‘Children, marriages and flower gardens reflect the kind of
care they get’ – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Better still, combine all three and
cultivate the perfect environment for your garden and your family to bloom.
With seven in ten moms working and kids over-scheduled with
after-school activities, it’s never been more important to make the most of
precious family time together. Gardening may just be the perfect
solution! If children and their parents can find the time to come together
to achieve a common goal, be it starting up a vegetable patch or building a
butterfly garden, they will soon feel the benefits that gardening brings.
Ditch the screens and get outside
Studies show that gardening together has many positives for
your family’s health, diet, fitness and general wellbeing. Just
being outdoors and breathing fresh air is a great place to start. In this
hectic, technological age, children spend far more time inside than ever, being
taxied between scheduled activities or glued to screens, so encourage them to step outside and engage with the
real, natural world.
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Spending time in the garden can be so therapeutic to your
family’s mental health too; connecting with nature and seeing your plants
flourish triggers happiness, reduces stress, boosts the immune system and keeps
depression at bay. Working together as a team is especially beneficial for
children too, as it encourages discussion, teaches responsibility, helps
concentration and improves patience as they wait for their seedlings to grow.
Bond over your beets
Getting your hands dirty is what gardening is all about and
finding out about the seasons, planting cycles, conservation and wildlife is an
education in itself. Children love to explore and discover the world around
them, so let them experience the garden with all their senses – tasting ripe
fruits, listening to wildlife, identifying plants, smelling fresh blossom, and
pressing seeds into the soil. Spending time together gives parents the chance
to teach their children about the environment around them, so it is a great way
to help nurture their minds as well as their green fingers.
Planning and designing garden projects is a great way to get
your child involved and to make them feel part of a team. And, no matter your
age or the size of your yard, there is always a job for everyone in the garden.
Making planters or planting seeds in egg shells are simple but effective
ways of tending to your garden that the whole family can do. Through this
shared work, comes a sense of pride, achievement, responsibility and
cooperation, as well as an opportunity to strengthen those family bonds.
A great reason to go outside this summer: Spending time in nature can teach your child how to care about others. washingtonpost.com/news/parenting…
Dig yourself healthy
Added Incentive: The average adult burns off 240
calories an hour while gardening. Coupled with the physical exercise of digging
and planting, gardening is a great activity for you and your family to keep
fit. Families tend to eat more healthily too if they are enjoying the home-grown
fruits and vegetables of their labor. Bonding with your family in the garden
can be fun, healthy and pleasurable, and is a chance to grow a lifetime of
memories. Who knows, you may even have a crispy salad or a bunch of flowers to
show for it too!
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Share your gardening photos with us!
Submitted by Jenny Holt
freelance Writer, mom of 2
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