Help kids grow to love gardening

Instead of handing your kids the TV remote to ward off boredomduring summer vacation, how about a garden spade? There are plenty offun garden projects that children will enjoy now — and that could sowthe seeds for a lifetime of gardening.

If you want your child orgrandchild to love gardening, don't start them off with mundane taskslike weeding. According to the National Gardening Association, the bestways to win them over are to lead by example, surround them withgardens at home and provide good gardening experiences early on.

Sowhat makes a good, kid-friendly gardening activity? Many expertsrecommend vegetable and herb gardening — a fine idea if you live upNorth. But this is summer in Florida and not the ideal time forattempting tomatoes and corn.

Instead, try a summer-proof themegarden. Start with your child's favorite movie, book or toy forinspiration, then plan a garden that includes plants and items thatcapture their interest.

For example, you could plant an outer space garden based on this summer's big movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,which features the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. Start with arocket-shaped obelisk built by tying bamboo canes together with wire ortwine. Grow vines, such as moonflower, which roots quickly from seed.Include white varieties of flowering plants, which will "glow" atnight. The kids can even hang handmade stars and planets from therocket.

Fairy gardens are always popular with children. Letyour child choose a variety of colorful bedding plants that fairies cancall home. Brainstorm on garden features little fairies will need, suchas small stones to sit upon, a little dish of water for bathing and atiny house made from sticks and leaves. Don't forget a small mirror orgazing ball so the little garden sprites (fairies and the kids!) canadmire themselves.

Whatever theme you choose, let your child pickthe plants — with your guidance, of course. Easy-to-grow, "fail-proof"plants are best, recommends Don Prahl, owner of Dolins Garden Center inSt. Petersburg. "You want something that's hardy under all conditions,"he says. "It's got to be colorful, grow quick and survive."

Apopular summer garden is the red, white and blue American garden, whichshould be planted now to be ready for July Fourth. Pick a prominentgarden bed in the front yard to show your spirit, or use a container ortwo. Even better, fill a child's red wagon with the colorful plants,add a flag and you'll have a ready-made float for the local Fourth ofJuly parade.

There are numerous summer annuals and perennials tochoose from, including penta, vinca, salvia, geranium and angelonia,Prahl suggests. Start with small containers that will be easy for kidsto handle. With regular watering and care, plants should be establishedand bursting with color in no time. (See accompanying plant list.)

Letyour child help prepare the wagon for planting. Whether it's theold-fashioned metal or wooden variety or a new plastic one, it's bestto place a sheet of plastic on the bottom to prevent water frompooling. Arrange planting containers in the bed rather than filling thewagon with soil (which requires drainage holes in the bottom and willcause a metal wagon to rust and a wooden one to rot).

Choosecontainers that are no more than an inch or two taller than the sidesof the wagon. Staggering container height is ideal, with the tallestcontainers in the middle and shorter ones at the sides. You can raisethe height of containers with a brick or two.

Plants withdifferent growth habits are best. Tall plants and those with spikes,such as salvia, should be placed in the middle. Lower-growing, bushyplants and trailing varieties are ideal at the sides. You can even usea vine at the front of the wagon and train it to climb up the handle.Crowd the pots as close together as possible for best effect.

Whenshopping for plants, buy two or more of each one and then group them inthe wagon. Small groups of similar plants will look better than ajumbled mix.

Display your child's red wagon garden on the frontlawn or another highly visible area of the yard to show your family'sspirit. Keep it well watered, but don't allow stagnant water to sit inthe wagon's bed. If a heavy rain fills the bed, tip the wagon to drain.Some of the newer plastic wagons do have drainage holes; keep themclear so water will drain.

Come July Fourth, your child's red, white and blue garden will be ready to roll!

YvonneSwanson is a freelance writer in St. Petersburg and a Pinellas Countymaster gardener. Contact her at yvonnesgarden@gmail.com.