The title of this year is "Gardening for Kids", and this is my first NON-EXCLUSIVE article, so I can publish the whole article and link. :o)
First the link...
http://voices.yahoo.com/gardening-kids-146613.html?cat=25
Next the article, see below, but first I'd like you all to know for this article I was paid 6 whole dollars upfront. Maybe if the article had been written better I would have made more. Well never mind that for now just enjoy the article and don't forget to click the link above and leave me a little feedback.
Gardening for Kids
Here are some interesting things about gardening. It can become a second classroom for your children. If you have the space available and a child or two of your own, or perhaps a nephew or niece,And have a little spare time, you could teach gardening skills or learn gardening at the same time as "your students".
There are so many different kinds of gardens; you can show off your creativity, or someone else's. For a few dollars and a little manual labor you could possible make your yard the attraction of the neighborhood. Also a well landscaped yard could become your new favorite vacation spot.
With a little time and effort you can make your backyard into a place of relaxation, a place to entertain your children, (also keep them busy and outside). You could also grow a few vegetables to use, give away, or sell for a small profit.
Your backyard could become a source of a little extra spending money come harvest time.
An hour or two after work a few gardening tools, perhaps a few able bodied children.
Even a 5 year old can drop seeds into a small hole you know, and they will think this is fun. Provided you do not make it into a chore. Then as the garden takes shape your older children and teens can help weed.
By planting things together that help each other you can avoid pesticides and chemicals, making your garden a safe garden for you and your children.
Go to the library if you have not done any gardening in a while, and check out gardening books for kids. Then go to either a feed store or a department store to purchase seeds.
(Hint a very small bag of seeds go a long way, ask me how I know, LOL)
You can help your child to make a small vegetable garden for less than two dollars worth of seeds, if you buy the ten cent seed packages. Of course depending on the age of your "helpers" you will probably have to prepare the ground. But then they can help get the grass clumps out, and plant seeds.
You can use a computer program to sketch out a small garden that will be easy to care for.
Also if you have limited space and do not have access to a tiller then you can use pots.
Flower pots, and potting soils.
If you are low on funds for buying pots, but can afford potting soil, what you can do is start looking at the containers you have around your house.
For instance do you buy milk, orange juice, sodas, laundry soap, etc? Well take a look at the container it is in. Can you recycle it into a planter of some kind? I bet you can. You can even use egg cartons for starting seeds. (Try to use the cardboard ones for this because then you can just break the carton apart later and plant the individual pockets with the baby plant in it.)
If you have a plastic carton or container of some kind just clean, dry and cut it so that it will hold dirt, and you will have a flower pot.
Now if you have a fence in your backyard that is in a sunny location, what you can do is to line your recycled pots up along the fence with the seeds already planted in them. Then as these grow you will have a fence decorated with whatever that you happened to of planted. This could be anything from green beans and squash to a variety of colorful flowers.
While you may or may not see any real profit the first year or so of doing this, if you are teaching these gardening skills to your children then you are helping them to learn the valuable skills of patience, diligence, and hard work. Plus you are helping them to have something to do during the spring and summer that is not going to cost you a whole lot of money, compared to some things that you might find for your children to do.
Also the more time you are able to spend teaching/learning gardening skills the more you will be able to use these skills to decorate your home or yard, or perhaps to make a few dollars for Christmas shopping later on.
There is a lot to be said for gardening.
You can help your child to make a simple rock garden that is purely for decoration. Or you can help them to plant a small flower garden so you will have cut flowers for a time. Or a vegetable garden that could provide a little variety to meals or that they can sell for a little profit. A herbal or spice garden for fresh spices.(This could just be a few plants in a small flower pot, so you will have fresh basil, or thyme for that special dish you have been thinking of making),is a good idea..
A strawberry patch will come back every year. And will spread some so that would be nice. This would provide fresh strawberries without having to spend a lot of money. These can even be planted in hanging baskets. Grapes could grow along a fence.
If you really get into gardening you could plant a few fruit trees, nothing like going out to get apples for apple pie from your apple tree in the back yard.
Gardening can be a time to create memories with your children; it can be a way to have time to talk to your children. Time away from computers, cell phones, television, video games, This can especially be good for you if you have teens, because this may be a golden opportunity for you to find out how your teenager is doing.
Make it fun though, and don't worry so much about having a picture perfect yard, it is better for you to have kids that will talk to you.
Life is way too busy already for most teens during their high school years, this could provide a healthy way for you and them to relax and just talk about life in general.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/beginner.html
http://www.lewisgardens.com/
http://www.applegategardens.co.uk/
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_gardening_basics/0,1784,HGTV_3589,00.html
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