Articles

Gardening with Children

Kid in the garden
The combination of kids, seeds, dirt, and simple tools creates the best kind of growth.

What is better for growing children than the act of growing plants? Kids have relished digging in the dirt for millennia and shoveling mud is really only a short step from planting and tending a garden. The combination of kids, seeds, dirt, and simple tools creates the best kind of growth—in the garden and in the children.

Children's garden
This children’s garden is full of kid-friendly plants!

The benefits of youth gardening are clear. Children who garden plug into the environment and unplug from omnipresent technology. Horizons expand as young gardeners develop relationships with the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it. Growing edible plants also teaches kids where food comes from, which in turn fosters healthier eating. Ornamentals offer lessons about beauty, pollination and the cycles of life. Moving around outdoors also helps reduce childhood obesity–no matter what kind of plants sprout in the garden.

Inspiration: Children may or may not listen to what we say, but they often do what we do. If you are a gardener, let even your youngest children see you tending beds or containers. Even if they seem uninterested, the act of gardening will appear natural to them. If you are not a gardener, never fear. You and your offspring can learn side-by-side and the discoveries you make together will enrich your relationships.

Raised bed garden with edible flowers
This raised bed garden for kids is full of edible flowers.

Grab inspiration from the nearest available source. Visit nearby school gardens. Check out local botanical institutions, which may have children’s gardens, complete with child-size features, kid-friendly layouts, and interactive activities to get the little ones engaged. Look into classes offered by those same institutions, as well as the local 4-H Club, Master’s Gardeners or other groups. Your kids will be taught by people who are passionate about gardening and that kind of enthusiasm is likely to be contagious.

Get Growing: Start something at home. If you have an outdoor garden space, give your kids a small area where they can grow anything they want. If you are an apartment dweller or don’t have any in-ground space, let each child have his or her own container on the porch or terrace. Spring is a great time to start, but you can get growing at any time of the year. Many herbs, flowers, and even vegetables can also be grown indoors under the right conditions. In late summer, plant greens to harvest in the fall. In mid to late fall present children with big amaryllis bulbs, which are easy to plant, require minimal care, grow rapidly and bloom spectacularly.

Two young girls in Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead'
Children who garden plug into the environment and unplug from omnipresent technology.

If you don’t own garden tools, invest in a few simple ones, including a trowel, spade and watering can. Some manufacturers make small-size garden tools designed for kids, but most children can do just fine with standard size tools. Give young gardeners’ young plants the best chance of success by using quality planting media, like Fafard Natural and Organic Potting Soil and good soil amendments such as Fafard Peat Moss.

Spoiled for Choice: Let children grow what they like to eat and they will be more likely to tend to plants. Do your children like to pick flowers? Help them plant easy-to-grow varieties like nasturtiums or sunflowers. Once the plants bloom, let young flower lovers pick and arrange the flowers themselves. Display the bouquets prominently and praise them lavishly. A little encouragement is the best fertilizer.

Fafard Natural & Organic Potting Soil with RESILIENCE pack
Natural & Organic potting soil is a great choice for gardening with children.

Help Is At Hand: Resources abound for parents and grandparents who want to get growing with children. One good one is a book, Sunflower Houses: Inspiration From the Garden – A Book for Children and Their Grown-ups, by veteran garden writer Sharon Lovejoy. The American Horticultural Society offers a host of ideas, plus a directory of gardens with kid-friendly features. Find it at the Society’s website. The National Gardening Association sponsors kidsgardening.org, a website that promotes family, school and community gardening efforts.

Remember that the ultimate goal of gardening with children is to have fun. As with all things garden-related, the end result—whether tasty vegetables or bright blooms—is less important than the process.

Pruning Summer Flowers

Phlox paniculata 'Nicky'
Tall phlox are midsummer bloomers that will rebloom if the old flowers are pruned back. (photo by Jessie Keith)

Timely summer pruning is the key to more flowers – and less flopping – in the perennial (and annual and shrub) border. Many annuals and perennials bloom better and longer if their spent flowers are regularly pruned – a practice known as deadheading. In addition to boosting floral display, deadheading also prevents self-sowing by fecund perennials and annuals such as spiderwort (Tradescantia), garden phlox (Phlox suffruticosa), and mulleins (Verbascum).

