TV gardener Chris Beardshaw encourages kids to get mucky in the garden and explore the nature around them.
The award-winning garden designer and broadcaster says that gardening with the kids is a great way to keep them occupied during lockdown and over the long school summer holidays, and it’s an ideal way to introduce children to the wonders of the garden and make them more ecologically aware.
“Some things are straightforward such as sowing seeds of short-term crops such as lettuces and rocket which will be cropping before the end of the summer holidays, but it’s also good to sow things that are more long term. We’ve planted apple trees and are anticipating our first crop of apples.”
Explaining the way in which different flowers attract different insects is an ideal way to engage children, he observes.
“One of the things which stimulate children is the way in which the floral elements of the garden attract organisms such as bees, butterflies and other insects. Of course it’s great to explain the way in which different insects are attracted to different flowers.
“Try to get the children to understand that the shape of the flower is largely going to dictate the type of insect that’s going to be visiting. Tubular flowers tend to attract insects with long tongues, such as long-tongued bees, butterflies and moths.“The flatter flowers from the daisy family, such as echinacea, are much better for shorter-tongued insects such as the honey bee.”
For a bit of fun, you can buy online a listening device for bats, which are likely to be in the neighbourhood harvesting midges and moths on the wing at night.
Many veg, whether root or leaf crops, can be used as a salad crop, he notes.
“We sowed all of last year’s seed which hadn’t been previously sown, all mixed together, in one redundant area of the garden and harvested the leaves – nasturtiums, carrots and bulls blood beet leaf can all be cut and used as a quick salad crop within four to six weeks. And there’s nothing wrong with letting those crops grow on to harvest young vegetables.
“Sowing has traditionally been thought of as a spring activity, but there’s no reason why you can’t sow all year round, using the tops of lemonade bottles or cloches to protect young seedlings.”
Beardshaw says the number of children becoming involved in gardening is on the rise because of an increased awareness through schools and everyday reading matter which reminds us of the importance of eating our five-a-day. There’s also more emphasis on learning about food sources.
“Many more schools are getting involved in using their external environment as a green classroom. For a relatively modest investment, you get a huge return in school gardens.
“When I was a child, I was told that it was only remedial students who studied horticulture and gardening. How things have changed.”
Among the most popular gardening jobs among kids is composting, and it’s never too late to start your own compost heap.
“Children are fascinated by composting, probably because it involves a little bit of decomposition, muck, smelly stuff, insects and worms. It’s something they can literally get their fingers into and allows them to start to appreciate the importance of looking after soil.”
Others may simply enjoy collecting leaves and flowers to make into collages, or building log piles to attract a variety of insects.
“Let the grass grow a little longer to allow some of the clovers, daisies, dandelions and ajugas to come through because looking at even the smallest section of grass which you’ve allowed to grow long, you see all sorts of insects and invertebrates crawling around there.”
Don’t feel that you have to spend all day and every day lecturing the children about nature – or it will seem like an extremely long summer break.
“The most important thing is to get children outside to find their own entertainment,” he says.