Gardening as a Family Bonding Experience

Gardening doesn’t have to be an activity lumped on one family member’s shoulders. It also doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore that no one likes doing. Instead, gardening can be a family bonding experience. The benefits can be twofold – the gardening gets done, and you can enjoy memorable family time.

But how do you make gardening a family bonding experience? You might have luck with these tips:

Break Gardening Down Into Small Activities

When you look out into your yard in desperate need of attention, it’s easy to see it as one mammoth project you need to tackle all at once. Instead, it can become multiple activities that everyone plays a part in.

For example, you might have a garden bed that’s currently overgrown with weeds. You can get the entire family involved in weeding it, adding new nutrient-rich soil, and planting it in flowers, herbs, or vegetables. Get the kids involved by letting them choose what you produce and make sure they play a part in planting them and helping them grow.

Assign Tasks to Everyone

Gardening may not seem like a family activity when you’re all actively working on one area. However, everyone can feel involved in the progress you achieve if you all have an assigned task. You might assign these tasks based on everyone’s abilities.

For example, parents or caregivers can be responsible for the jobs requiring power tools. You might leave watering to the youngest family members and tasks like weeding and planting to the older kids.

If you notice that some kids aren’t getting as actively involved as they could be, ask them why. You might also suggest more ‘fun’ gardening tasks that hold their interest more.

Document the Changes

Gardening can sometimes seem like a monotonous task when you can’t see how much progress you’ve made immediately. If you know your family will lose interest if it seems never-ending, get them involved in documenting the changes.

Put them in charge of taking photos as you work, and even consider making it an arts and crafts project where you scrapbook the changes. They can then look back when the garden is finished and see just how much they were able to achieve.

Create a Family Plan

We know that more hands make light work. But more hands also mean there’s room for error regarding the ‘vision’ you have for your garden. Create a family gardening plan to ensure everyone is on the right page for how you want your yard to look.

Sketch out its major dimensions and features that won’t change, like hardscapes and fences. You can then ask everyone in the family what they would like to see added, like garden paths, garden beds, and even a deck for entertaining. Children can often be more motivated to help with yard work when they know what it could look like when they put in the effort.

Make and Buy Decorations

Gardens are about more than digging earth for vegetable patches and buying plants. They’re also about creating an aesthetically pleasing space you can enjoy. Sometimes, this can involve making or buying decorations.

This is certainly something the kids can get excited about. They can pick decorations at your local garden centre or even get creative and make their own. A simple task like painting pots can also bring a great deal of joy.

Don’t Forget Education

Education doesn’t just happen in a classroom. A family gardening session can be a valuable opportunity for education. You can teach your children about different plants, how to care for them, and their importance to our ecosystem. Teaching children about the importance of nature young can set them up for a lifelong love of our environment.

Teaching can also be subtle, so your kids don’t think you’re trying to make them learn when they’re not at school! For example, you might tell them that carrots come in all different colours and are a rich source of beta-carotene.

Celebrate Your Achievements

Transforming a garden is a huge job and one that deserves to be celebrated. Celebrate all the special milestones your family achieved together, like the first flowers blooming or the first vegetables from the seeds your children planted. This type of celebration can help your children feel proud and accomplished.

You can celebrate in many different ways, like drying the first flowers you pick from your prized plants or creating a special dish with your freshly-grown vegetables. The kids can get involved in these activities, too!

Start Gardening Today

As overwhelming as the task of gardening can be, it doesn’t have to be if you take the right approach. Why not make it a family affair? Many hands make light work, and your garden can be transformed into an enjoyable, family-friendly environment in no time.