Use indoor gardening techniques to provide your children with entertainment, education, and a sense of wonder about the world around us.
Indoor gardening brings out children's nurturing instincts almost as much s a tiny kitten or puppy, but plants don't throw up on your carpet. And the lessons learned from watching a seed turn into a seedling and then into a full-fledged plant are innumerable, ranging from patience and gentleness to botany and photosynthesis. Here are some ideas to introduce gardening to your children:
Houseplants: Preschoolers can't care for houseplants all by themselves, but they can definitely help and will enjoy watching their own plants grow as you guide them. For a preschooler, choose a houseplant you find at the grocery store or discount store. These plants are usually hardy because the stores don't have adequate light or gardening experts on hand. Most flowering plants are not hardy indoor plants, so save flowers for outside.
Teach your preschooler how much water to give his plant. He'll also need a quick lesson on a plant's need for sunlight, and make sure you find the plant a home in a nice sunny spot without too much direct sunlight.
Preschoolers also enjoy "misting" their plants. Dust on houseplants blocks sunlight, and without the sunlight, plants cannot photosynthesize. Let your child spray the plant's leaves with a mister filled with lukewarm water.
When the plant gets too big for its pot (about once a year in most cases), have your child help you repot it. Choose a pot an inch or two bigger than the original and make sure it's clean. Your child can clean it with a garden hose. Next, find some drainage material for the bottom of the pot (clay pot shards or small rocks work well). Instruct your child to put the drainage material in the bottom of the pot. Next comes the soil. You can buy potting soil at the store, or you can make your own. Here's the recipe:
2 cups sphagnum or peat moss
2 cups potting soil
2 cups sand or vermiculite or perlite
1/3 cup cracked charcoal
1 Tablespoon steamed bone meal or
2 Tablespoon dried cow manure
Your child will enjoy mixing the homemade potting soil in a big pot or bowl. It's like making mud pies.
Fill the bottom of the new pot with potting soil and then pull the plant out of its original pot. If the roots are very tightly wound, loosen them a bit with your hand. Then set it in the new pot and fill the empty spaces with new potting soil. Your plant will flourish in its new home.
Kitchen Gardening: Children will learn about Mother Nature by planting the seeds they find in fruits and vegetables in your kitchen. Several types of fruits (which seem quite exotic in most of North America) make charming houseplants.
Citrus Trees: Save seeds from oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, or other citrus fruit. Plant them in regular potting soil in a smallish pot (6 inches or less). The seeds will germinate in 15 to 30 days. When the seedlings have at least four leaves, put each seedling in its own, small pot. It will need 4-5 hours of sun per day and will need water about three times per week. Watering is very important for the first six weeks since citrus trees often die from dehydration.
Date Tree: Date pits grow best in plastic pots so that the roots never dry out. Add extra sand to the soil for a date tree. Germination takes 8 to 10 weeks, so use this with a patient (or older) child. Date trees require three hours of sun for day. Water the tree twice a week.
Mango: Mango seeds are some of the most interesting seeds you'll find. They're four inches long, flat, heavy, hairy, and they have a big eye at one end. In a bowl, combine water, cracked charcoal, and the mammoth seed. Soak the seed for a week to soften the tough shell. Then, in a 5" pot, plant the seed vertically with the eye pointed down in basic potting soil. Water the seed heavily. It won't germinate for four months. Then it will need four to five hours of sunlight per day. Keep it away from cold windows and use only tepid water. It won't need to be transplanted for a year.
Avocado: Dry the seed for a couple of days and then let your child peel the brown papery skin off of it. Place the seed 2/3 into the soil (basic potting soil will do), leaving the tip exposed. Germination will occur in 30-90 days. The plant will need 3-5 hours a day. Water it weekly. If you don't pinch the plant it will be very tall and plain. Pinching will produce a busy tree.
Pomegranate: This seed will develop into a busy shrub and produce brilliant orange flowers. Have your child suck the seeds clean before she plants them. After the seeds germinate (in 6 to 8 weeks) transplant several seedlings into a 5" pot filled with sandy soil. The plants require 2-3 hours of partial sun and need to be watered weekly.
Indoor gardening is inexpensive, educational, and most of all, exciting, for children. They'll learn about science from watching their seeds grow, but best of all, they'll sense the wonder of the beautiful world around them.
