Our children each began spending time in the garden when they were only days old, often being carried by me or my husband in a baby carrier. When they were old enough to sit up, they sat on a blanket and watched us while we worked. As soon as they started walking, they were off- toddling here and there, trampling over newly planted seedlings, and being drawn almost magnetically to anything with water. While their constant presence in the garden resulted in more than a handful of plant deaths, much terrorizing of birds and squirrels, and numerous other sorts of shenanigans, the longer term outcome is that they love the garden, appreciate wildlife, and are happiest when outdoors.

Some tips for helping younger kids find their place in the garden, based on our own trial and error:

- Early and Often: It's never too early for kids to start spending time in the garden. We're lucky in Solano County that the weather permits this for most of the year!
o Get a water resistant blanket (for the minimally mobile) or a bouncer or pack and play for cheap at a garage sale or thrift store to use exclusively for outdoor use. This will give baby a secure place to take in their surroundings. Second-hand tents, little plastic chairs, etc. work well for older kids.
o The variety of sounds, types of light, sights, and animals/bugs to watch in the garden are great for a baby's brain development, as is watching adults perform even the most basic tasks in the garden. Talking to them and explaining what you're doing as you do it also helps to develop their capacity for later communication.
- A Safe Garden: For anyone who spends time with young children, safety is always of the utmost concern.
o Storage- be sure to keep any fertilizers, pesticides, sharp pointed or edged garden tools, or any other potential hazards out of reach of small hands.
o Design- when planning your garden, keep thorny, poisonous, or other plants of concern in a part of the yard that is hard-to-reach. Or if you can't do this, (we have recurring poison oak in a part of yard, for example) create a physical barrier to it and explain to them the reason it's important to keep away. Provide secure gates, handrails, and even low fences where needed.
o Sun- be sure to provide shady spots in the garden for kids, as well as sun hats/sunscreen and plenty of drinking water.
o Allergies- be aware of any allergies that kids who are spending time in your garden have, and be sure to keep children's strength Benadryl or epi pens on-hand if needed.
- A Child-Friendly Garden: Providing tools and special planting areas for kids can really up the fun factor.
o Kid-sized gardening tools are widely available in dollar bins of large discount stores and even at some nurseries. Kid-sized garden gloves, boots, and hats are also helpful to have. Designate a special bin or basket for kids to store their equipment, and this will help kids get in the practice of caring for tools and maintaining a tidy garden.
o Assign kids their own special little garden plot where they can cultivate plants of their own choosing, and even fruit/veggies that they like to eat. Pizza gardens or other food-specific gardens are especially fun!
o Find creative ways for kids to personalize the garden by incorporating their art or hand/footprints. Mosaic stepping stones or bird feeders that they create are examples of ways to do this (we'll cover these in future blog posts).
- Kid-friendly Jobs/Tasks: We've found over and over again that young kids love to help out. Giving them a task can keep them from finding other “less constructive” activities and can give them a real sense of ownership of the garden and pride in job well done.
o Pulling weeds (and feeding them to the chickens), raking leaves, watering with a watering can, helping to select seeds/plant starts, helping to plant seeds/plant starts, harvesting berries and veggies, filling a bird bath… the list goes on and on.
- Set them up for Success:
o Good timing: I learned the hard way, for example, to hold off on having kids help with weeding in the veggie garden until after the season's plants are well established. This makes it easier for them to tell the difference between weeds and crops.
o Good instructions: When having kids pull weeds, take the time to show them examples of weeds versus plants that we want to keep.
o Good boundaries: Give kids a defined area to work in. This will help to them to avoid raking blooms out of the flower bed when they are trying to rake up leaves from the grass.

Lastly, a tip for the adults, carving out a space for kiddos in the garden can mean having to share a little of your own. Expect a mishap here and there, things to not always go exactly as planned, and for everything to take a little bit longer. The reward to you and the little person in your life will be more than worth it!