Echinacea 'Marmalade'
Echinaceas produce seeds that are perfect bird forage, so you may rethink pruning their seedheads back.

Different plants favor different deadheading regimes. Some perennials require minimal deadheading other than a hard pruning back to their basal foliage as their last flowers fade. Among these are columbine (Aquilegia), Delphinium, most catmints (Nepeta) and Salvia, most perennial geraniums, lungwort (Pulmonaria), mountain bluet (Centaurea montana), and lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina). Many of these will send up a second round of flowers later in the season.

Numerous long-blooming perennials – including bellflowers (Campanula), balloon flower (Platycodon), Jupiter’s beard (Centranthus ruber), Shasta daisy (Chrysanthemum × superbum), bee balm (Monarda), most Veronica, garden phlox, and daylilies (Hemerocallis) – do best with frequent deadheading of individual flowers or flower clusters. In most cases, the cut should be made just above the next bud or leaf below the spent flower(s).
Similarly, most long-blooming annuals benefit from regular, light deadheading, although heavier pruning may be necessary if growth flags in summer (as sometimes happens with diascias, sweet alyssum, and others).
Shrubby perennials that flower relatively briefly (e.g., goatsbeard and Cimicfuga) usually require nothing more than a single tip-pruning after they bloom.

Some plants are better not deadheaded, particularly if their seeds are valued for ornament (as with nigellas and shrubby Clematis), bird forage (e.g., echinaceas and rudbeckias), or self-sowing. Knowing when not to prune is also important!

Lamb's ears
Lamb’s ears always look better when the old bloom stalks are removed.

Deadheading is not the only type of pruning that benefits perennials. A good early-summer (or late-spring) shearing can do wonders for large, late-blooming species with unruly habits such as asters, Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium), and perennial sunflowers (Helianthus). Left unchecked, the statuesque stems of these perennials topple under the weight of their flowers.

A far better solution than trussing them with stakes and string after they flop is to cut them back halfway in June. Shorter, sturdier, swoon-resistant plants will result. Flowers may be a bit later and smaller than those of unpruned plants, but they’ll also be abundant and upright.
June is also the ideal time to prune lanky early-blooming perennials such as moss phlox (Phlox subulata), Dianthus, and perennial candytuft (Iberis). Sheared back halfway immediately after flowering, they’ll produce fresh basal growth and possibly a few repeat blooms. Straggly stems of lavender, sage, and other woody-based perennials respond well to pruning in early spring, before bloom.

Blanketflower
Blanketflower will bloom until frost if you keep the seedheads clipped off.

And then there are shrubs. Weigela, mock-oranges (Philadelphus), Deutzia, and other shrubs of similar growth habit should be cut back hard to vigorous new lateral shoots that break growth as the flowers fade in late spring and early summer. These new shoots will eventually provide next year’s floral display. Unpruned shrubs from this group decline into a lanky mass of leggy stems topped with old, unproductive wood that chokes out new growth.

Numerous other spring-blooming shrubs (including rhododendrons and lilacs) exhibit a somewhat different growth pattern, bearing relatively short new shoots mostly at their tips. Consequently, they generally do best with a relatively light early summer pruning, with care taken to preserve as much new growth as possible (which will give rise to next year’s flowers).
Whatever the plant – shrub, perennial, or annual – it will respond well to a post-pruning application of a nutrient-rich compost such as Fafard Natural & Organic Compost. Fertile soil and proper pruning make for happy plants (and gardeners!).

Five Annual Cut Flowers for Fall

Love-in-a-mist flowers
Love-in-a-mist flowers are airy, colorful and long-lasting. Their pretty puffy seed heads can be dried for winter everlasting arrangements.

