by Mike Walters

Created on: May 26, 2010

If you are quick to assume that your children will take no interest in an activity that does not include Wii remotes, Super Mario, or talking animated animals, then you may be in for a big surprise. Planting and maintaining a home garden is a terrific way to get your kids off the couch and actively involved in a positive, rewarding activity. Gardens contain a great number of sites, sounds, and smells that are fascinating to kids. To begin gardening with your children, here are eight basic family gardening tips:

(1) Start small. This may mean beginning with a little window box or container garden. You can make garden containers out of recycled items such as plastic milk gallon jugs with the tops cut off, or yogurt containers. These are also terrific options if you live in an apartment and don’t have a yard. Begin with flowers, herbs, and vegetables that are very easy to grow, such as chives, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, marigolds, and geraniums. If you want something that grows and is ready to harvest very quickly, radishes are a great choice. Or, try just a pot of rye grass, and once it grows, allow your kids to trim it into funky shapes!

(2) Soak up the educational opportunity. Planting vegetables from seed is an excellent way to teach children about where vegetables come from. To us, it may be common sense that a seed from the inside of a zucchini can be planted to produce a zucchini plant. But kids may simply not make this connection. Similarly, when my son was a child, he was astounded when I explained to him that pasta was made from wheat. My daughter asked me one day when she was about four, while eating a chicken leg, what chicken was made from. To us, it may seem like commonsense. But children often just see the “finished product” when it comes to food, and do not have an understanding of its origins. Teaching them about where their food comes from is a terrific way to empower them to make wise dietary choices.

(3) Buy your children their own gardening tools. You can find these at most toy stores, and a quick search online will warrant many results as well. When your kids have their own tools, it will certainly motivate them to be involved. This is also a nice opportunity for you to teach your kids how to responsibly care for their belongings, since gardening tools should be cleaned off and put away after their use, not left laying in the yard to rust.

(4) Focus on the process, not necessarily just the results. If it is your goal to

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