Walking in my local neighbourhood the other day, I saw kids playing ball hockey in the street. It made me reflect on how common that was when I was younger, versus how relatively rare it’s become these days. I never played ball hockey, but I did spend lots of time outdoors growing up gardening with my mom and my nonna, and I’m really glad I did. Here are 5 benefits I think getting your kids involved in gardening can offer.
Gardening encourages healthy eating.
There’s nothing quite as satisfying as picking a bowl full of cherry tomatoes that you’ve grown yourself, and eating them – either by themselves, or tossed in a salad.
When kids grow their own food, it becomes way easier to get them to eat healthy. After all, who doesn’t want to sample the fruits – literally – of their labour?
It also gets kids outside.
If you’re worried about raising kids who are glued to a screen 24/7, get them out in the garden with you. It gives them something to focus their energy toward while outside, and though I’m no psychologist, I’m willing to bet that it helps with their attention span too.
It takes focus to work in a garden, and it takes patience to do it on a regular basis until you’re ready to reap the rewards. What’s great about the process, though, is that kids can visibly track the progress of the plants their growing, watching as beans grow on a shoot and raspberries ripen on a bush, all before their very eyes.
Gardening instills a sense of responsibility.
When you care for a garden, you’re caring for plants that depend on your support not only to survive, but to thrive. Without your help, most garden plants would wither away, and so gardening creates a fantastic linkage between effort – the work you put in to help your plants grow – and reward – a delicious bounty of home-grown food.
Gardening develops muscles and coordination.
Have you ever tried tilling soil and toting a wheelbarrow around? It’s hard work! Getting kids to help you with all of the activities required of a gardener is a great way to help them develop their muscles and build coordination skills and spatial sense… and the best part is that it’s disguised in the form of a meditative, enjoyable activity.
Gardening connects kids to the wonder of nature.
This to me is probably the most important point in this entire list. When I was growing up, I used to wander through my nonna’s garden, anxious to see which fruits and vegetables had just ripened that day. It didn’t matter when I went out there – there was always something that was ready to eat.
It wasn’t just about eating, either; I used to take in the sensory experience of each different plant, looking closely at how each one grows differently from the next, and how each plant had its own distinct smell (that green, earthy smell of a tomato vine is one of my favourites). I’d feel the soil within my palm and notice all of the creatures that helped make the ecosystem work: the ants, the bees, the spiders, the worms, and everything in between.
I credit my experiences gardening with my mom and my nonna when I was younger to the reason I’m so attached to nature and greenery today, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. We all know there’s a climate crisis happening right now, and gardening is just one small way of connecting kids to this beautiful natural world that we desperately need to protect.
Wrapping it Up
You don’t need to be a master green thumb in order to have fun gardening – you can start with a few easy-to-grow plans in some containers in your backyard. Like most things, the value of gardening is in the journey, and that journey starts with the planting of a single seed. From there, who knows what value you can grow together with your kids?
