Growing Young Gardeners

Let’s face it, kids like nothing better than mucking around in dirt.  And messing with sticks and harassing worms.  The Children’s Garden at Seattle Tilth, tucked southwest of the Good Shepherd Center, allows them to indulge their primal side to their hearts’ content while nurturing knowledge about gardening and a love of nature.

I recently chatted with Lisa Taylor, the exuberant, ukulele-playing Children’s Program Manager.  She said the Children’s Garden was conceived in 1988 when the Center’s unused swimming pool was filled in and turned into a garden.  They began with family P-Patches and worked with the kids at the Meridian School; in 1992 this evolved into tours of the garden.

By letting kids work in the Garden, Lisa hopes to show them “where food comes from and how to care for plants and animals and one another”.  Gardening is a “pathway to peace” with the ultimate aim of “teaching caring for living things and love of the earth”.

But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.  Here’s what your kids get to do:

• Digging.  Dirt + tools + kids = big fun!
• Playing with worms and insects.  They’re yucky, crawly and even smaller than you are!
• Making compost.  Turning food scraps into soil, magic!
• Weeding.  Pulling up plants!
• Planting.  Scattering seeds far and wide!
• Tasting.  Thought you didn’t like veggies and herbs?  Try picking and eating them right off the plant!
• Watering.  Playing with water, almost as much fun as playing with dirt.  Even better, combining them to make MUD!
• Encounter creatures.  Chase them and they will run!  Or not.

Poking around, here’s what I saw there:

• Leeks
• Kiwifruit vines
• Scarlet Runner Beans
• Mint in Pots
• Worm Bin
• Sensory Patches – places to see, smell and touch plants
• Wild Life Tunnel – a vine-covered tunnel over an area where plants are allowed to grow wild to attract animals, flowers, and insects

They offer school tours, morning classes for preschoolers and are currently signing up for summer camps.  You can also volunteer!  All details on their website.  Now get out there and get dirty!