Aside from the standard pests that we all see in our gardens, one of the most destructive of all forces is our kids…
Aside from putting up 6-foot high fences topped with barbed wire (these wild creatures will always find their way into your freshly planted patch and create havoc), there is a simple method for the control and prevention of their destructive ways – get your kids involved!
Giving your children an opportunity to be a part of growing your families’ vegan organic food is a brilliant way to teach them the beauty and wonder of plants, insect life and animals. Kids have a wonderful way of seeing things, and have an endless curiosity to learn.
Here are a few tips to get them started on the path of becoming fine helpers –
Give them a patch of earth
Allocate a space within your garden that is just the “kid’s patch”. It doesn’t need to be a big space, maybe just a corner or a raised bed. Let them go crazy with decorating it with colourful paint, or sculptures or rocks (which the lizards love) and allow them to plant whatever they want there.
The guardianship they will have over their patch will teach them the work needed to succeed in gardening. Let them watch the seasons change, the insects come and go, their plants grow, die, and revive. Make sure they keep their patch neat and weed-free – the vegan way.
Buy them their own tools
There are loads of kid sized tools out there, usually in girly pinks for our daughters and blue for boys. I have seen packs with little tool belts (make sure they are not leather!) with a watering can included. If you can’t find any kid sized ones, just buy standard hand tools and make sure that the kids know they are theirs.
You can teach your kids how to clean, store correctly and have pride in their tools, so that they last for years. Make sure that they have their own set of gloves too as they will be handling animal poop, and as we encourage bugs in a vegan organic garden, they might help them avoid a bite or sting.
You might also enjoy these related articles:
- Non-Violent Pest Control in Your Vegan Organic Garden
- Naturalized Swimming Pools and Wildlife Ponds in Your Back Yard
- Back to Basics: How to Start Your Very Own Vegan Garden
Start with simple and foolproof
There are some plants and vegies that are very easy to grow from seed and keep alive without too much hassle. These will give your kids the confidence to try different and more difficult plants. They will want to see results quickly so try out beans, peas, sunflowers, nasturtiums. Some others are turnips (sometime sprouting with 24 hours), zucchinis, and squash. Bigger seeds such as broad beans are easier for little fingers to plant, but older kids can sprinkle smaller seeds easily.
Start them off inside, at the correct time of the year to ensure some success and move them into the kid’s patch when they are large enough.
Let them choose
Your children will love to grow things that are interesting or that they like to eat themselves. Radishes are very, very simple to grow from seed directly in the patch, but if the kids hate radishes it won’t be much fun for them.
Guide them in the right direction as to what they should be planting in the given season and let them have fun choosing, as there are always many colours and varieties of any given plant available. If all else fails, all children love sunflowers and they are simple to grow.
Teach them about the life in the garden
A backyard garden will be home for an endless number of insects and wild animals and it is important that we teach our kids to love, admire and above all respect the different forms of life. Teach them not to squish or harm any living beings, as they all play a part in keeping the garden healthy. If a certain insect is harming their plants, teach them how to deal with the insect in a cruelty free manner.
It is also imperative that we teach them how to interact with this life safely. While it is fun to gently hold a praying mantis on our hand, it’s not such a great idea for the kids to pick up spiders! My kids know to come and get me and I will then show them a closer view of a safe insect or move the not-so-safe ones to a different place in the garden.
Above all, keep gardening fun with your kids and you will have them hooked for life!