The Family that Grows Together, Grows Together

Gardening has so many benefits for children. They can learn basic science, express themselves artistically and participate as a family to beautify the home and cultivate vegetables and herbs for the kitchen table. But the baby steps are the hardest as well as the most important.

Your grade schooler cannot expect to run a rototiller or win blue ribbons as an exhibitor at the Philadelphia Flower Show, but many fun projects are available to teach the basics. Here are just a few:

Grow Lima Beans. This is a surprisingly fun project that is easily within reach of younger children. The beans are large, easily planted and handled and tolerant of abuse. Take a discarded milk carton, fill it with a light soil-less mix such as Miracle Grow Potting Soil or pure peat moss (wet the peat down before using, the dust should not be breathed in) plant the bean, put it in the window for growth and voila! Easy for everyone.

Grow plants from kitchen discards. The classic examples of this are avocado pits, sweet potatoes and pineapple tops. To sprout an avocado pit, take the pit and them gently pierce it with toothpicks. Suspend the avocado pit in a glass of warm water so that only the bottom half is submerged and put it in a brightly lit window. The plant will take it from there.

You may also treat a sweet potato the same way. If partially submerged with toothpicks keeping the "eyes" and foliage above the waterline, the potatoes will eventually sprout heart shaped leaves and grow as a vine. If you wish, it can be potted later.

Pineapple tops left over from discarded fruits are easily rooted in a standard mix to which a little sharp builder's sand has been added for drainage. Bury the lower half of the plant and leave the leaves showing. Place it in a well-lit window and let it root. Unlike other plants, this is a Bromeliad, very similar to the Earth Stars available in your local florists or the Spanish Moss seen on trees and telephone lines in Florida.

For this reason, the plant is watered by filling the central crown or "vase" of the plant with water. It derives its water and moisture through the leaves rather than through the roots as in conventional plants. Once in a while, add dissolved quarter strength fertilizer to the water in the vase.

It can also be fun to sprout peach pits, apple seeds, cherry pits and many other fruit seeds. Eventually your child will ask whether he can grow his own fruit that way. Sadly no, but he can grow fruit from other easily obtained tropical plants and can even grow a small amount of coffee from his own coffee plant.

Fruits that are easily grown at home include Dwarf Banana and several varieties of citrus. The Dwarf Banana, known as Musa nana is suitable for growth in a subtropical or tropical greenhouse, large enclosed porch or enclosed courtyard in southern states such as Louisiana. The plant grows from an easily obtained bulb and children will be fascinated by the sight of bananas that grow upward in exactly the opposite direction from which they usually hang in stores.

The entire citrus family offers excellent choices for small, easily grown fruit and some are even edible.

For example, the small, sour oranges of an ornamental orange tree can be mixed with sugar to make a small amount of preserve. More promising are the Citrus meyeri or Meyer Lemon which is a gently flavored non-acid lemon crossbreed suitable for lemonaide. For eye-popping action, pick a Ponderosa Lemon, Citrus limon, another Lemon Crossbreed, parentage unknown that sports a single 4 pound edible fruit each year. Once you have seen a lemon the size of a small bowling ball you have seen it all.

The Coffee Tree, Coffea arabica, sports pretty white flowers and glossy leaves. Eventually it will produce a handful of beans too.

The citrus, coffee, and banana plants can all be grown in standard soil-less mix like Miracle Grow Potting soil or in any light mixture meant for tropical plants. Give them all good, indirect light such as that of a Western or Eastern exposure or lightly shaded outside location (in Southern states) and water them when the top layer of their soil is noticeably dry, about every 3 days to a week. If you maintain sufficient humidity by occasionally misting and using pebble trays and keep them far from dry heat like radiators you should be fine.

These are just a few family friendly ideas. For more see:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2007778/cool_plants_for_you_and_your_kids.html?cat=25
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2027042/fuzzy_funny_stripey_and_spotty_houseplants.html?cat=32

Here is a link to all of my gardening ideas:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/583548/mary_finn.html

Sources:
http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/ponderosa_lemon.htm
http://www.bbg.org/