also teaches them where food comes from and what goes into making it. But you can’t just expect them to be able to maintain a huge garden on their own! You can either have them help you when you garden, or you can design a small garden set up for them to care for on their own (with your supervision, of course).
If you both agree to let them have and maintain a small garden of their own, let them choose what to grow. Give them a list of fruits and vegetables that are on the easier side and let them pick from that. Start with 2-3 different kinds. Help them plant them, but let them do the bulk of the work so they feel responsible. Celebrate any yield you get, and if the plants don’t produce at first, don’t let them get discouraged. This is such a fun hands-on activity that gets them outside and gets them learning.
- Ryan Farley (@lawnstarter)
Ryan Farley, CEO of LawnStarter, which makes it easy to find and book quality lawn care services in your area.
I would say my top tip for gardening with kids is just to engage them in the process and let them discover their own passions within this activity. Gardening can be a great outdoor bonding activity, but it’s pointless if your kids are getting bored. I’ve found one of the best remedies for this is just allowing them to pick out plants they’re interested in. You can then encourage them to research how to care for this type of plant, and allow them to take over some or even most of the work (age-dependent). In my experience, this can really help cultivate that sense of accomplishment that will engage them much more in gardening as a whole.
- Rafi Friedman (@CoastalLux)
Rafi Friedman, President of Coastal Luxury Outdoors.
For absolute beginners, just focus on involving them in the basic tasks of gardening. Let them help you plant seeds, pull weeds, and water plants. Once your kids know a bit more about the basics, put them “in charge” of their own garden plot. This could be a few square feet in a garden bed or maybe a few pots. Guide them through choosing good plants for the site, figuring out when to plant them, how to fertilize them, etc, but make them responsible for doing the research and handling regular care like watering.
- Chrissie Handley
Chrissie Handley is a lawn care specialist working for Online Turf. With extensive expertise in turf-laying, grass maintenance & seasonal gardening advice, she is dedicated to helping gardening enthusiasts achieve lush, healthy lawns year-round.
For children to engage positively with gardening, you can’t just get them weeding & planting- you need to approach gardening tasks from a child-friendly perspective and consider what is going to successfully engage and excite them.
The best way to think about this is through a reward scheme- can the child benefit from this in an obvious way, rather than it just being a ‘learning experience’. For example, a great idea is to grow strawberries in your garden – you and your child can bond over planting together and it teaches them the patience of waiting for them to grow and with a sweet reward at the end. The same can be done for herb gardens, which you could then use together in cooking activities.
If your child prefers craft-based activities, you can have them paint bird boxes or create wildlife habitats for creepy-crawlies. This lets them have creative freedom over habitats for animals and teaches them to be comfortable around local wildlife from a young age. You can also turn this into a fun game, where you create a wildlife-spotting checklist / scavenger hunt that they can tick off as they go.
By inspiring children to take an interest in gardening by starting their own projects at home, it’s the first step into creating a new generation of avid gardeners, who can then learn the passion for tending to green space and caring for local wildlife from a young age.
5 Tips for a Pest-Free Garden
At various points, all gardeners struggle with keeping different pests out of the garden. More often than not, this is an ongoing and time-consuming challenge throughout the growing season. While adults may understand the cause and effect of garden pests, it may be frustrating to kids getting started (and the adults too!). However, wildlife are part of the local ecosystem, so while you may not desire those rabbits eating your plants, it presents an opportunity to teach kids about the environment. It helps to understand what attracts the critters and wildlife to the garden. Then, with the right tips, you can work together to control the activity.
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CRITTERS IN THE GARDEN?
Everything from watering to compost use to crop or flower selection may make your garden an ideal living location for certain pests. However, there are three main reasons why wildlife are attracted to gardens:
- Food: The new stalks of emerging peas and tomato plants can be chewed through by cutworms or enjoyed by rabbits. Birds may be interested in the helpful worms or the blackberries that fall off of your bushes. Other intruders may be in your garden to prey on other pests instead of what you’ve put in the garden, though they may still damage some plants or flowers while they are hunting.
