by K. Russell

Created on: March 04, 2009   Last Updated: June 17, 2010

Whether you live in the country and have acres to spare or you live in a small apartment and have no earth to call your own, you and your family can greatly benefit from planning, creating and maintaining a garden.

The planning process offers families an opportunity to discuss something other than homework and chores. Trips to the library can encourage reading skills in your children and pull the family together as everyone brings something to the kitchen table to consider. Math skills can be built as you discuss the space you have and the needs of the various plants you select. Botany and science will come into play as you help your child learn about life cycles, companion planting, soil composition and health and the difference between "good bugs" and "bad bugs". You can build your own window boxes and learn the safe use of basic hand tools.

If there are young children in the family, you will want to be sure to include plants that grow and reach maturity quickly, such as radishes, spinach and sunflowers. Parents will be amazed at what their children will eat when they have planted it themselves. Potted perennial bushes, such as blueberries and raspberries, will provide healthy, delicious crops year after year. You can plant whatever foods you enjoy eating and include a few you've never tried, just for the experience of trying something new. Many foods that children normally dislike will be tasty and sweet enough, when grown at home, to change their minds.

Flower gardens can be very rewarding, especially for children, whose short attention spans require faster, more colorful results to stay interested. Theme gardens are another way to inspire your children. You can build a sunflower "fort" that gets bigger and bigger as the summer continues. You can build a Spaghetti Garden that includes tomatoes, basil, thyme and oregano. You can create an Alphabet Garden that has one plant for each letter in the alphabet this one is a lot of fun to research!

Attracting butterflies and hummingbirds is another good way to get your children interested in gardening. Most plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies are fragrant and colorful additions to your yard or window box. The squeals of delight you will hear when your children see these beautiful creatures up close are priceless.

Frogs are another good critter to attract to your yard. They eat flies and mosquitoes and other pests and all they need is shelter, which is easily provided with a broken ceramic pot laid

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