Gardening With Children

It is a great idea to help children learn to love gardening at a young age. Gardening helps us relieve our stress and develop a better understanding and concern for nature. In my own experience, it is important to keep it simple, fun and start small! When my son was three years old, I sectioned off an area three feet square for him to plant and tend within my vegetable garden and he planted marigolds, lettuce, and peas. We sowed the lettuce and marigold seed indoors and later transplanted them to the garden while we direct sowed the peas. In other parts of the garden, outside the area that was his, we planted giant sunflowers, carrots, tomatoes (especially the little cherry tomatoes that are sweet), beans, and various cutting flowers. If you do not have garden space, many plants will easily grow in containers.

For more information, please see this Penn State Fact Sheet

Penn State Horticulture Department

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

Feel free to forward, post or reprint any of the "Solutions" in their entirely, but please credit http://www.solutions.psu.edu/ as the original source of information, and please do not change the content.