Some of the prettiest flowers for cutting are annuals that grow and bloom fast and thrive in cool weather.  Growing them is a snap. Start them in early August, and you should have lots of pretty flowers for cutting by late September or early October.

'Towering Orange' sulfur coreopsis
‘Towering Orange’ sulfur coreopsis is a tall variety that is perfect for fall cutting!

Planting Cut Flowers for Fall

If you are someone who already plants summer cut flowers, you will likely still have zinnias, tall marigolds, and purple cosmos in the garden, but these tend to lose steam towards the end of the season. Removing declining summer cut flowers and filling in the holes with fresh, cool-season bloomers will pay off. Just be sure to turn, smooth, and clean the ground before planting, and top dress with a good, moisture-holding mix that will allow your new cut flower seeds to germinate easily. Fafard Ultra Outdoor Planting Mix is a great choice.
Once your area is prepared, sprinkle your seeds of choice over the soil, and then lightly cover with some additional mix and gently pat the area down. Annuals with larger seeds, like sweet peas, will need to be planted at least an inch below the soil. Keep newly sown spots evenly moist with daily misting or watering.
Most annuals germinate quickly, in a week or two. Once new seedlings have emerged, continue providing them with needed moisture, and be sure to remove any weed seedlings. Feed plantlets every two weeks with a little water-soluble flower food. This will help them grow and flower at top speed.

Five Cut Flowers for Fall

1) Sweet Peas

Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus, 74-85 days from seed) are some of the sweetest smelling cool-season cut flowers, but they require light trellising. This is easily done by securing strong, firm stakes into the ground and lining the spaces between them with trellis netting that the peas can climb up with their tendrils. Renee’s Garden Seeds carries loads of exceptional sweet peas for cutting. The antique ‘Perfume Delight’ is especially fragrant and a little more heat tolerant, which allows them to forge through unexpected warm days.  (Read Renee’s article “All About Sweet Peas” for more information about these pleasing flowers.)

Bouquet of 'Blue Boy'
The classic bachelor’s button for cutting is the long-stemmed ‘Blue Boy’. (photo care of Johnny’s Selected Seeds)

2) Bachelor’s Buttons

Colorful bachelor’s buttons (Centaurea cyanus, 65-75 days from seed) come in shades of richest violet-blue, pink, white, and deepest burgundy. Most agree that the blue flowers are the most remarkable and prettiest in a vase. There are lots of compact varieties, but these have short stems. Long-stemmed selections are the best for cutting, but they must be staked for reliable upright growth. ‘Blue Boy’ is an old-fashioned, large-flowered heirloom with tall stems that are perfect for cutting.

3) Sulfur Coreopsis

For fiery color, few cut flowers grow faster than sulfur coreopsis (Coreopsis sulphureus, 50-60 days from seed). The long-stemmed ‘Towering Orange’ produces billows of tangerine orange flowers that will last a long time. These look beautiful in a vase with ‘Blue Boy’ bachelor’s buttons!

'Perfume Delight' sweet peas
Extra fragrant, colorful blooms are the selling point of ‘Perfume Delight’ sweet pea sold by Renee’s Seeds. (photo care of Renee’s Garden Seeds)

4) Love-in-a-Mist

Uniquely lacy flowers make love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena, 63-80 days from seed) especially charming in the garden or a vase. The dried seed pots are also visually interesting, allowing them to double as dried flowers. The flowers come in shades of violet-blue, purple, white, and pink. One of the better Nigella mixes is provided by Johnny’s Selected Seeds.

5) Annual Baby’s Breath

No flower arrangement is complete without a frothy filler flower to add loft and interest. Annual baby’s breath (Gypsophila elegans, 45-50 days from seed) is the standard choice, and ‘Covent Garden Market’ is a tall, airy variety that will bloom until frost. It is very easy to grow, and its small, white, cup-shaped flowers make more colorful blooms stand out in a vase.
Cut flowers brighten our gardens and homes, so consider planting some of these traditional beauties in August for fall bloom. You’ll save money at the farmer’s market and impress your guests.