- Moisture: Critters are also in your garden for their survival. Clearly, plants need water to grow and many garden pests, like mosquitoes, seek water and moisture as well.
- Shelter and Nesting Spots: Garden pests and wildlife seek shelter and gardens are filled with warm and sunny spots, along with plenty of leaves that provide excellent hiding spots from predators like other animals, such as cats, nearby.
By understanding the root cause that attracts common garden animals like rabbits and possums, you can effectively deter these pests from your garden (with patience).
What are Natural Pest Deterrents?
While the particulars may vary by pest, there are some very common methods to help deter pests from gardens. When working together with kids to protect the garden, then it is important to note that wildlife plays a role in the ecosystem. So, attempting to naturally keep pests away is preferred. Additionally, many home gardens grow plants like tomatoes and herbs, so avoiding chemicals on your own potential food source is also a better outcome.
APPLY REPELLENT SPRAYS
Like humans, there are certain scents that repel common garden pests. From cinnamon and cayenne pepper to plants like lavender and rosemary, these smells are an effective strategy to deter pests like rabbits, slugs and more. Additionally, depending on the pest, a repellent spray made from predator urine also works (although may not be as appealing for fruits, vegetables and herbs). For those dog owners, allowing your pup to urinate around the edge of the garden might offer a simple solution. Finally, remember to reapply repellents and scent deterrents after rain or heavy watering.
Natural Repellent Solutions
For some smaller pests, such as ants, there are two natural repellents that are effective at attacking the root source of the problem. Nematodes are microscopic organisms that target and parasitize ant larvae and pupae, helping to disrupt the ant life cycle. Consider applying them to the soil around plants to reduce the ant population in your garden. Alternatively, diatomaceous earth is a natural powder made from fossilized aquatic organisms. Simply sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the perimeter of your garden beds and it provides a physical barrier, damaging the exoskeletons of ants and deterring them from crossing and damaging plants and flowers.
Remove Nesting & Hiding Places
As opposed to adding deterrents, another effective strategy to repel garden pests is removing hiding and nest places. For example, removing common areas of shelter like overrun brush or tall grass around the garden will help deter small wildlife. Additionally, removing debris, such as fallen leaves and fruits, along with keeping plants well-pruned will reduce cover and easy-to-reach food sources.
Utilize Scare Tactics
From visual deterrents that feature reflective objects to startling sounds, some scare tactics can work in conjunction with other methods. To help, common scare tactics include installing motion-activated sprinklers, incorporating reflective objects like old CDs, aluminum pie plays, or planting ornaments that mimic predators, such as owl statues (for rabbits or birds), which can also be effective. With sound-based scare tactics, then wind chimes or small bells can create an unsettling environment for animals. However, it is important to change positions regularly because animals are smart creatures and will become accustomed to stationary objects over time.
Create Alternative Food Sources
Some gardeners plant decoy or sacrificial plants in an area away from the main garden. This head fake is also known as planting “trap crops” and works well for pests like grasshoppers. When filled with plants, shelter, and even some moisture, a fake garden will attract critters and keep them away from the primary garden.
Ultimately, animals are seeking food and shelter (the primary needs of all creatures). To help protect your hard work and let the kids enjoy the rewards of their efforts, then eliminating food and shelter should be the focus of prevention. While natural repellents aim to create a barrier (and for some wildlife like rabbits and deer, a physical barrier may be required as well) to keep the plants safe.
However, while these natural deterrents typically help mitigate an overrun of wildlife, professional pest control services can help remove wildlife that requires more experience and knowledge to eradicate. For gardeners and homeowners in our service area, Eliminate ‘Em offers safe and effective pest control services. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can even come to your home or business same-day. Eliminate ‘Em’s pest management process includes a full inspection, pest extermination, and cleanup, so all traces are removed. We will seal the entry points pests have previously entered through and will also provide information on how to prevent future infestations. We offer both residential and commercial pest control services.
For pest prevention recommendations, wildlife control, and other critter removal solutions, it may be worthwhile to work with a local pest control specialist. Contact Eliminate ‘Em to help today!
