Master Gardener: Envisioning a child's horticulture playground

There is something magical about a garden when you are a child.

In the fall you helped your mom plant the bulbs in the ground and during the long winter you forgot about them, but come spring just observing the little green shoots pop out of the ground — it’s magic right?

Those yellow and purple crocuses shine in the snow. Did Mom help you plant radishes and in just a few weeks they turned into food. Maybe your mom gave you an eye of a potato and you planted the eye and in no time, there was a whole plant with baby potatoes dangling from the roots.

No matter how old you are, you never get over this magic. Did you have a piece of the family garden to work in or a plot of your own? Wonderful memories.

Introducing children to the garden grows great memories

What would a child put in his or her own garden plot if they could grow anything? Let’s see — they would all be fun things because it would be a world all their own. It would be a child horticultural playground. Some suggestions would be petunias, snapdragons, sunflowers, crocuses, catnip, peppermint, bleeding hearts, money plants, Chinese lanterns, gourds, lettuce, popcorn, radishes, cherry tomatoes, pumpkins and peas.

However, preparing and maintaining would be a huge responsibility for a small child. So, guess who's going to do the bulk of the work? An older person might enjoy helping and teaching as much as the child likes being helped.

But keep in mind the garden should be fun. The purpose is not to teach horticultural or to get a child to eat vegetables, but both might result. The garden’s theme is “always something to do, not just the weeding, but there are special things that keep happening all through the gardening season."

The seasons of a growing garden

Spring is the time for watching the bulbs come up and planting new plants and seeds. You watch all the plants grow and eat some of them. You watch the butterflies and bees visit your flowers. You pick bouquets for the people you love.

In the late summer and fall, you harvest your vegetables, and maybe even preserve some of them if you have extra. A good pumpkin crop might give you a supply for a roadside or street-side stand in time for Halloween. On the cold winter days, you can make dried arrangements and bouquets with some of the flowers you have grown and enjoy popping corn from your garden.

Remember, it’s not the horticulture teaching or eating all the vegetables, but the fun and good times like watching the butterflies and bees that visit the garden, witnessing the green sprouting from the ground that was a bag of bulbs last fall, taking note of how big the plants become week by week, and picking a bouquet of flowers to surprise mom; those are the important lessons learned and remembered for a lifetime.

A child might sell pumpkins from the curb at Halloween time to earn money and will learn about enterprise and business.

Build a reading teepee; here's how

Here is a reading teepee that can be built from sturdy branches or dried bamboo. After securing the poles in the ground, tie the top ends together to form the teepee.  Wrap twine around the wood at various levels. Plant morning glories or string beans at the base to twist and weave up the poles. Place an old carpet piece inside for sitting or relaxing.

I also have strung rows of Christmas tree battery operated lights inside, so the children can read.  I have found them napping on occasion.

Master Gardeners to attend GroveFest

Upcoming Sandusky-Ottawa County Master Gardener events include the GroveFest on the grounds of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums' Spiegel Grove in Fremont from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.

Look for members at the Fremont Farmers Market from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. July 16.

The theme that day is Upscale, Repurpose, and Reuse.  Stop by and tell members what you have invented.

Susan La Fountaine is a Master Gardener with the Extension Offices in Sandusky and Ottawa Counties.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Master Gardener: A garden for your child