Gardening is a fulfilling activity — especially when it is growing your own fruits and vegetables. In addition to the mood-boosting benefits, the happiness of cooking and eating your own produce is beyond words. The activity becomes more fun when the whole family comes together and works as a unit making it a great bonding experience.
Involving family members in the activity helps take the load off that one person who prepares and cares for the garden. Instead, it gives the whole family a chance to support, appreciate and learn in each other’s company sans the mobiles. Building a kitchen garden may seem like a big commitment. But, it can be as small as putting a few pots in the kitchen windowsill to growing the produce in a small area of land.
How To Go About It?
Having a kitchen garden allows you to grow a lot of things but that doesn’t mean you should. Instead, you must set priorities by studying about gardening. This will teach you about sunlight, water, soil, sowing, and harvesting seasons for various plants. Thus making it possible to cultivate fruits and vegetables according to their fruiting season. Gardening involves different duties such as sowing, planting, and tending. The best way to get the whole family involved is by dividing these duties amongst them for sustaining a kitchen garden that looks pretty and gives a good yield.
Benefits Of Gardening
Gardening as an activity gives kids an opportunity to pick up their own tools and get involved. It also teaches kids some important life lessons, patience being the most important. In a world where everything is just a click away, gardening teaches them the delay of gratification by waiting for the fruits of their hard labour. They also learn to be responsible as they take care of the plants every day. Additionally, as they get involved in sowing, tending, and watering activities they develop important motor skills that in turn improve their academic skills. As the plants grow you will have more than enough to share with your neighbours, thus instilling in your kids a life-long lesson of community service.
How To Get The Kids Involved?
Introducing kids to kitchen gardening at a young age makes it easier to teach them the importance of the environment and organic farming that is free from pesticides and pollution. To get your kids more involved you can let them choose a fruit and vegetable of their choice to plant in the garden. It will make them so happy to see their hard work bear fruit. Having grown the plants on their own will not only make them proud but also make them eat healthy.
As they grow older, you can expand the garden and add more plants of their choice. Working together as a family also helps them develop closer relationships with parents and siblings. The bonding activity doesn’t have to stop with gardening, you can also come together as a family and prepare meals with the harvested garden produce.
The pandemic has seen a steady increase in kitchen gardening activities giving families time to bond and turn towards sustainable living. If you haven’t done it yet then give it a shot. Start a small garden, take the path to self-sufficiency, and build a lifetime of togetherness.