How to Teach Kids About Nurturing: Grow a Garden in the Back Yard

You may have read some of my articles about building a back yard water garden, or constructing a wall to support an upper pond for a waterfall. You might also have seen some of my slideshows that highlight some of the glorious flowers, bushes, ground covering and trees that I enjoy in and around my property. This article focuses on some of the things we can teach kids about gardening.

Bugs -

Mosquitoes and tics are part of gardening hazards. Wear proper clothing, avoid sunny moist areas, use insect repellent and check your body thoroughly for tics, and insect bites that seem infected, or produce a rash, or cause symptoms that might be Lyme disease.

When approaching hidden areas such as shrubbery, listen first before inserting your hand into a hidden area and be wary for bee's nests along foundations and in wooden structures such as outbuildings, porches and gazebos.

Vermin and critters

If you have vegetables and fruit, you may attract raccoons, rabbits, deer, and a host of other critters including skunk and bear. When going outside at night, use lights and sounds to disturb the area gently rather than suddenly, and approach cautiously when entering or exiting the area.

Birds

I feed the birds, I feed the fish, and I feed the cat. One year I had a rude awakening as I opened the kitchen window shade, and as I was making my morning coffee, I caught a large "swoosh" of shade go by like a shadow from a small plane that was about to make a crash landing in my back yard.

I did a double take. I always worried about the planes that fly by, thinking someday there was going to be a crash. But as I looked in my back yard, I found a big blue heron in my back yard, dining on my gold fish. He had found the "Balbi Buffet" in my water garden. He was chomping on my koi, and was not very happy when I interrupted his dinner. He came back again, and I would have shot him with a water gun hard enough to scare the heck out of him if I could have.

Tell the kids to wear a hat and don't look up. Yes, birds take a crap when they are flying or sitting on nearby fencing.

Rashes

Oh yes. In my yard, I also have poison sumac, poison ivy and poison oak. I know this because I found out the hard way. Do yourself a favor. Before digging in the yard, and before playing with your bushes, figure out what is poisonous that will make your life a living hell if you touch your face, your torso or frankly anything on your body. Teach the kids what it looks like.

When done playing in my garden, as a precaution, I wash with cool to cold water, with Dawn Dish Detergent. This removes the oils. The second time I wash I use a scrub brush and make sure I get under my finger nails, and around my wrists, in between my fingers and anywhere else I might have come in contact with the poisonous oils.

Addicting and fulfilling

Finally, the last hazard is that it can be immensely rewarding and fulfilling, although somewhat time consuming at seasonal intervals.

My water garden has been re-built three times, and we're going for a slight re-model this summer, hopefully, when we build a deck.

This year I am trying my hand at growing a vegetable garden. I haven't done that in about 20 years so we'll see how that goes.

Closes the generation gap

I learned about playing in the dirt from my dad. We always had a garden when I was growing up, partly to offset the costs of the family grocery bill and partly to teach us kids about work, and partly because my dad truly enjoyed it.

I remember loving the feel of the dirt on my toes, hating the bugs and grubs. I loved the smell of the ground and the tomato plants after being watered. I loved walking down to the garden with salt shaker in hand, and biting into a shirt washed, plump, juicy vine ripened tomato. It was heaven, unless you found a worm.

Having a garden is a little like having a pet, it teaches kids about nurturing. Because not only do you have to plant, you have to nurture, you harvest, you water, you might even sing to it.

As a kid, tending a garden taught me discipline. We learned to use a shovel, and stakes and about fencing. We learned about rows, and vines, and roots. We learned about the birds and the bees, especially with the rows of corn and the apple trees.

Tending a garden taught us about light, and about hydration. It taught us about disease, and overcrowding. Actually, most of life's lessons can be found within a plot of 8 x 8 soil and a few plants.

One of my favorite things to do when I have a garden is to go to the garden with salt shaker in hand. I turn on the hose and I find the biggest juiciest tomato and run the hose over it until it is clean. I wipe it dry on my shirt and then take a bite.

If it is sweet, I need no salt. But when it is meaty and moist enough to cause a dribble of juice to run down my chin, I add a dab of salt and I'm in heaven.

The sun is shining and I can think of no other place on earth I would rather be than enjoying the fruits of our labor. Harvesting the fruits of a garden, of a blueberry bush, of a hanging tomato basket, of herbs like chives or oregano provide kids with tangible evidence that if you take care of things, they really can grow and blossom.

I learned a lesson about working hard from my dad, and his garden, and it served me well throughout my own career. When my daughter was younger, we had a garden, but for the last few years I've been working too hard. This year, I've got my garden started and I'm looking forward to bringing my Dad some of my tomatoes. Time to give back some of what I learned.