As a child, one of my fondest childhood memories was the family garden that we grew each year.  I will never forget pulling that first carrot out of the dirt, brushing it off and, when I was older, rinsing it under the hose, and then taking my first bite, savoring the earthy warmth of the sweet carrot. 

Some years we grew just vegetables; however, the gardens that I particularly loved were the flower/vegetable combinations.  The family would anxiously await the first signs that spring had arrived, then we’d sit at the big kitchen table, discussing various kinds of plants, flowers and vegetables that we could grow in our small plot of land that year.  We would pour over gardening magazines and catalogs, searching for little packets of vegetable and flower seeds and imagining how everything would look and taste.  One of the most enjoyable times, we spent researching which flowers were natural bug repellants and what plants, flowers and vegetables naturally went together. 

1. To create your own kid-friendly garden, just follow some simple steps.
2.  Let each person in your family pick out one or two of their own special flowers or vegetables. You can determine how difficult the individual plants are to grow, then, based on your child’s age, the amount of time and effort the plant takes to steer that child towards a positive decision.
3. Keep your garden small.  It’s tempting to want to try everything, however, overdoing it might make your kids resent instead of enjoying the garden.  It’s much better to pick and choose a few flowers that can easily be grown from  flower seeds than to set up a potentially negative situation.
4. Let each person in your family pick out one or two of their own special flowers or vegetables. You can determine how difficult the individual plants are to grow then, based on your child’s age, the amount of time and effort the plant takes steer that child toward a positive decision.
5. Bring the entire family to the store to purchase the vegetable or flower seeds.  It’s a lot of fun for the kids to inspect all the varieties of seeds available.

Weeds…weeds…weeds. We could never figure out why the weeds were so fast and easy to grow and everything else so slow and hard.  Weeding is a necessary evil, and it only takes a few days for weeds to overgrow your garden.  Think about contests and games that your children can make up and, if all else fails, ice cream or a cookie can be a reward.

All in all, creating a kid-friendly garden can be a family project, which is repeatable year after year, creating many fond memories, and teaching children of all ages an appreciation for the flowers and outdoors.