Sometimes gardening is child's play.
When the hollyhocks bloom, I remember my grandmother's trick for making a 'hollyhock lady' waltz: Pick a bud with just a bit of color showing - that's her turbaned head. Pick a wide-open flower - that's her flowing skirt. Lace bud and flower together with a tiny twig, then set the lady gently in the bird bath, or in a shallow saucer of water. Wait for a breeze and watch her dance.
I grew up playing in the garden, and learning there, too. My mom taught us kids to make a snapdragon 'bite,' pressing the bloom so it opened and closed like a snapping jaw. She let us make dangling earrings from the blooms of bleeding hearts and pointed out the 'faces' on the pansies and Johnny-jump-ups.
True to her roots as a teacher, she lined mayonnaise jars with blotting paper and helped us poke lima beans inside. Suspended between damp paper and sun-warmed glass, the beans sprouted roots, then shoots, right before our eyes. When it was time to plant outdoors, we knew just would happen underground.
When my own girls were small, they played in the garden as well. As children have done for generations, they told their fortunes by plucking daisy petals or blowing dandelions. They squeezed inside a runner-bean teepee and opened rattling pods to discover 'magic beans.' They caught newts and toads, fireflies and ladybugs. They plucked snap peas and cherry tomatoes right from the vine - and never complained about eating their vegetables.
Kids belong in the garden, and gardeners - even the fussy, 'please don't pick the daisies' kind - sometimes need to look at the world through a child's eyes.
| |
And I can't look at ordinary rudbeckia without thinking of my 7-year-old niece, who calls the flowers black-eyed Susies. 'I know they're really black-eyed Susans,' she confided. 'But I call her Susie because she's my friend.'
Sharing a garden with children requires a bit of planning, plus some gentle training in garden etiquette. Some tips:
1. Make the garden's boundaries clear. A fence (with a welcoming gate), landscape timbers or other edging helps to distinguish the garden from ordinary play space. Even a row of tough little marigolds can mark the border. Emphasize that the garden is a special place.
2. Leave plenty of room for little feet. Make paths between growing areas wide enough for children to move about easily. Even preschoolers can use stepping stones, providing they are broad, flat and closely spaced.
3. Encourage exploration. Let kids stroke the felted leaves of lamb's ears and inhale the sweet perfume of lilacs. Help them dig for worms in the compost pile or peek inside a bird's nest. Keep a field guide on hand and look up the names of butterflies and birds that visit the back yard.
4. Teach the difference between 'picking flowers,' like dandelions in the lawn, and 'smelling flowers' that may be sniffed and stroked only. When it's time to pluck a bouquet, make a ceremony out of cutting the flowers, using round-tipped scissors and a special basket or bucket for gathering the blooms.
5. If children visit regularly, avoid planting anything that could be truly dangerous if eaten. Insist that children ask permission before putting anything in their mouths. But do plant fruits and vegetables that can be munched right off the vine. Few kids can resist fresh strawberries or raspberries, tiny 'Sweet 100' or 'Yellow Pear' tomatoes, crisp 'Sugar Snap' peas or snap beans.
6. Let youngsters help with chores. Weeding may not be much fun, but most kids love planting seeds, harvesting crops and using a hose or watering can. Or send them out on 'pest patrol' - hunting for slugs or Japanese beetles to dump into a cup of soapy water.
7. Give kids real tools. A 5-year-old certainly can't handle a full-size spade, but he won't get too far with a plastic sandbox shovel, either. Offer children scaled-down tools made to do real work, or let them use hand tools like trowels and three-pronged cultivators. (When the kids are done, the half-size rakes and spades available at hardware stores are good for working among closely planted vegetables and flowers.)
8. Think big - and little. Kids are drawn to oversize plants, like sunflowers and pole beans, that grow quickly from large, easy-to-handle seeds. They also love miniatures, so point out the Scotch moss's tiny 'fairy flowers' or the coral bells' wee blooms.
9. Tell stories. Garden folklore blends botany and fairy tales. My daughter learned to recognize pulmonaria because its blooms are 'turncoat soldiers,' dressed in pink when they open, changing to blue as they mature. For more stories, check the library or bookstore for 'Garden Flower Folklore,' a classic by Laura C. Martin.
10. Have fun. Create a personalized pumpkin by using a straight pin to scratch a child's name into the skin of a young fruit. As it grows, the name will become bigger and clearer. Or grow a cuke in a bottle: Without pinching the vine, carefully guide a tiny cucumber through the neck of a clean glass bottle. Let it grow and ripen inside the container - then see if your friends can guess how you got it in there.
11. Bring the garden indoors. Don't let a rainy day ruin your gardening plans. Grow a sweet potato vine in a glass of water. Stand the top of a carrot or a pineapple in a saucer of water and wait for it to sprout. Fill a cardboard egg carton with damp potting soil and start some flower seeds; when they sprout, transplant to a pot or move the seedlings outdoors.
12. Share your own childhood memories. For more ideas, check out 'Sunflower Houses,' a new paperback book by Sharon Lovejoy (Workman Publishing; $13.95). Based on gardeners' recollections, it tells how to make everything from a sunflower house to a crown of daisies. Old-fashioned rhymes and floral fables are among the other 'inspiration(s) from the garden ... for children and their grownups.'
How does your garden grow⢠Send questions or comments to Green Thumb, c/o Tribune-Review, 622 Cabin Hill Drive, Greensburg, PA 15601.
