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» Georgene A. Bramlage - Gardening with Children

I enjoyed Susan's recent blog about Making the Most of Your Yard, [http://homemanagement.suite101.com/blog....

and would like to add my two-cents-worth from many and continuing years of experience, about children in the garden landscape.

1 - Proceed in small chunks of time; leave heavy-duty "boring jobs" like raking and actual weeding for times when the little ones are napping or otherwise playing in the yard where you can keep an eye (eyes) on them.
2 - Plan spaces where you will be working the most (vegetable garden, annual bed, perennial bed) near to their play area - and box, swing set, whatever.
3 - Choose large seeds with quick germination times for them to plant if planting is part of your project - nasturtiums, kale, marigolds and sun flowers - are all good starters and fairly pest-resistant. Stay away from small seeds and vegetables that are attractive to rabbits, deer, woodchuck - the tears when the crop is consumed will rip your heart out even if you make an "ecology lesson" out of it!
4 - Be ready to roam away from the project to investigate worms, dandelions, etc. If you don't know the answer tell the child (children) "we'll look it up..." and do that right away. (Little paperback Golden Guides are good for this as well as guides specific to your area.)
5 - Buy (or suggest to grandparents, etc) child-size that are good-to-excellent quality. These are somewhat pricey, but I hate it when things break (as the cheapos will do very quickly) and I hate it when kids are disappointed and cry.

Here's to happy family times in your (think of it as an outdoor room)garden landscape. Come over to Landscaping at Suite101 (http://landscaping.suite101.com) for ideas which can be scaped down to family projects and I'll let Susan know in coming weeks when there is something special geared to families and children.

Georgene (AKA Cercis)