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IPFS News Link • Agriculture

9 Reasons Every Child Should Help Grow A Garden

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Gardening is fun and it's all the more so if you involve your kids. People often recollect the time they spent gardening with a parent or grandparent with much fondness. Francis Bacon called it "the purest of human pleasures." Anyone who grew up nurturing a plant or two likely would agree. Gardening can be a lifelong hobby and an effective stress-buster. Give your kids this gift and it will stay with them forever. Here are a few more reasons to grow a garden with your children:

1. Enjoy meaningful family time

In our fast-paced lives, it's essential to set aside some time for informal family gatherings. Parents and children getting together for shared activities leads to bonding and opens up communication channels. In most households, however, family time has been reduced to a hurried dinner or watching a movie or football game together. Something is better than nothing, of course, but growing a garden with children will provide a meaningful activity for the whole family. It's quality time at the very best. Plan a bulb-planting day, a seed-starter weekend or a photo shoot in the garden to get everyone involved.

2. Get children to eat more vegetables

Children are famously reluctant to eat vegetables, especially the green stuff. The more we emphasize the health benefits of vegetables, the less they seem to appeal to them. Maybe the problem lies with our constant goading to "eat up the greens." To combat this resistance and spare everyone the nagging, have them plant some edible things in your garden. You'll be surprised at their enthusiasm to eat peas and snap beans straight off the plants. Add a variety of salad greens and different types of root vegetables, too. Once they are hooked, you'll never need to harp on the goodness of vegetables again.

3. Reconnect with nature

We talk a lot about environmental pollution and sustainable living, but there is no better way than gardening to get children connected to the natural world. Today's generation is so disconnected from nature that they hardly know where our food comes from or from what our clothes are made. The bookish knowledge often fails to translate into real understanding of how our needs are met. Give them a chance to dig in the mud and observe the interaction between living things and the elements. Establishing a personal relationship with the environment makes them naturally protective of it.

4. Help reduce waste

The tremendous amount of waste we generate in our modern lifestyle is one of the greatest threats to the environment. Statistics about the number of trees felled each year to make paper will have no real meaning for a child unless he or she tries to grow a tree.

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Help your child grow a peanut plant. Then dig up the nuts and show how much peanut butter can be made from them. While a child observes honey bees collecting nectar from the flowers, point out that a single bee makes less than a teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime. A healthy respect for the producers naturally makes us thrifty.

5. Learn cause and effect

Image source: flowerpower.com.au

Image source: flowerpower.com.au

When you involve children in gardening you can spare that lecture on cause-and-effect. The results of action (or inaction) are right before them. When a wilting plant bounces back after a watering, some fertilizer brings out luxurious growth, or weeds take over the garden after a few days of neglect, they see the impact outside forces have on nature. Where else can you learn life's little lessons with such ease?

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