Encouraging kids to spend more time outdoors can be a challenge, but by making it fun and letting them learn about the gardening process, and growing their own gardens, it gives them something to look forward to, and something to take care of. Creating a kid-friendly garden is easy, and can be created in raised beds, containers, or if you have the space, a full garden bed. It is important to fill the area or container with a good soil medium. A mixture that will drain well but retain some moisture is best. Once the area is prepared, it is time to choose the flowers to grow and nurture.
Kids prefer plants that are showy, fast growing, and interesting to watch. Sunflowers for example, are a great flower for kids to learn to grow because they are very easy to plant, require very little care, and grow very fast to produce their amazing yellow blooms. Plants that require less attention are best suited, because kids want to be able to enjoy the gardening process and have fun with it. The fussier plants will turn gardening into a chore, and kids may lose interest. Sweet peas are equally impressive, and climb tall on trellises or fences, producing brightly colored flowers. They are quick growing, and germinate quickly. The vines of the plant weave and twist up structures and are interesting for kids to watch grow.
Other plants like strawberries, chives, or mint are also fun, kid-friendly plants to grow. Strawberries have small white, pink, or light red colored flowers depending on the variety, and have runners that jut out from the base of the plant and trail across the ground. Once these runners have extended far enough from the parent plant, they sprout a clone plant in the soil, and a whole new plant begins to develop, and so on goes this process. Strawberries are a fun plant for kids to watch grow, as much as they are fun for them to eat.
Chives and mint also flower. Chives have a tight cluster of small pink or white blooms on top of long slim stems, and mint produces small clusters of pink flowers atop of its stems too. While both of these herbs do produce flowers, they are both equally fun for kids to eat too. Teaching kids how to garden, and allowing them to grow plants that they can later eat and enjoy, encourages them to learn about new species of plants, and teaches them responsibility.
Snapdragon, pansy, and marigold are also great choices, and produce great colorful blooms all through the summer months. Snapdragons are a fun flower to grow because of their height, and make for great cut flowers that can be brought indoors. Marigolds and pansies are interesting for kids to grow too, and come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Getting kids interested in gardening is easy, and it is important that they are able to grow plants that they are interested in, and are fun for them to watch grow.
