Gardening | Flower Culture
Gardening
Requirements
Wikibook Gardening Answers
There are a number of honors that are
almost impossible to teach during the Pathfinder year. A couple of these are
Gardening and Flower Culture. Why not send the honor
requirements and some teaching hints home so that the Pathfinders can work on
them during the summer. Many families have gardens during the summer and this
would be a great time to earn the honor.
Most adults
who garden began this hobby as children. And more than one old-timer has sworn
off gardening because he hated it as a kid. Here's some ideas to start them
out right.
Kids have so
much competing for their attention: television, computers, sports, and a
bazillion "planned" activities from library hours to birthday parties, from
sleepovers to music programs. So gardening has to stand on its own. Rooting
cuttings in water doesn't cut it. But what does?
If you want
your child to love gardening, here are some things you can do.
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Show them how much you love
gardening just by reveling in your own garden every day. |
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Surround them with great
gardens. That doesn't mean a show place. It may mean a messy,
riotously colored cottage garden; decorative little getaway; or profuse
potsful. (Remember
that everything is bigger through kids' eyes.) |
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Take the children to a local
botanical garden. Many of them have kid’s gardens. |
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Give them good gardening
experiences. These will be great memories in years to come. |
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The balance is to teach
respect and enjoyment of the family gardens and make sure there's
a garden a kid can call his or her own. Here dirt and water are the stuff
of magic, and surprises
lurk between rows. Anyone can succeed under the sun. "I did it myself" is
a powerful thing. |
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Recognize that kids' gardening
priorities are different, well, practically opposite of adults'.
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Let kids choose what to plant.
Offer guidance and make sure there are some sure-success
plants among their picks. But if they want beets, roses, and petunias, why
not? |
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Relax your standards. Crooked
rows or weeds as pets are fine.
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Transplanting is fun, even if
your child plays with plants the way they move action figures
or Barbies about. But remind them that plants' roots need some time to
grow in one place.
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Leave room for good
old-fashioned digging. Holes are a highly popular landscape feature.
Look for worms. Add water, and frogs appear.
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Paint rocks with the names of the
vegetables and use as row markers. |
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Model the message that some
insects are beneficial, and even destructive bugs are highly interesting.
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For younger kids it may be
necessary to do behind-the-scenes maintenance of kids' gardens,
keeping them edged and weeded. Don't expect kids to do all the watering
and pest patrol. |
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Remember: One of the best
things you can ever grow may be a gardener. |
