Spring planting

“Have you ever watched the absorbed concentration with which children play with sand and water?  Swap the sand with soil and hey presto, you have the main components of a garden project! Trust me, the results can be a lot more fun and fruitful than the initial image conjures up and believe it or not, plant-adoring adults and exuberant children can successfully co-exist in the one place!

Gardening and especially vegetable gardening is the perfect platform for providing recreation, adventure and education for children. Not only does it tear them away from tv screens, but it also enables them to exercise and absorb Vitamin D. By working side-by-side with practitioners, parents or grandparents, children inherit life long skills and cultivate a taste and value for healthy home grown food. Studies show that most children who engage in growing vegetables actually like eating them as well.

Gardening is multi-sensory and there is no disputing that observing plant growth and the seasons can teach children lots about science and nature, not to mention instilling the virtue of patience! There’s loads of gardening jobs that children love to help with, including sowing, transplanting, weeding and harvesting (most notably when it is something sweet such as a raspberry that can be popped straight into the mouth!). They especially like watering as it involves a bit of muck and dirt and has scope for plenty of messing.

The trick  is to keep the jobs varied and if you have the space, it’s well advised to give children their own little plot or pot for sowing seeds and transplanting. Invest in some child sized tools such as a hand fork, trowel and watering can and get out there and watch your budding gardeners bloom!

Garden Projects: Sowing Mixed Salad Leaves and Sunflowers

Kitty Scully 2011

 Remember: There needs to be a digging area away from the horticulture area so that children can take delight in just digging, constructing and imaginative play! 

Suggestions to inspire young gardeners

• Explore the textures of a variety of plants outside

• Plant a herb garden and enjoy the smells of plants like rosemary, mint and lavender

• Paint and draw colours of the garden outside

• Listen to the sounds of nature in the garden – what can you hear?

• Grow plants in beds, in giant pots, in window boxes, in old tires, and vining up trellises and trees.  Have the children help plant and care for them.

• Raised garden beds can help protect young or more fragile plants from active preschooler play.

• Plant a native tree together -it will take years to become a great play tree, but the sooner you get it growing….

• Develop vocabulary, eg soil, bulb, seed, seedling, vegetables, flower, herb, shrub

• Develop the skill of testing soil by ‘touch’ to establish if plants need water, and commit to watering and caring for the plants

• Become familiar with common weeds and be able to pull weeds and leave plants

• Leave a few plants without water, observe and discuss what happens

• Choose vegetables that will ripen during your school season.Some examples to include are potatoes, sugar snap peas, corn, carrots, and cherry tomatoes.

• Use planting beds, giant pots, or both. If you have a sunny window sill, you can start most veggie seeds inside during late winter or early spring, and then transplant them outside after last frost.

Garden of Possibilities!

Early Childhood Ireland has recently published a fantastic Outdoor Play Publication (incorporating links to Aistear and Síolta) based on the ‘”Garden of Possibilities”, a natural play space which was built for Bloom 2010.

The Bloom DVD provides ideas of what works and is of interest to children in the outdoors and cost effective ideas for practitioners and parents to incorporate into daily activity (whatever the weather) and is only €6 for Early Childhood Ireland members! You can order your copy of Bloom in our shop. 

For more information on growing your own vegetables Teagasc have a ‘Guide to Vegetable Growing’ that is free to download.

Innovation in Environmental Awareness

Eating healthily

When children are involved in the process of growing their own food, helping to prepare it and then eating it, they are more likely to try unusual foods that they may never had eaten before. For information on nutrition and healthy lunchtime experiences visit our nutrition page.

Conserving Water in the Garden:

With water metering in place or about to be, we have some ideas to use water more efficiently outside:

• Use a barrel to collect rainwater for use around the garden and washing the car (make the barrel safe by covering with suitable wire mesh to avoid accidents).

• Lawn sprinklers are discouraged and should not be left on overnight. Watering gardens and hanging baskets with a hand-held watering can uses much less water than a hose.

• Water in the morning or the evening to minimise evaporation (in hot weather).

• Mulch around plants with cardboard/newspaper and grass clippings/straw to reduce water loss

• Use waste water from water play or dish washing to water your plants