Gardening with a Toddler
This was Little Miss as we started our gardening adventure yesterday. Gardening with a toddler…advisable? I’m not so sure! For a control-freak-bordering-on-anal-retentive-ocd mother and a very particular father when it comes to gardening, it was a rather tense exercise. There was a lot of “No sweetheart, not in there” and “My love, fill up your bucket with compost, not the grass” and “Sweetie, don’t water THAT soil, water THIS soil”. There was mud and dirt…on her. There were dirty clothes and discarded hats…on her. There was stress and tension…from me. There was stress and tension…from hubby. There was overheating and panting…from our 13 year old dog who WOULD NOT LIE DOWN IN THE SHADE DESPITE THE BLAZING SUN BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT TO MISS ANYTHING. All in all, a not terribly pleasant experience. However, I managed to get some lovely photos that made the whole thing look quite lovely. A picture, apparently, does not tell a thousand words…
Our future bountiful harvest!
Little Miss HELPING her Daddy
Little Miss watering her bucket
In trying to distract Little Miss from the task at hand, I popped her in the Xplory and went for a wee spin around the hamlet. But not before she found some protective eyewear…
Little Miss Xplory
And she did manage to set up a very nice tea party. The Queen said she was coming but she never showed…
"Cuppa tea???"
Her loss! So, what I’m really after here are your TOP TIPS for gardening with a toddler. Little Miss is 23 months old and loves to HELP but her listening skills aren’t very well developed. Come to think of it, MY listening skills could use some work as well! Regardless, how do you involve your child in the gardening? I need ideas and support from you gardening pros! If Alan Titchmarsh is available, please contact us!
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I’m not green thumbed but how about giving her a small section of the plot and let her do whatever she likes with it?
BTW – Great photos!
I’ve been gardening with the kids for 2 years now. My tips are
Create an area JUST for them. Buy them a little set of gardening tools. We got given some from ELC which are great as they are plastic, most garden centres sell them but are metal. Which makes me worried. Get them to choose seeds, at B&Q they have packs specifically for kids. Buy seeds which are larger for their little hands to hold.
Get them to water them etc. As soon as they see that little sprout it’s very exciting!
Getting them to leave it alone is another matter!
You could also, do what we did because planting seeds isn’t instant and you have to wait a long time is to buy seedlings and then plant a few of them, get LM to dig holes this will be a mess and soil will be everywhere i am like you, I love to get them out but please try to keep the soil within a foot of where you found it, then they can plant seedlings cover them back up and water them instant garden!
As a fellow control freak I do sympathise. So speaking as a mother of four with children aged from 3 – 10, here’s my top tip for gardening with small children:
Don’t.
Well, don’t try and do anything precious, or plant anything that you don’t want smooshed, scrunched, squashed or strangled. Don’t give them your precious F1 seeds which cost a fortune and watch them sprinkle them down a crack in the paving stones. I’m speaking from experience here (sob).
With a little chick, the secret is instant gratification. Get a tray and plant cress seeds. They germinate in less than 24 hours. Give her a tub of compost and a little spade and a bucket and she’ll occupy herself for half an hour, letting you get on with some potting on or whatever. In this gorgeous weather, you can hose her off afterwards.
…and from the pics it looks as though you had the most perfect day. How rude of the Queen – I don’t think she should be invited again…
You inspired me to blog about this. I had an epic gardening session yesterday with my 3 girls aged 3, 7, and 10. My husband has a very low tolerance of dirt and therefore gardening so as usual it was left up to me to sort out the garden and the girls.
Check out my post, hope it helps xx
http://everythingiskapaimum.blogspot.com/2010/05/gardening-with-children.html
I love inspiring people! Thanks so much for the help…I’ll let you know how we get on next!
We were talking about it on Twitter earlier but I definitely say get her a special set of getting dirty in the garden clothes. She always looks so beautiful, it is no wonder you worry about her getting messy. Save her pretty clothes for afterwards when she is having tea with the Queen!
Hee hee Kelly! You’re full of great advice! Thanks so much…I’ll work on a Dirty Clothes Wardrobe for her!