Children as young as three years old can help out with gardening. They can help pull weeds, lay mulch, water the garden, and even plant seeds. Small projects in the garden can enable you to teach your children valuable lessons about the environment, e.g., where food comes from and the life cycle of plants. It’s one of the many examples parents can make when gardening with their children.
If you want to ensure that you stay within the course and promote your child’s learning, ensure that you avoid the following mistakes!
Not Teaching Them About The Importance Of Sustainable Gardening
Sustainable gardening is maintaining a garden that uses natural resources that don’t cause any ecological damage. In 2022, there was 1.2 % of global CO2 emissions. These were due to the increases in India, the United States, and most European countries.
Did you know that more than 40% of citizens of the United States are situated in places with unhealthy levels of particle pollution or ozone in 2022? On the other hand, in 2021, most of India’s cities had 2.5 micrometers of PM2.5 concentrations in about 48% of the country. One cause of pollution is mining facilities, which is evident in the Queensland City of Mount Isa in Australia, which is considered the most polluted in the country.
Sustainable gardening can help lessen the pollution in your country, and your kid should know the importance of simple actions like trying to lessen your water and trash. Educate them about gardening first and tell them how it’s necessary because it’s needed for essential insects like bees to survive. You can attract more bees, and even Queen Bees, to your garden by filling it with plants.
Sustainable gardening is vital for today’s environment since bees are now endangered. Bees are essential for your ecosystem and nature because our food supply would be at risk without them.
Using Tap Water
To teach your kids about sustainable gardening, you must rely only a little on tap water throughout your gardening experience. Teach them how to make a rainwater barrel. You can create and position a barrel together with your kids. It’s an excellent way to make them learn about the entire process of creating things for your garden, especially those with a purpose.
You can purchase a rain barrel, but making one with your kids is a more interactive project. Don’t worry because it’s easy! You must use an old garbage bin, and for easy access to the collected water, you can attach a tap to the small hole in the bottom of the bin. By creating your barrel, you may personalize it by letting your kids paint it or put pictures in it.
Creating a rainwater barrel is a great way to trap and store rainwater for watering your garden. Together with your kids, you can ensure that you’re creating a sustainable garden that supports the environment. You can reduce the energy and water used to supply your plants. It also ensures that you don’t waste water.
You can reduce your water bill since you’re using less tap water, saving you unnecessary expenses. You can place these bins directly under the roof’s gutter system to collect the water quickly.
Ignoring the Importance of Mulch Beds
When it comes to sustainable gardening, you want to ensure that you save up as much water as possible. Using mulch beds can help retain the water that you use. It’s the perfect method to grow a sustainable garden, so ensure that you don’t ignore its importance. Teach your kids what mulch is and how important it is for a garden.
Educate them that mulch adds nutrients to the soil, prevents the beds from drying, and moderates soil temperatures. You can give your kids the responsibility of caring for the beds and learn their importance. After all, there’s no better teacher than experience itself.
Not Growing Native Plants
Make the best of what’s in your location, which makes purchasing native plants, rather than exotic plants, that you’d need to have shipped to your home. Native plants allow you to use less energy and fewer resources since these plants can already thrive in your location’s temperature.
Gardening with kids can already be stressful for some parents, so ensure that you save yourself less stress by preparing easy-to-take care plants for the kids to plant and take care of. Before going to the garden center and picking your plants, research your area’s growing conditions first.
It will help you list the plants that can thrive easily in your backyard. You may even include your kid in this process by letting them do their research.
Final Thoughts
Gardening can also help boost your children’s mental health and yours! Gardening can lower each’s stress levels and build your kid’s self-esteem. Sustainable gardening is a great way to teach them that they, too, can create something and watch it grow when you give it enough attention. It’s also a great experience to get all of their senses working, which is essential for youngsters!
