Gardening with children: You're never too young to develop green fingers

Landscape designer Nicola Haines shares some tips for gardening with young people 

Children should learn about where their food comes from — and they will enjoy the experience.

Grow your own food

Many people have lost the connection with how food is produced and often kids don’t know how food arrives on their plates. 

Growing your own fruit and vegetables at home is a great way to teach children about the value of food and to encourage them to get out into the garden and have fun. 

This is something you can do in any size space — even a balcony or patio — as all you need is a pot and some seeds or plug plants. 

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Fruits are a great place to start. Most children like strawberries and it is wonderful to send them out to pick them for their breakfast in the morning.

Teach them about the environment

Water butts, composts and other sustainable gardening features are important measures for any biodiverse garden, but they also help to educate children about conserving water, reducing food waste, and protecting the environment. It’s never too early to start teaching youngsters about climate change.

Install a wormery

A wormery is a great idea as all kids love worms. I have two and when my boys were small, they loved going out to feed the worms with their friends on playdates. It’s a wonderful way to teach children how nature works.

Experiment with planting

Not everything works the way you plan — I have many failures but it’s important not to lose heart, especially when you are gardening with kids. If something doesn’t grow as you anticipated, don’t worry, just try something different. 

The most important thing is that you have fun.

Nicola Haines. 

Nicola Haines is a landscape designer with Tierney Haines Architects. She works on rural and urban gardens, both public and private, and is a full member of the GLDA. She has won two Gold Medals at Bord Bia Bloom in 2016 and 2018 and returns to Bloom this year with her Shared Spaces Family Garden design for Easy Steps to Dream Gardens

Bord Bia: Benefits of gardening for children

• Sensory development: children feel different textures like the soil, seeds, flowers, wood, and petals. They also get to smell all the amazing flower scents and see all the colourful petals and leaves.
• Eating habits: If you encourage kids to grow their own vegetables, they may gain interest in eating them too.
• Education: It helps them to experience certain topics they may be learning at school, such as seasons, weather, life cycles, plant varieties, and other scientific concepts.
• Enhances creativity: There are several fun gardening arts and crafts that will allow them to explore all their creative capabilities and enhance their senses in clever ways!
• Family bonding: It is an activity that everyone can be involved in.
• Connects kids with nature: Children learn how important it is to take care of it and that they’re never too young to make an impact in the world.
• And most amazingly, it teaches two virtues that will help them throughout their life: responsibility and patience. Why? Because growing any sort of plant requires daily attention, care, and a level of responsibility.