This last Saturday, Winterthur garden interns and staff helped 21 children plant their vegetable gardens for our annual “Kids Grow” children’s gardening program. Over the next 10 weeks children and their parents will watch their seeds grow, pull weeds, thin, pinch, water and weed their way to a nice harvest of salad vegetables. By the end of the summer, bushel baskets of tomatoes and sacks of lettuce, carrots, beans, and radishes will go home with the children who, we hope, will have a new-found appreciation for vegetables and for gardening.
Gardening with children only takes a couple hours a week but the lessons they learn and the fun they have will last much longer. I will be posting information here, on our blog, over the next several weeks that I hope will encourage you and your children to try gardening. For young children between the ages of 6 and 8 years old we use a simple planting plan. Older children can be encouraged to be more adventurous and can, generally, take on larger and more complex gardens; our planting plan for older children gives them choices of different vegetables, herbs and flowers to grow.
Hi Chris,
I enjoyed watching an entire family weeding, piling assorted plant material into the Compostumbler, and harvesting the fruits of their spring labors up at the greenhouse parking lot last Sunday evening. Maybe a follow-up of those lush vegetable gardens, with photos, would be fun? The entire gang were eating those warm sweet cherry tomatoes right off the vine on an 85º day. YUM!
Jeannette,
That’s great! I think the kids are really enjoying the garden and we have had some wonderful photo opportunities. I’ll put together a selection for the blog. Thank you for the idea, Chris
[...] For background on our children’s garden see Kids Grow. [...]